Modern Mining October 2017

LOADERS, EXCAVATORS AND TRUCKS

Burma Plant Hire revitalises its heavy

With the improvement in certain commodity prices seen in recent months – resulting in some mines raising production levels – Cape-based Burma Plant Hire has restructured and revitalised its heavy earthmoving fleet for a growing role in load-haul and rehabilitation contracts on mines.

A ccording to Izak van Niekerk, divisional head designate at Raumix Materials Division, the contracting option is a popular one for many mining operations that have had to endure difficult years. “It is still early days in terms of economic recovery, so mines are holding back on large capital investments by outsourcing key aspects of their materials handling functions,” says Van Niekerk. “In fact, many mines find this to be a more sustainable route towards mine efficiency – by outsourcing their non-core activities on an on-going basis. We’ve seen mines working hard on optimisation models to manage the commodity price cycle so that they have more flexibility to increase or decrease production by making use of mining contractors and hiring in additional plant.” Part of the Raubex Group’s Materials Division, Burma Plant Hire has, for a number of years, conducted large materials handling contracts for surface mines – mainly in the Northern Cape. Significantly, the company is a Level 2 contributor to BBBEE. With the minerals cycle now signalling a return to health, the company has replaced much of its ageing equipment with new

quality brands to take advantage of the expected upswing. “We have been encouraged by the way com- modity prices are starting to recover, and as a group have channelled resources to meet the new demand – including large-scale dozers, loaders, excavators, articulated dump trucks and tippers,” he says. “We have focused on strategic locations where we are building criti- cal mass, investing in equipment that will boost our flexibility and responsiveness.” Burma Plant Hire – which started out in Cape Town as a plant hire specialist in 2003 – has established strong competencies in min- ing-related work, in addition to its general construction and landfill capacity. It has even developed new markets in renewable energy, playing an important role in a number of wind and solar projects in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces. “Mines are increasingly looking to optimise

Burma Plant Hire has revit- alised its heavy earthmov- ing fleet.

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48  MODERN MINING  October 2017