Modern Mining November 2018

CONSULTANTS/ PROJECT HOUSES

founded a company called MineSense, which was focused on developing real-time sensor technology for the mining industry. He joined our team in March last year to start a North American office but has moved to London, which is now his base.” Despite Bamber’s move to the UK, Bara remains active in North America with project work currently ongoing. “The office is being managed remotely and we are actively looking for the right person to take this part of our busi- ness forward,” Pooley explains. “We are also at the early stage of discussions with another party to initiate a business in the South East Asia region.” Bara UK, says Pooley, recently had its best month ever. While the office mainly focuses on projects in Europe (one of them being the recently opened Olovo underground lead mine in Bosnia and another the Cinovec lith- ium and tin project in the Czech Republic), it currently also has an involvement at a gold mine in Liberia in West Africa and a pump- ing system for a copper mine on the Central African Copperbelt. “Bara UK and Bara South Africa work seam- lessly together and the South African office will help where necessary on African proj- ects secured by the UK office,” says Pooley. “This was the case, for example, with the Namib lead-zinc project. Our proximity here in Johannesburg to Namibia meant that we were able to contribute quite significantly.” Finally, and summing up Bara’s success, Pooley says the company has done well as a result of providing a value-for-money service to

Above: Artisanal mining viewed during a visit to Burundi. Left: Jim Pooley (left) and colleague Ed Baldrey walk through a village during a site visit to Burundi.

mainly junior and mid-tier miners. “Over the past few years we’ve seen many smaller con- sultancies such as our own being absorbed by larger players with the result that the smaller end of the market is not as well serviced as it used to be,” he comments. “To a certain extent, we’ve filled the gap that has been created, estab- lishing a strong reputation as a consultancy which is flexible, affordable and very geared to providing a highly competent service to min- ing companies that do not have the resources and funding of the majors. It’s a formula that’s worked very well for us and which we intend

maintaining as we move forward.” Report by Arthur Tassell, photos courtesy of Bara

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November 2018  MODERN MINING  37