Modern Quarrying Q1 2025

Beowolf beds down in West Africa Beowolf established its head office in Rustenburg, in the North West province, to service the chrome and platinum mines, and 10 years ago, expanded its foot print into the Northern Cape to service iron-ore, manganese and zinc mines. Beowolf has recently made a foray into the West African market, where it continues to consolidate its position in the mineral rich destination. Apart from being an important source of gold, iron-ore, ura nium and diamonds, West Africa is also rich in aluminium, nickel, phosphate, manganese and zinc. With most of the mineral wealth in this region currently undevel oped, the region’s importance in the global mineral economy is set to increase in the future.

advantages, especially given local port congestions. Further to this, the cost of containers continues to skyrocket, which means that businesses have to be extremely innovative in how they manage transport and logistics.” Theron adds that in order to succeed as a supplier in the region, one needs to have a good risk management pro gramme related to payments – a key challenge experienced by many doing business in the region. Aside from West Africa, Beowolf has a presence in Botswana, Burkina Faso and, more recently, Namibia. Locally, the company has branches in the Northern Cape and distributor agreements to service the Gauteng, Northwest, and Mpumalanga provinces.

According to Theron, with Beowolf’s sights set firmly on leveraging its local presence in West Africa, the company will focus more on expanding its market share in this area. Beowolf has been doing busi ness in West Africa since 2022 and over the past two years has experienced a “steep learning curve” in relation to transport and logistics. A miscalculation on the part of the company or product delays can incur daily fees and penalties at the port, some thing to be avoided at all costs.” According to Theron, Beowolf prides itself on having sufficient stockholding to ensure that customers have stock when required. “Having rolling stock and additional inventory remains one of Beowolf’s competitive

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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 1 | 2025