Modern Mining November 2018

COVER STORY

While there is currently a dearth of new ‘greenfield’ mining projects in the South African mining space, WorleyParsons RSA, the South African arm of the global WorleyParsons engineering and project delivery group, continues to be busy, reflecting its status as the Mining Centre of Excellence within the group – which has seen it working on mining projects around the globe. The company’s CEO, Denver Dreyer, also makes the point that the South African operation has been buoyed over the past year by a surge of ‘stay-in-business’ type contracts placed by the platinummining industry in particular. WorleyParsons RSA services mining projects worldwide

D reyer, a graduate electrical engi- neer who has been at the helm of WorleyParsons RSA since April 2016, says that there are clear signs that the mining industry globally is rebounding. “Many commodity prices have improved over the past year and certainly we’re seeing the mining market come back in areas such as Australasia and Central Asia. Conditions are generally still subdued here in South Africa but north of our borders there are some very positive developments in countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanza-

nia and the DRC with much of the new mo- mentum we’re observing being related to ‘bat- tery minerals’ projects which are either in the planning stages or under development.” He adds that WorleyParsons RSA has also benefited from a growing trend for min- ing houses to implement projects designed to either allow them to stay in business or to unlock value from existing assets. “There are not too many big capital projects being awarded but we are seeing an increased emphasis by mining companies on smaller ‘brownfield’ projects aimed at improving and optimising

Denver Dreyer, CEO of WorleyParsons RSA.

The Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project in Kenya is the largest in Africa. WorleyParsons RSA has extensive expertise in the field of renewable energy.

18  MODERN MINING  November 2018