Modern Mining May 2018

CRUSHING, SCREENING AND MILLING

New strategy in place at re-energised Osborn Osborn Engineered Products, the South African manufacturer that has been supplying equipment to the mining industry for nearly 100 years, has a new focus on innovation and customer service. “We’re in a highly competitive market and up against some of the biggest global names in mining equipment,” says Managing Director Johan Goosen. “To maintain and grow our market share, we need to differentiate ourselves from the competition and offer customers the type of value they cannot get anywhere else.”

Osborn’s MD Johan Goosen.

E stablished in 1919 as a subsidiary of Samuel Osborn, a British steel company, and today a subsidiary of US-based Astec Industries, Inc, Osborn manufactures its broad range of mining and quarrying equipment in its modern factory in Elandsfontein, Johannes- burg, and many of its products have become industry standards. While its main market is South Africa and its direct neighbours, its machines are to be found in use at mines all over Africa and even further afield in countries such as Russia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. Goosen, previously a senior executive of Atlas Copco in South Africa, was appointed to head Osborn in March last year, his brief being to re-energise the company and expand market share. He has already put in place a

range of initiatives which will facilitate growth for Osborn. “We’re starting to partner with our customers in a way we’ve never done before and we’re also placing a huge emphasis on technological innovation with the goal of creating ‘smarter’, more effi- cient machines,” he says.

“Moreover, we have embarked on a transfor- mation journey with the objective of reaching the status of a B-BBEE manufacturing com- pany, as defined in Mining Charter 3. As part of this process we have engaged some key local BEE suppliers and together we are work- ing on improving manufacturing processes that will contribute significantly to our abil- ity to be competitive, locally and internationally.”

An Osborn 3 m x 6 m rotary coal breaker at a South African mine.

As evidence of Osborn’s com- mitment to innovation and partnering with customers, Goosen points to a contract which it has recently secured from an iron ore mine in the Northern Cape. “This was a very keenly contested order but we were ultimately successful because we undertook to design a new, smaller size apron feeder to meet the needs of what is a very complex installation,” he says. “Living up to one of our core val- ues – innovation – we have not only addressed the specific needs of a major mining operation, but also positioned ourselves to benefit locally and internationally, offer- ing a size of apron feeder that our

feature

38  MODERN MINING  May 2018