Modern Quarrying October-November 2015

ON THE COVER

centred in the north west of the country, which is a considerable distance from the ports. “So proper linking up to these ports for ore export purposes creates those opportunities.” How do you commit when the projects have not kicked off, MQ asks? The only tangible project that is currently running is the Tete-Ncala railway with the Tete coalfields, which is also experiencing world economic pressure at the moment because of the low coal prices. The railway lines are not finished and the mining houses are experiencing financial difficulties. “Coal is not the most popular commodity at the moment and with Brent crude at optimum low lev- els, we sense that there is also reluctance for 100% commitment. But the LNG project is still due to happen in terms of its broad spectrum time lines. The developers declare that they will be ready for initial exports in 2020 and based on that, we are slap bang right and ready.” Afrimat has taken the approach to start reason- ably small with local partnerships and has gone in with a medium-sized investment. “Together, that gives us a reasonable footprint,” Odendaal says. “We have to be cautious because should the world economy fall flat and none of these projects come to fruition, we have to contain our expenditure in terms of money invested. So, we are playing the game of understanding when to strike and when to invest, and to be nimble and flexible enough to react quickly should these opportunities arise.” The company has invested in several local part- nerships that are forged but not practised at this stage. “This is so that we can call on these local South African partnerships, some being competi- tors or suppliers in some instances, whom we have worked with for many years. We have rallied these troops together and are ready to call on them. We have adopted this strategy to not engage in all of these projects alone. Our part of it could poten- tially be in excess of a billion rand in value add and bearing in mind that Afrimat is only a 1,5-billion rand company, one has to forge certain partner- ships to mitigate this risk.” He says these are exciting times because Afrimat has moved out of its comfort zone. In terms of the quarry, the company has part- nered with Ayleek Industries, a local Pemba-based quarry operator. “This is a really small operation and we have upgraded the plant with components from Afrimat, and developed this into a 150 t/hour crushing unit, which is up and running and trading commercially. We have duplicated a similar 250 t/ hour plant which is due for commissioning shortly. Ultimately in Pemba, we will soon have a 400 t/ hour capacity,” Odendaal confirms. Afrimat has sourced a quality country manager

Afrimat has established an up-and-running operation at Pemba, which is south of the main LNG project in Northern Mozambique.

Photographed at the Mitande site, from left: Issa Bernado Neves Issa; Leonard Moine; Sam van den Berg; Johan Roux; and Rikus Nortje.

Afrimat has contracted a mobile unit up to Mitande where it has a contract to supply some 280 000 t of railway ballast stone for Mota Engil.

From left: Gomes Manuel, logistics coordinator; Nico Botha, production manager at Pemba; and Kelly Shanahan, administrative support.

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MODERN QUARRYING October - November 2015