Modern Quarrying July-August 2016

A view of the Glen Douglas primary crusher (centre) and intermediate stockpile from the stockpile area, with the wash plant on the left.

ON THE COVER

Since its listing on the Main Board of the JSE in the Construction and Building Materials sector in 2006, leading open pit mining company Afrimat has grown by an average of more than 21% per year since 2009. Dale Kelly l ooks at the reasons behind this year-on year achievement. Afrimat celebrates a decade of success

bricks in northern KwaZulu-Natal and the eastern Free State. Looking back, the black-empowered group successfully debuted on the JSE in November 2006, immediately indicating execution of its acquisition strategy when it placed the company under cautionary. The shares listed strongly at R8,05 to give Afrimat a market capitalisation on listing of R1-billion. New contracts worth some R50-million in line with forecast pro- jections set the group well on the way towards meeting its 2007 forecast reve- nue of R471,4-million. MQ recalls that with the prelisting placement almost 30 times oversub- scribed, disappointed applicants and the public were left to buy shares on listing. As a result, some two hours after listing, more than 2,6-million shares had changed hands in 767 separate transactions with an aggregate value of R21,4-mllion. An amount of R125-million was raised in the prelisting private place- ment of 25-million shares at R5,00/share. With R50-million going to founders of the group who had sold small stakehold- ings to facilitate the listing, new capital of R75-million went directly to eliminate gearing on the balance sheet – a financial strength that firmly positioned the group in its aggressive acquisition strategy. At that time, CEO Andries van Heerden told MQ that he was grateful that the list- ing was “an absolute blessing. I used to

A frimat supplies a broad range of construction materials and industrial minerals, ranging from mining and aggregates, metallurgical dolomites, agricultural lime, concrete products (bricks, blocks and pav- ers) to readymix. It has established a firm foothold in contracting services, which comprise drilling and blasting, mobile crushing and screening. Afrimat’s recent acquisition of Cape-based Cape Lime has further extended its diversification into additional mineral markets, pharmaceu- tical supply and the construction sector, through the burnt and milled lime and dolomite products. Backed by over 50 years’ experience, the group’s growing geographical foot- print covers vast sections of urban and rural Southern Africa, with its integrated product offering distributed across the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, KwaZulu- Natal, Free State, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga (with its latest Mbombela branch launch taking place in early July), Northern Cape, and Mozambique. Its five

key divisions include: • Mining & Aggregates • Industrial Minerals • Contracting International • Concrete Products • Readymix

Afrimat is able to service projects of any scale from major infrastructure and con- struction projects for state-owned enter- prises and parastatals through to small private sector contracts. Its consistently low staff turnover has resulted in a deep skills pool, many of whom MQ has inter- viewed over the years. Genuine transformation, starting with staff and management and extending to community upliftment, is integral to the group’s philosophy and sustainability, and a genuine company this is and always has been. Afrimat brought together two indus- try specialists founded in 1963 and 1965 respectively – Prima, which mainly sup- plied aggregates to the Cape construc- tion and road building industries – and Lancaster, which was dominant in quarry- ing and the supply of concrete blocks and

10

MODERN QUARRYING July - August 2016