Modern Mining May 2023

CONSULTING ENGINEERS

Engineering consultancy firm, Bara Consulting’s new management structure and sharehold ing, underpin its strategy for geographical diversification aimed at ensuring future sustain ability. The company, which celebrates a decade in business this year, already has a firmly established presence in the South African and UK markets and is now making a play for the Canadian market, chairman Jim Pooley and MD Etienne de Villiers tell Modern Mining . Bara Consulting targets growth through diversification

“ G iven that sustainability is a key part of our strategy our management team initiated the process of shareholder diversification last year. Initially, we had three sharehold ers and, following the retirement of one of our UK directors, we identified three new shareholders. In essence, the plan is to have six shareholders – well experienced, dynamic, young people – by the end of this year,” says Pooley. The management shake-up saw de Villiers take up the position of MD in January, this year, with Pooley as the new chairman tasked with the crucial role of opening a new branch in Toronto, Canada. “Having established the business ten years ago, it is the right time to hand over the reins for the next generation to take over the business while I carve out a new role for myself. The idea is to spend more time on business development, not just for South Africa, but for the wider group,” explains Pooley, founder of Bara Consulting. Aside from the management role, Pooley is play ing an active role in the UK arm of the business, while de Villiers, who has been with the company for eight years, is tasked with the day to day running of the South African business.

Canadian office With the niche market engineering consultancy eyeing geographical diver sification, the Canadian market with its strong, well established, min ing presence offers Bara Consulting an opportunity to access new markets in a different time zone.

“When we established the company in 2013, the drive for the Johannesburg office from a proj ects point of view, was to grow but keep the team small and agile, with a maximum of 25-30 people, after which we would look to diversify the business in other jurisdictions,” explains Pooley. The company subsequently established the UK office (in 2014), which was headed up by Pat Willis, who recently retired. The decision to open an office in Toronto was conceived prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pan demic, which saw the initiative put on hold. Following the revival of the plan, Pooley and Andrew Bamber, Bara Consulting’s new MD from the UK office, recently attended The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) four-day event to determine interest in the Canadian market for South African expertise. According to Pooley, interactions with miners and explorers at the event indicated a great interest in and appetite for engineering consulting services. “We made contact with a number of people at PDAC and are now in the process of following up on these leads.” This demand for key services is driven largely by the commodities super-cycle which sees massive requirement for minerals and metals, and subse quently, the need for associated services, such as those of consulting engineers. Bara Consulting, which registered its Canadian branch in 2019, says the Toronto Stock Exchange is strong and offers miners the opportunity to access capital from affluent north American markets. Aside from access to the Central and South

De Villiers, Eddie Byrne (Project Manager with MetC) and Pooley at Omitiomire.

32  MODERN MINING  May 2023