Modern Mining September 2018

SHAFT SINKING AND RAISEBORING

If there is one company in Africa whose name is synonymous with shaft sinking it is Johannesburg-based mining contractor Murray & Roberts Cementation. One might think that the recession in the natural resources sector over the past several years would have left it reeling on the ropes but not a bit of it. The company currently has an extremely healthy R10 billion order book, with a significant portion of it being shaft-sinking work, as its Director of New Business, Allan Widlake (right), told Modern Mining’ s Arthur Tassell during a recent extended interview. Healthy order book for shaft-sinking leader

T he company forms part of the Murray & Roberts Group, which recently reported very strong re- sults for its 2018 financial year (to 30 June 2018). Murray & Roberts Cementation, along with its sister companies in North America and Australia within the Group’s Underground Mining platform, was a major contributor to Group earnings during the year. This performance was driven by a

strong operational performance on all Mur- ray & Roberts Cementation’s contracts, which are mainly within the Southern African region and include some significant shafts. Widlake believes the companies within the Underground Mining platform are set to do even better in the future. “Murray & Roberts Cementation alone has an order book of over R10 billion and this doubles if we include the sister companies overseas,” he says. “This

Headframe of the 6,1 m diameter vertical shaft at Mopani’s Mufulira mine on the Zambian Copperbelt. Murray & Roberts Cementation is the contractor for the shaft.

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36  MODERN MINING  September 2018