BE.Monthly

ACHIEVING BUSINESS EXCELLENCE ONLINE

MONTHLY EDITION February 2014

INCLUDING

first quantum minerals: petromoc: georgiou: British American tobacco:

Sparking a chain reaction Bernd Meyer discusses British American Tobacco’s adaptive global supply chain

HERE’S WHY ONTARIO, CANADA

IS YOUR NEXT

BIG IDEA Opportunities for mineral exploration in Ontario abound. Powered by global leaders in innovation and safety standards, our mining practices are among the safest and most sustainable in the world.

With business costs lower here than in most G7 countries, Ontario suppliers are more competitive – so you can depend on quality goods and services, delivered on time, on spec and on budget. Innovation is at our core. Make Ontario your next big idea.

YourNextBigIdea.ca/Mining

$2.9B

in non-metallic minerals, including diamonds, was produced in Ontario in 2012

$2.6B in gold

$1.5B in copper

$1.4B in nickel

$787M

in other metals such as platinum and silver

Paid for by the Government of Ontario.

business excellence

Business John O’Hanlon Editor johanlon@bus-ex.com Will Daynes Editor wdaynes@bus-ex.com Matt Johnson Art Director mjohnson@bus-ex.com Louise Culling Production Designer lculling@bus-ex.com Richard Turner Director of Sales rturner@bus-ex.com Vince Kielty Director of Editorial Research vkielty@bus-ex.com

Business Excellence brings you content from leading business influencers and strategic thinkers providing inspiration and guidance to help you and your business grow.

We showcase some of the best examples of successful organisations from around the world giving you a unique insight into how they operate.

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Sharon Rooke Administration & Operations srooke@bus-ex.com Matt Day Head of Technology mday@bus-ex.com Andy Turner Chief Executive aturner@bus-ex.com

Contributors Marielena Sabatier Inspiring Potential Simon Middleton Watershed George F. Brown, Jr. Consultant & Author David Sturges WorkPlaceLive Jeff Powell Diligent Board Member Services Inc Jeff Hilk Diligent Board Member Services Inc

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features

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10 mining

Mining in the Scandinavian Peninsula

The unique geology of the Scandinavian Peninsula has helped transform the likes of Sweden, Finland and Norway into some of Europe’s most important locations for mining, locations that are expected to grow in importance in the decades ahead.

16 HR

22

The elusive ingredient in a thriving work environment Work, toil - or thriving? Why command and control models no longer work in business.

22 people

boost your confidence and career in 2014

Why a lack of self-confidence could limit career progression and some hints on how to stop that happening.

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contents

26 supplychain

fifteen minutes of fame

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How to create a future-focused relationship between supplier and customer, and build strong relationships across key job functions in each of them.

32 technology

How the cloud is helping companies beat cybercrime

Don’t be afraid of the cloud: your information is as safe there as in your own server - in many ways much safer.

36 strategy

Delivering customer service is non-negotiable

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Improve governance by facilitating communications and enabling a timely view of current and historic company information.

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top ten

Things To Know About Mobile Security

A few common-sense ways to foil persistent cyber criminals and protect data in transit.

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business showcases

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66

manufacturing: 44 british american tobacco

Sparking a chain reaction

The ability to change and adapt has always existed within British American Tobacco. Arguably no other area of its business better encapsulates this quality than its Global Supply Chain.

66 BevPak

PET Project

BevPak has successfully taken modern PET bottle technology into the challenging Nigerian market: now it is looking further afield.

Infrastructure: 76 Georgiou

Wedding the Swan and the City

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Elizabeth Quay is a project that will return Perth’s focus to the iconic Swan River and enhance the city’s reputation as one of the most ‘liveable’ cities in the world.

contents

86 Ciudad Empresarial Creating quality of life

Ciudad Empresarial is the largest business park in Chile and one committed to providing an excellent quality of life for everyone.

mining & minerals:

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96 First Quantum Minerals Ltd – Trident project A sustainable future for Zambia

First Quantum Minerals is ramping up its efforts to deliver a long lasting sustainable legacy to the people of Zambia, as its landmark Sentinel copper mine moves closer to start up.

108 atlas copco Tanzania

First in mind and choice for Tanzania A big name with a big global reach: here we look at the mining equipment and associated support, maintenance and ancillary services it offers in Tanzania and throughout East Africa.

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118 SGS/AAL Tanzania Analysis for Africa

The world’s most trusted partner for mineral analysis, SGS is well rooted in Africa and is preparing to support Tanzania’s burgeoning resources sector through the state of the art facilities of its regional subsidiary African Assay Laboratories.

128 Exxaro Resources Opening new possibilities

128

Exxaro Resources world-class commodity portfolio is defined not only by the commodities that come out of the ground, but by how they have been developed with sustainability at the forefront of every decision.

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business showcases

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144 ATS Group

Mining marches on its stomach A niche facility management company that has identified and grown into its market.

154 Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics Delivering data from the air

Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics uses industry leading technology to deliver geoscientific solutions to its clients.

162 Anglo American: Los Bronces Champions of Chile’s copper

Continuing along a path to becoming the fifth largest copper mine in the world and one with several decades of productivity still ahead of it.

172 Collahuasi mine High altitude mining with broad vision

Extracting minerals in the rarefied atmosphere of the high Andes is just one challenge for the world’s fourth largest copper mine.

172 190

182 DNI Metals

Operating in a Polymetallic Paradise DNI Metals’ Buckton polymetallic black shale deposit represents an incredible untapped mining resource.

190 Eldorado Gold Discipline delivers

Based in Vancouver, Eldorado Gold presents itself as a low-cost gold producer with a vision to create a long-term, profitable business with healthy margins using a disciplined approach to growth.

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contents

oil & gas: 200 petromoc

Fuelling a nation

Mozambique’s state-owned distributor of petroleum products continues to expand, both within its home nation’s borders and further across Southern Africa.

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216 African Reptiles & Venom

saving lives

216

It was Mike Perry’s fascination with snakes that ultimately led to the founding of African Reptiles & Venom.

218 banlaw

unified fuel management

Imagine a solution that ensures safe and secure fuelling, easy operation, accurate data collection and full reconciliation.

220 Bonec Lubrication Equipment

earthmoving wearparts

Through innovation, our aim is to continuously satisfy our customers’ expectations.

224

222 servinca

one engineering and services company A company dedicated to providing engineering and construction services.

224 univar

One network. A world of solutions

For over 60 years Univar has connected the mining industry with the world’s premier chemical manufacturers.

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Mining Scandinavia

The unique geology of the Scandinavian of Sweden, Finland and Norway into som mining, locations that are expected to g Words by

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Wi

Mining

g in the an Peninsula

Peninsula has helped transform the likes me of Europe’s most important locations for grow in importance in the decades ahead

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Mining

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easuring approximately 1,850 kilometres in length and with a width varying between from 370 to 805 kilometres, the Scandinavian Peninsula is one of Europe’s largest. Covering Norway, Sweden and most of northern Finland, the Peninsula we see today has been shaped through history by the impact of various Ice Ages, events that have deepened its river valleys, created the famous fjords of Norway and left only a small percentage of the land arable.

The crystalline substrate of the land and absence of soil in many places have consequently exposed vast mineral deposits of metal ores, such as those of iron, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, and gold, the most valuable of which being the deposits of iron ore found in North West Sweden. It was the discovery of such deposits that brought about the building of a railroad from North West Sweden to the seaport of Narvik in Norway. From Narvik the iron ore could be exported by ship for smelting into iron and steel in other European countries, including Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.

To this day, Sweden, Finland and Norway remain among Europe’s elite mining nations. Indeed as of December 2009, Sweden was noted to have had

a total of 879 active deposits, while Finland and Norway possessed 343 and 160 deposits respectively.

Sweden’s mining legacy dates back more than one thousand years with the country today one of the European Union’s (EU) largest ore and metal producers, and far and away its largest iron ore producer.

Indeed almost 90 percent of the EU’s iron ore mining takes place in Northern Sweden. The country, together with Finland, also contributes significantly to Europe’s total production of gold, silver, zinc, copper and lead.

As of 2008, the production value of mining and quarrying in the Swedish part of the Barents region alone was estimated as being 2.5 billion euros, a figure that is equivalent to 66 percent of the country’s total mining production. In addition to iron ore, the active exploration for and development of Sweden’s substantial base metal and gold deposits means that mining is a direct contributor to roughly 0.3 percent of the country’s annual GDP. Unsurprisingly, given its long and successful history, Sweden’s mining sector also plays a leading role in metallurgical research and development, as well as in the development of advanced and ecological underground mining.

Much like its neighbouring country, Finland also has a long history for hosting

“In the years to come the level of activity within the mining industry across the Scandinavian Peninsula is expected to increase significantly” 12 |

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Iron Ore Mine Factory Plant in Narvik Norway

A coal mine on the side of a mountain - Mine 2b, Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway

Mining

“The continuous demand on the global mineral and metals markets has even led to some analysts to suggest that Sweden alone could triple its mining production by 2025, creating as many as 50,000 new jobs”

mining operations. Copper, nickel, cobalt, zinc and lead ores as well as chromium, vanadium and iron deposits have provided raw material for the country’s metal industry for a number of years, with significant processing and refining of copper and nickel concentrates occurring at Harjavalta, zinc at Kokkola, chromium at Kemi, and iron at Raahe.

Finland has excellent geological databases, good infrastructure and readily available exploration services.

These factors make operating in Finland attractive and cost effective, with present activity concentrated in gold, platinum group metals, base metals, diamonds and industrial minerals.

Since Finland became a member of the EU in 1995, it has enjoyed a constant exploration interest and this increased interest and seen the number of people working within the mining sector steadily expand also. Between the year 2000 and 2008 there was a near 30 percent increase in the number of people employed directly by mining and quarrying companies, taking the number up to almost 1,400 people. Furthermore, figures taken at the end of 2008 showed that almost 67,000 people were employed with companies

involved in the manufacturing of metals, machinery and equipment, areas that are all very much dependent on the success of Finland’s mining sector.

In the years to come the level of activity within the mining industry across the Scandinavian Peninsula is expected to increase significantly. The continuous demand on the global mineral and metals markets has even led to some analysts to suggest that Sweden alone could triple its mining production by 2025, creating as many as 50,000 new jobs.

Such a scenario would see Swedish iron ore production more than tripling to some 90 million tonnes annually, while volumes for other minerals could conceivably double over the same period of time as continued exploration generates additional deposits. This would create a mining sector capable of generating between three and five percent of GDP growth.

If such events do unfold in not only Sweden but also across its fellow Scandinavian nations, and there is little reason to doubt that they could, then the region stands to play a hugely important role within the mining world for many years to come.

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The elusive ingredient in a thriving work environment Work, toil - or thriving? Why command and control models no longer work in business Words by

Simon Middleton

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n this age of dynamic information technology developments power is being distributed like never before.

For example, Andrew Haldane, Executive Director for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, writing in The Spectator (2 November 2013) notes that at the root of banking is market information.

Banks have been the middlemen between savers and borrowers. The arrival of the great icons of the peer-to-peer market place, Amazon, Google and eBay have cut out the middleman and it is this disintermediation that marks the revolution of our Age. He notes that in 2007 the collective market capitalisation of these three technology firms was around $80 billion or 8 percent of the value of the global banks. In 2013 it stands at $310 billion or a whopping 36 percent of that of global banks. Just as information has disintermediated not only the banks but the music, advertising, publishing, and insurance industries, so to it is disintermediating the power of the manager over the employee, the company over the employee.

The old organisational structures, shaped along command and control military models are struggling to adjust.

“Power” no longer has the same mystic or capacity to control. It hasn’t gone away though. Rather, it continues to exist and is a compelling lever to those who know how to work the emerging social reality where individualised preference and

energy is easily engaged - as for example in Flash Mobs. This is no more than an example of enormous energy around the exercise of discretionary will. The functional locus for dealing with this topic has typically been HR but social media and the information age is challenging its old ways of functioning.

When Accenture recently undertook research to define key trends in HR most likely to impact on an organisation, they omitted one fundamental issue. They centered on tapping skills anywhere, anytime and managing teams as a workforce of one through to how digital is radically disrupting just about every department. They ignored the importance of reaching beyond ‘consultant-speak’ solutions with the over focus on technology enablement, to find ways of ‘capturing’ the discretionary effort of employees.

It is precisely this “discretionary effort” that makes the difference between an organisation thriving or existing. Engaged employees chose to gift their power back into the organisation and it becomes a place where people want to be. When this happens there is little need for expensive interventions to extract engagement.

Great technology has its place but it is easily squandered if the organisational culture is miserable. Look at the BBC (Savile scandal), Barclays, The NHS, The Co-Op Bank, Lloyds Bank and the miselling and finally The Royal Bank of

“Engaged employees chose to gift their power back into the organisation and it becomes a place where people want to be” 18 |

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HR

“While HR is often not fit for purpose, the deep insight which HR usually has into the engagement agenda is invaluable” Scotland in just about every segment of the organisation. This a roll call of major brand names in the British commercial and business sphere.

HR, in its current conceptualisation, cannot deliver what is needed. All too often it feels more like an extension of Government’s bureaucratic hand which focuses on the multiple “fairness/equality” and health and safety agendas. If it isn’t this element then where on earth was or is HR’s voice when it has to confront the abuse of power in the Board Room and refuse to sanction staggering and corrupt payouts to discredited managers in, yes again, the BBC and the NHS to name just two organisations? It may well be that “speaking truth to power” is not HR’s role despite the common desire that there by “someone” who calls the truth in the system and it is often assumed that this is HR’s de facto role. What is clear however is that leadership in HR is well versed with the debilitating and destructive impact that power abuse has on a culture. We can see it, feel it and even cost it!

While HR is often not fit for purpose, the deep insight which HR usually has into the engagement agenda is invaluable.

Yet the problem is that HR, as currently practiced, is too much concerned with “existence management”. By contrast “New HR” faces the challenge to make the shift from managing

an “existence” agenda to enabling the dynamic, “thriving culture”. It is neither difficult nor complicated. It does however require a shift in mindset that starts with the core premise that Organisations exist for people and not the other way round. Once this principle is lived then astonishing things can happen and this, by the way, includes the economics.

Living the aforementioned principle is completely possible. This involves a radical transition away from the reliance on the usual litany of organisational “HR Apps” that are wheeled out as solutions to engagement. The offering of revamped “old system” tools such as incentive pay grades, better performance management forms and all the other tired systems have short shelf-lives. They are, at best, poor substitutes for something that is a far deeper than the realm of “HR App solutions”. It has to do with relationally focused leadership that gives “meaning” to work and transforms their organisations into mindful rather than mindless places that thrive.

What is the point of any organisation - commercial or otherwise - unless it exists as a place of “work” rather than its miserable alternative, “toil”? “Work” is vocational and mindful presence; “toil” is mindless presence. Engaging “discretionary effort” is guaranteed in any organisation that refuse to allow “toil” into their systems. The responsible

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BusinessExcellence

HR

“It starts with the leader who is the emotional gatekeeper for the whole enterprise. It does not start with HR. When the leader is engaged in this way HR can interpret and become the invaluable partner in delivering leader-led life into the organisation” person for building a mindful presence organisation is without any doubt the Leader. South Africa, thrived, post apartheid, under Mandela’s presence. RBS has been a very unhappy place for years and the stories marking dysfunctional leadership continue to leak. It started at the top. The Co-Op Bank’s Paul Flowers sadly highlights the truth in the negative.

It starts with the leader who is the emotional gatekeeper for the whole enterprise. It does not start with HR. When the leader is engaged in this way HR can interpret and become the invaluable partner in delivering leader-led life into the organisation. A small example of this is a family owned business, The Cook Food Company based in Sittingbourne, Kent. Following conversations with the head of HR, Rosie Brown, she read the book, The Dream Manager by Matthew

Kelly. It is a story of engagement in an office cleaning c omp a n y t h at can theoretically only survive on minimum wages.

The food industry has a similar challenge.

Rosie interpreted the commitment of the company board to build an organisation that consciously values an engaged workforce. They are now trialling, with great success, the principles of The Dream Manager in their own company.

This is a current case study in the principles of a place where “toil” is giving way to thriving without compromise and in the process creating significant value for all stakeholders.

About the author Simon Middleton has had more than 30 years senior HR management experience with multinational companies including Hewlett-Packard, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Philip Morris and the Lufthansa Services Group. In 2012, he co-founded Watershed Entrepreneurs, a UK-based organization established to provide the financial and business knowledge essential for young entrepreneurs to turn their business ideas and innovations into sustainable operations. He continues to work in the multinational corporate arena undertaking consultancy assignments involving leadership and management appraisal. Simon is a graduate of Rhodes University and Sheffield Hallam University. www.watershedentrepreneurs.co.uk

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People

Boost your confidence and career in 2014 Why a lack of self-confidence could limit career progression and some hints on how to stop that happening Words by

Marielena Sabatier

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n 2014 more than half of UK firms expect to create new jobs according to a survey released this month from CBI/Accenture called, ‘On the up’. The report stated that 51% of firms expect their workforce to be larger this time next year, the highest figure since the start of the recession in 2008.

With more jobs being created and the UK finally experiencing economic growth, 2014 could prove a fresh start for many people who have been considering a new job or a change of career but have held off looking during the recession.

However, the stumbling block for many people is their lack of selfconfidence. Not having confidence can limit a person’s potential, career choices and progression. If people aren’t confident they believe they can’t achieve their dream job or haven’t the skills to move up the corporate ladder. Lack of confidence is often based on very selfcritical thinking, fear of failure or from not having developed the right skills but expecting to have them.

Self-confidence is something we are born with and we can rebuild by evaluating our experiences in a more positive light, looking at past experiences as an opportunity to learn or at skills as something we just haven’t accomplished yet. One way of building confidence is by changing our mind set from thinking, “we can’t do something” to “we can’t do something yet.”

What we think about ourselves often appears to be fact, something we can’t actually do anything about, but these

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are just opinions. They are based on experiences we’ve had and how we interpreted these experiences have shaped our beliefs about ourselves. If these experiences have been negative, the chances are that our beliefs about ourselves will be negative too, which affects our self-confidence.

Sometimes negative beliefs are reinforced by negative thinking and experiences later in life, such as workplace bullying or intimidation, abusive relationships, persistent stress or hardship, or traumatic events. Our opinion of ourselves is developed as a result of all these interactions and experiences throughout our lives.

Negative beliefs affect how people see their current reality, especially in the workplace, and how they ultimately progress in their career - it can limit possibilities and stop them achieving their potential.

For example if someone gets praised at work for doing a good job, people who are confident will accept the complements, but those who lack confidence may start wondering if their boss really meant it, and start to worry that they could do better.

About the author Executive Coach, Marielena Sabatier, CEO, Inspiring Potential works with businesses and helps executives develop and boost their confidence to improve their performance at work. www.inspiring-potential.com

People

11 tips on improving your self-confidence 1. Change your thinking Focus on the positive and things you have done well not the negative. Write down one positive achievement every day, no matter how small and you will be surprised what you have achieved in a week.

2. Learn from mistakes If things haven’t gone to plan take it as an opportunity to learn from the mistakes. No one ever gets anywhere without making a few mistakes along the way.

3. Don’t be afraid to fail Many entrepreneurs have failed during their working lives and gone on to achieve great things. Think about Richard Branson. He has launched close to a 100 companies, many of which have failed. No one remembers these, only the successes.

4. Discover your strengths Ask people you respect what they think are your greatest strengths and then find ways to use those strengths more often. Be clear about your strengths and incorporate these into your work every day.

5. Think “you can” Instead of thinking “I can’t” – think “I can’t yet”. Make this your mantra and say it to yourself every day.

6. Create a challenge Challenge yourself to try something new.

Find projects and assignments that give you an opportunity to use your strengths.

7. Face your fears Fear of failure often stops us doing things, turn this on its head and make a commitment to do at least one thing you fear every month.

This could be making a team presentation, attending a networking function alone or learning a new business skill.

8. Don’t compare yourself to others People are often tempted to compare themselves to colleagues or friends and think ‘I wish I was thinner, more successful etc., but what they fail to realise is the person who is thinner, might attend a gym three times a week and eat very sensibly. Often confidence we see in others is a result of a lot of hard work.

9. A lack of confidence isn’t pervasive People need to think about other areas of their lives where they do feel confident – they may be good a cook for example or good at sport. If this confidence was channelled into the workplace then it could have a very positive impact.

10. Have a plan Think about where you want to go in 2014 and create an achievable plan with set goals. Make sure you regularly review these goals to keep on track for success. You can use an executive coach to help you formulate these goals.

11. Be positive Have a positive attitude and remain upbeat, when challenges emerge. People are drawn to positive people and this helps to build confidence in the workplace.

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Fifteen Minutes of Fame How to create a future-focused relationship between supplier and customer, and build strong relationships across key job functions in each of them Words by

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George F. Brown, Jr.

Supply chain

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ne of my clients was recently honored as the “Supplier of the Year” by one of their major customers, a relationship that was barely four years old. In discussing this achievement, a senior executive from the supplier organization cited famed artist Andy Warhol’s observation that “In the future, everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes”. This executive’s comments were insightful along several dimensions: “Of course, we were delighted. We had a celebration, and made sure that the account team working with [customer] knew how pleased we were to receive this award, and we extended that praise to others throughout our company that were key to making it happen.

“But I also told them that our ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ was over, and that we had to start anew to make sure we were doing all the right things in the year that was now underway. It’s just like the day after the Super Bowl or the World Series.

Along with the recaps, there are articles forecasting who are the teams most likely to win the following year.

“That got me thinking. One of the things that struck me was the citation

“I told them that our ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ was over, and that we had to start anew to make sure we were doing all the right things in the year that was now underway” 28 |

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that went along with our award. It mentioned, for example, our ‘consistently high quality’ and our ‘track record of meeting delivery commitments’. These are things that around here, we describe as ‘basic blocking and tackling’ and as the ‘table stakes’ for a successful strategic relationship. While I never thought of it, had I done so, I think I would have expected that a Supplier of the Year Award would have been based upon some version of a ‘grand slam home run in the ninth inning’ rather than on having successfully met the ‘table stakes’ criteria.

“And the second thing that I was thinking about was that we have never had a strategy in place as to how we were going to win a Supplier of the Year Award. I keep finding examples of how we are reactive in our key customer relationships, rather than being proactive. This is another one of those examples in my mind.”

His observations prompted me to do some follow-up. While what follows is far from a statistically-valid survey, I talked with ten executives responsible for supply chain relationships, all in Fortune 1000 manufacturing companies.

I would put each of these companies in the top quartiles in terms of their supplier programs, ones designed to attract the best suppliers and motivate their best performance. My guess is that what I would hear from a truly random sample of companies would involve far fewer supplier success stories than what I heard from these ten manufacturers.

My first question to the supply chain executives was “Can you give me an example of a situation in which a

Supply chain

supplier became ‘famous’ throughout your company, and the circumstances in which their identity and action because so widely known and discussed?” Out of the ten responses, five involved a “supplier horror story”, three involved some version of a “grand slam home run in the ninth inning”, and two executives said they really didn’t have a good example that responded to my question. I reflect that the larger number of horror stories than success stories parallels everyday news reports on various fifteen minutes of fame situations. For every Captain Sullenberger than successfully lands a stricken airliner in the Hudson River, it seems there are many more reports that fall into the horror story category.

My second question asked for information on that company’s most recent “Supplier of the Year Award” and on the accomplishments that yielded that award. Most of the executives provided me a copy or link to the actual award citation. What I found was that seven of the awards were quite similar to the one given the client whose case study I provided above, in that solid performance on quality, delivery, and relationship were the factors emphasized in the wording of the award. The other three awards did in fact cite a specific contribution that was in the “grand slam home run in the ninth inning” category, including all three of the suppliers who were described in the responses to the first question.

I draw a couple of conclusions from this informal research, ones that seem to me to be relevant to decisions as to the management of key customer relationships by suppliers. The concept

“The concept ‘First, do no harm’ must be the first priority of a supplier” “First, do no harm” must be the first priority of a supplier. The fact that the instances in which suppliers became “customer company famous” most frequently involved failures in terms of quality, delivery, service, or other elements of the relationship is quite striking, as is the fact that so many “Supplier of the Year Awards” were based upon achieving perfect results in terms of “basic blocking and tackling” and “table stakes performance”. Giving this anything but the highest priority is a prescription for failure.

The firms with which I’ve worked that perform well along this dimension have carefully-constructed dashboards, ones that have been vetted with their customers and that are reviewed on a high-frequency basis, both internally by senior management and in collaboration with their customers. In these topperforming firms, the organization as a whole, not just the account team, knows that achieving targeted performance levels on the metrics included in these dashboards matters, and that it is an imperative to get ahead of problems before they impact on customer relationships and perceptions.

A third characteristic of these topperforming teams is that there are no “gatekeeper” positions that thwart supplier-customer interactions. While the account teams have significant

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responsibilities, others in various job functions know and frequently interact with their counterparts in the customer organization.

My second insight relates to the opportunity to hit “grand slam home runs in the ninth inning” and the desire of the executive quoted earlier to transform the relationship to a more proactive state.

Along with reflecting on the examples provided in my informal survey, I looked at the supplier success stories that I’ve heard over the years in various interviews with customers about their suppliers. Admittedly, it has been hard to find patterns. My examples are more like a mixture of “grand slam home runs in the ninth inning”, “100 yard kickoff returns as time runs out”, and “buzzer beater shot from half court in the NCAA finals” – all heroic, but not exactly peas in a pod. Nevertheless, there were three findings that occurred often enough to warrant mentioning.

The first was that many of these heroic contributions involved something that was “new” for the customer or for the relationship – new product, new technology, new market, new competition, new regulation, etc. In the case studies that involved such “new” challenges, it was clear that future-focused discussions between the supplier and the customer were key to success. Asking questions like “What’s keeping you awake at night?” and “What are the new challenges in your strategic plan?” and “What changes in our contributions are going to make a difference to you over the next year?” must be part of the dialogue if the supplier is to have a good chance at

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“Many heroic contributions involved something that was ‘new’ for the customer or for the relationship” successfully contributing to meeting the “new” challenges facing their customers.

The second observation is that many of these heroic contributions originated in discussions between functional experts in the two companies, not as a result of ongoing supplier account team interactions with the customer’s supply chain team. This is again a reinforcement of the importance of building strong relationships across the key job functions in the two organizations. In the examples I’ve reviewed, the underlying elements of the opportunity for the contribution were complex and technical, not the types of topics that are usually on the agenda of account team meetings with the supply chain team. A few examples involved problems being faced by the customer that were barely connected to the supplier’s products, but happened to be ones on which the supplier’s technical experts had insights from working with customers in other industries. Not only must these interactions take place, but the supplier team members involved in them must learn to ask the same questions that were described above as elements of a strong future-focused relationship.

The third observation is that the suppliers that were involved in these heroic contributions were proactive in sharing their own experiences with their

Supply chain

customers. As even the executive who was quoted above observed about his company, it is quite easy to be reactive, to respond to information and requests provided by the customer. It is much harder to be proactive, and to share ideas with the customer that might spark an idea and provide the foundation for collaboration. Some suppliers even avoid doing so out of fear of leaks to competitors or that the customer will turn around and include the concept in some future request for proposals. The need to manage such possibilities is real, but the opportunity to elevate the relationship with a customer through such sharing of information and insights is also quite real, often enough the foundation for a real supplier success story that a firm wishing to be proactive needs to figure out how to battle through the problems and make it happen.

Achieving a positive “fifteen minutes of fame” with key customers is a most worthy goal, one that should be part of the plan for 2014 and beyond. The lessons that have emerged from the discussions cited above emphasize two actions that must be part of the program. First is taking all the steps necessary to ensure that “basic blocking and tackling” is a reality

“Achieving a positive ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ with key customers is a most worthy goal” throughout the corporation, that senior management and customers alike know of the targets and of the commitment to achieve them, and that the resources and problem-solving skills are in place to ensure perfect performance. It seems that this alone can go quite a way in terms of allowing a supplier to achieve a positive “fifteen minutes of fame” with their customers. The second element of the program involves taking proactive steps through which opportunities can be identified for game-changing contributions to key customers. Doing so is clearly as much an art as it is a science.

Creating a future-focused relationship that spotlights “new” challenges, ensuring broadly-based interactions across key job functions in the two firms, and bringing insights from within the supplier’s firm to its customers are among the steps that can help in this regard.

About the author George F. Brown, Jr. consults with industrial firms on growth strategy through his firm B-to-B Advisors, Inc. He is the coauthor of CoDestiny: Overcome Your Growth Challenges by Helping Your Customers Overcome Theirs and the cofounder of and a Senior Advisor to Blue Canyon Partners, Inc., which he served as CEO for fifteen years. George has published frequently on topics relating to strategy in business markets, including articles in Industry Week, Industrial Distribution, Chief Executive, Business Excellence, Employment Relations Today, iP Frontline, Industrial Engineer, Industry Today, and many others. gfb@BtoBAdvisors.com

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Technology

How the cloud is helping companies beat cybercrime Don’t be afraid of the cloud: your information is as safe there as in your own server in many ways much safer Words by

David Sturges

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A

ccording to a recent study by security firm McAfee and the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIC), The Economic Impact of Cyber Crime and Cyber Espionage the USA, the world’s largest economy, loses about £65 billion from cybercrimes every year including loss of key business data and intellectual property. The report also states that cybercrime costs the global economy $500 billion annually and is a main contributor for dragging down economic growth across the world.

Recent research published in the UK

by Ernst & Young, stated that cyberattacks are the number one threat for UK businesses.

The company surveyed 1,900 senior executives and revealed 96 percent of UK businesses fear their security functions are not strong enough. Furthermore, 66 percent of senior executives feel there has been an increase this year in security incidents and only four percent of UK businesses feel they are fully equipped to deal with cyber threats.

Businesses around the world are

struggling to cope with the threat of cybercrime, due to limited IT and financial resources and lack of effective security strategies. Indeed the Ernst & Young survey highlighted that 69 percent of businesses say they face budget constraints and lack skilled resources to deal effectively with cybercrime. Whilst it is impossible to prevent cybercrime, there are ways to minimise the risks.

One solution being adopted by many companies is ‘cloud computing’.

Moving into the cloud and using a reputable provider can help address security fears and ensure that a business is afforded greater protection than if they continue with their server based in-house technology.

With cloud computing the user’s physical device - whether it is a desktop PC, laptop, tablet or smart phone - loses its importance. Data can’t be stored on any device, so if it becomes corrupted in any way, it can be completely erased and reinstalled in minutes without any data being lost. Equally, software and other applications cannot be installed by users without permission as the system is locked down. This prevents anyone from

“96% of UK businesses fear their security functions are not strong enough. Furthermore, 66% of senior executives feel there has been an increase this year in security incidents and only 4% of UK businesses feel they are fully equipped to deal with cyber threats” 34 |

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Technology

erroneously downloading destructive software or installing applications which could lead to information being leaked.

It also minimises the risks of data loss if there are disgruntled employees or incidences of cyber leaks that can occur with insider knowledge.

When a company adopts cloud computing, its data and IT is managed by professional cloud computing providers who will secure it in a reputable UK data centre behind corporate grade firewalls.

They will ensure audit trails are provided and perform regular data and security backups using the latest anti-virus and spam filters – all measures that will help to protect the businesses from attacks.

There are other benefits too, including cost savings, reduced administrative and personnel overheads and a more efficient setup. Opting for a managed cloud computing service completely removes the need for a business to perform any software installation and updates, which can lead to downtime, as this is all taken care of by the cloud computing provider.

However, outsourcing confidential data to a third party is perceived to be a big step, particularly when IT has always been managed in house.

Perhaps you can never truly be sure that you can prevent a cyber-attack however, putting your IT into the hands of trusted professionals who manage it and keep it safe can reduce the risks.

About the author David Sturges is Chief Commercial Operator at WorkPlaceLive. www.workplacelive.com

5 tips when moving to the cloud 1.

Work with an accredited and trusted cloud computing service provider with a good reputation. Check they have relevant accreditations such as ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 and can provide references.

Accreditations are important as it shows the provider can demonstrate the highest levels of security.

2.

O pt for a privately managed cloud computing service, such as a Desktop as a Service (DaaS), where all data is professionally managed and stored in a secure UK datacentre behind corporate grade firewalls.

3. Make sure you differentiate between public cloud services like Gmail, Icloud and Dropbox, and privately managed services.

While such public cloud services are popular with many users, some customers may require more from their cloud service provider, such as knowing where exactly their data is actually stored.

4. Companies using public cloud services often won’t know where their data is held and so will be moving from their secure desktop environment to a potentially less secure one. The Information Commissioner’s Office stresses that companies are responsible for where their data are held, even when using third party vendors. Organisations must know where their data are held and to take responsibility for its security.

5.

Fully understand how cloud computing works and the value it could bring to your business so you can weigh up the benefits and costs.

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Strategy

Delivering customer service is

non-negotiable Improve governance by facilitating communications, enabling a timely view of current and historic company information, and producing board materials efficiently Words by

Jeff Powell & Jeff Hilk

G

reat customer service is something that everyone expects but not everyone receives. A 2013 Forrester report, Navigate the Future of Customer Service, states that customer service is “moving from being a cost center to a being a differentiator.” And a report on call center efficiency from the International Computer Management Institute found that superior customer service creates real value for clients in efficiency and customer satisfaction, as well as business unit and strategic value.

Good customer service can’t be bolted on. It must be ingrained in a company’s culture. When a focus on the customer is a company’s paramount business priority, everyone, no matter what their role, is ready and willing to assist. Whether or not a company is in a service business, it can view each instance a client contacts it as an opportunity to provide exemplary customer service.

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retention rate. This is especially true when a customer service department provisions clients who are accustomed to exceptionally high levels of attention and service to start with. For Fortune 1000 boards of directors, CEOs, boards of trustees at world-renowned universities and high-ranking government officials, you have to get it right the first time or risk losing the business for good.

A phone call is usually the quickest way to reach the support team. Accustomed to a five-star hotel standard of service, senior leaders expect the same level of attention from every service provider, especially when carrying out their professional responsibilities. Based on the value of their time, board members can’t wait to be connected to the right person or interact with a complicated interactive voice response (IVR) system. If a client calls customer service, they need help immediately. Not on hold. Not later today, and certainly not tomorrow.

Have a team available to pick up the phone, every time This really is the most basic principle of premium service. If someone is calling, they want to talk, so you must answer right away. Inadequate staffing is one of the biggest obstacles to delivering

“If a client calls customer service, they need help immediately. Not on hold. Not later today, and certainly not tomorrow” 38 |

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great service. In today’s 24/7 world, if a company doesn’t have enough people to answer the phones around the clock, its customers will start to lose patience and take their business elsewhere. Oftentimes, support calls are from places like the airport terminal or the board room before a meeting. Whether a customer is calling with a technical question about the service they’re using, or even about the device they’re using, they need to know the answer right away.

Use experts to talk to customers If a client has a technical question, he or she needs to talk to someone who knows the product inside and out, is experienced talking directly to senior executives, and who will go the extra mile to resolve the issue. Good service is based on a relationship of trust, and customers need to be able to trust that the service team will be there to resolve their issues. For example, if for any reason the person answering the phone is unable to answer the query, a qualified person with the right knowledge should call the customer back within five minutes.

Invest in proper training Companies need to dedicate resources to training not just employees in their customer service department, but clients as well. A unique one-to-one training for users of the product ensures their proficiency in using the product. This will cut down on valuable time a client would otherwise have spent trying to figure out a feature if they weren’t properly on-boarded or updated on the product. In addition, instead of one account manager

Strategy

for each customer, clients should be assigned a complete service team for the duration of the relationship so there’s always a pool of people well-versed with the requirements and customizations specific to each client.

Offer customer service at the times customers need it It’s commonplace to find executives traveling for work on weekends, getting to work early in the morning and finishing late in the evening, and frequently crossing time zones. A 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday local-hours customer service team is, therefore, no good to a director who is preparing for a board meeting at 9 pm on a Sunday night. If customers work 24/7, service teams need to be available 24/7 too. To address this, consider implementing a ‘follow the sun’ principle, placing service staff in several regions. When every call is picked up within two rings on average, significantly higher client satisfaction results.

Have a crisis plan A company can never expect things to operate smoothly 100 percent of the time. Having a clear and strong crisis plan is crucial to maintaining stability and continuity in business operations.

During a crisis, a company may find the majority of its support staff without electricity or transportation. But utilizing a global team can ensure that clients are well taken care of and attended to. The service team should believe strongly enough in delivering good service as to be willing to work around the clock to cover for colleagues affected by the crisis.

“Having a clear and strong crisis plan is crucial to maintaining stability and continuity in business operations” In the end, quality customer service comes down to understanding clients’ expectations. An educated, well-informed staff knowledgeable about their clients’ businesses is crucial to providing efficient and seamless support. Ensuring that the client feels comfortable and reassured that the support team will be able to help them builds a strong rapport and trust. If a company exceeds expectations to deliver great client service and goes further than its competition is prepared to go, it will lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and retent ion, event ua lly ensuring the continued health and growth of the business.

About the author Jeff Powell is Executive Vice President of the Americas Region, and Jeff Hilk Executive Vice President and Director of Client Services at Diligent Board Member Services Inc, creator of the world’s most widely used board portal. www.boardbooks.com

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top ten

Things To Know About Mobile Security A few common-sense ways to foil persistent cyber criminals and protect data in transit Words by: Michelle Drolet

Top Ten

CHOOSE DEVICES 8 CAREFULLY

Not all devices and platforms are created equal – some are more secure than others.

APPS 7 CHOOSE CAREFULLY

Don’t blindly trust that third-party apps meet your security standards and requirements. You are responsible for ensuring compliance, so do your homework.

6 USE ENCRYPTION

Encryption should be mandatory for your data in transit. Consider encrypting in the cloud as well if you want to ensure there’s no exposure risk.

IS 10 MALWARE ON THE RISE

The threat of malware on mobile platforms is growing steadily as more and more cyber criminals target mobile devices in increasingly sophisticated ways.

BYOD IS 9 A CHALLENGE

There are obvious benefits to the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend, but it also creates IT challenges and exposes your company to new threats.

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Mobile security

5 REQUIRE AUTHENTICATION

Without authentication in place a lost mobile device serves as the keys to your kingdom and anyone who finds it can gain entry to everything.

YOUR 2 TEST DEFENCES

You can spend millions on a mobile security system, but how do you know that it works if you never put it to the test? Get third-party experts without prior knowledge to try and break it.

4 CONTROL CONNECTIVITY

Your file servers may be safe and secure behind a firewall, but it’s all for nothing if mobile devices share files on unsecure public Wi-Fi networks or via Bluetooth.

MAINTAIN AN 3 AUDIT TRAIL

Ensure that every point of entry is identified and every action creates a trail which can be clearly followed. You must see the flow of data in order to protect it.

1 ENFORCE MDM POLICY

You can have the best Mobile Device Management policy in the world, but if you don’t monitor, test and enforce it then it’s useless.

About the Author Michelle Drolet is founder of Towerwall, a data security services provider in Framingham, MA with clients such as PerkinElmer, Smith & Wesson, Middlesex Savings Bank, Brown University and SMBs. michelled@towerwall.com

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British American Tobacco

Sparking a chain reaction

The ability to change and adapt has always existed within British American Tobacco.

Arguably no other area of its business better encapsulates this quality than its Global Supply Chain

written by: Will Daynes research by: Vincent Kielty

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Bernd Meyer, Group Head of Supply Chain

British American Tobacco

B

ritish American Tobacco has never been afraid to embrace change. This is a quality it shares with the most successful businesses throughout history and has been a major contributing factor in the Group’s success over the past 112 years since it was formed in 1902. In recognising the need to move with the times, British American Tobacco has itself evolved into one of the world’s leading tobacco groups, with more than 200 brands sold in over 180 markets, utilising 44 cigarette factories in 39 countries, and a global workforce numbering more than 55,000.

One employee, Bernd Meyer, is as in touch with the concept of change and its importance as any other within British American Tobacco. Meyer successfully transformed South Africa’s Heidelberg cigarette factory from an underperforming operation based on manual labour to a highly automated and high performing state-of-the-art factory.

Since then, Meyer has held the position of Global Head of Plan, Logistics and Service for a period of more than a year, and is now almost a year into his current role as Group Head of Supply Chain.

“As you can imagine,” Meyer says, “taking on what was my first global role in 2011 as Global Head of Plan, Logistics and Service involved quite a significant culture change for me, as before my focus was centred on a particular region and area, Southern Africa.

What you appreciate first and foremost is the sheer scope of the work at hand. This inevitably means that instead of having a hand in every little detail on an area level,

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SOLVAY ACETOW

Rhodia FilterSorb™

1 | BE 50 | BEWEEKLY Monthly

An important element of almost every cigarette is the filter, mostly composed of cellulose acetate filter tow. Solvay Acetow is one of the leading producers of cellulose acetate tow for cigarette filters. Headquartered in Freiburg (Germany), Solvay Acetow has five production sites on four continents. Two of these production sites are located in South America and the CIS, making Solvay Acetow the only cellulose acetate producer in these regions.

Solvay Acetow is a previous member of the French chemical and pharmaceutical group Rhône-Poulenc which deposited the first patents for cellulose acetate in 1911. Solvay Acetow’s key product is Rhodia® Filter Tow, a cellulose acetate filter tow available in a wide range of technical specifications to cover all possible designs for cigarette filters: from standard cigarette filters to other tobacco applications such as roll-your-own, cigarillos, pipes, slim filters etc. Recently Solvay Acetow has developed and launched three new and innovative products to provide filter solutions which enable our customers to always be one step ahead. All these products provide a reliable performance, something that Rhodia® Filter Tow

British American Tobacco

is known for, and can be used with existing filter makers: Rhodia Coloured Tow™ offers endless possibilities in combining colours and different shapes of acetate filter rods and is therefore a unique opportunity for the market to customize cigarette filters. Rhodia DETow™ is a more environmentally friendly cellulose acetate tow solution which uses the synergy between enhanced photodegradation and biodegradation.

It degrades in the environment five-1toten times faster than a standard filter tow. In October 2013, Solvay Acetow won the ICIS* Best Product Innovation Award 2013 for its new product Rhodia DE-Tow™. Rhodia FilterSorb™ is an innovative filtration additive from Solvay Acetow. This unique silica based granule in a cellulose acetate matrix, adds a second filtration step to a standard filter to provide optimized filtration without loss of flavour. All in all, Rhodia® Filter Tow has the widest product offering in the industry with a priority given to innovative products, customer service and cost efficiency.

E. silke.zaulig@solvay.com www.solvay.com

Rhodia Coloured Tow™

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“I believe bringing agreed processes and solutions into British American Tobacco’s global supply chain can benefit the business both in the short and long term” the scale of the global task now requires the need to adopt a matrix management structure of working. This remains the case when it comes to my role as Group Head of Supply Chain.”

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One particular cultural and professional change that Meyer would also have soon encountered upon moving into a global role is just how much more challenging it is to put one’s own stamp on things. Fortunately,

British American Tobacco

BAT tobacco field in Sri Lanka

his recognition of the importance of having a matrix management system in place has helped make this task a little bit easier.

“For this particular department to operate at its best it is absolutely vital that we provide the people who report to us throughout the business with the appropriate levels of direction and focus,” Meyer explains.

“This creates a situation where everybody possesses a clear understanding of what our priorities, objectives and targets are as a department, and as a business. This is the first way that one can put his or her marker

down and easily spread the message about what you want to achieve now and in the future. This approach also extends to our relationship with our suppliers and in many ways helps to create a strong degree of transparency between all parties.”

Of course implementing change is never easy, particularly within an organisation the size of British American Tobacco. Nevertheless, what Meyer has done in his relatively short time in charge of the Global Supply Chain is identify several areas within the Group that would benefit from a different approach.

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British American Tobacco The first of these areas SWM INTERNATIONAL is what he refers to as the As a premier specialty fine paper company, we are a global federalism that continues to leader of engineered solutions for the tobacco industry exist within British American worldwide, including our groundbreaking Alginex® waterTobacco. “We have a situation based and Glucigen™ starch based technologies. We within the organisation benefit from our global commercial and industrial footprint, where we have different employing close to 2800 people at 12 different locations on 4 continents. We pride ourselves on our long-standing regions undertaking certain business relationships with our customers. Together, in this processes in different ways,” ever changing market, we are poised to write a new page by Meyer states. “While this supporting the industry in 2014 and beyond. can be the right thing to do www.swmintl.com in some isolated instances, in most cases it proves more efficient to apply the same standards globally, thus creating synergies for the business. One significant example would be having one shared methodology behind how we calculate and determine inventory levels, or on a bigger scale how we apply manufacturing, logistics and procurement processes in our factories and supply chains.

This is just two instances among many where I believe bringing agreed processes and solutions into British American Tobacco’s global supply chain can benefit the business both in the short and long term.”

The current implementation of a common SAP system across the world within BAT will finally enable common processes and

55,000+ British American Tobacco’s global workforce Technician at the nursery in Brazil

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112 years Since British American Tobacco was established

Dried leaves at the Nigerian facilities

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procedures and also will be a significant milestone when it comes to aggregated, realtime information, faster availability of data and finally additional benefits by avoiding duplication of efforts and having bespoke systems that are not interlinked with each other. This is, Meyer enthuses, a true example of a company and supply chain unlocking the potential of its global scale.

While the primary objective for British American Tobacco’s supply chain, providing value to the business, has remained the same for some time, it has arguably never been more important than today for it to achieve its mission. In a time of global financial uncertainty it has become the goal of the supply chain to achieve savings where possible and in ways that are in no way detrimental to the quality of the Group’s products or the service it provides to its customers and consumers. “In many ways,” Meyer highlights, “the supply chain is increasingly acting as something of a value chain to the business.”

That statement goes some way to encapsulating how the supply chain has evolved in recent times. “I believe that the key to a successful supply chain today is achieving synergy and the best way to

British American Tobacco

Finished products before packing at the Ceylon Tobacco Company

do this is through aggregation,” Meyer continues. “The aim of this basically revolves around creating a single drum beat which the department works to, one aligned process if you will, that helps rid the business of the inefficiencies that stem from the multiplication or replication of

data and processes. What we have seen in the short time since we began pushing for this model to be embraced is a greater coming together of local and regional supply chains than we have witnessed in the past. Today there are clear signs that a better flow of communication now exits

“At the very heart of British American Tobacco is the belief that in order to grow as a business it must operate sustainably” BE Monthly | 57

WE WELCOME THE CHALLENGES OF THE FUTURE Celanese provides a broad range of products essential to everyday living – including components for countless conveniences you enjoy, and materials helping to advance innovation.

Behind these innovations are people. Celanese is made up of world-class chemists, material and polymer scientists, engineers, operators and professionals across the globe representing diverse backgrounds and cultures. Many are industry experts, recognized as among the best for their contributions toward creating breakthrough technologies and solutions.

Our customers come to us to help them address a problem, accelerate product development or deliver a new solution for their customers.

Meeting these challenges is what makes Celanese the firstchoice chemistry solution source for our customers.

British American Tobacco and this has resulted in agreements over shared Celanese Corporation is a global technology leader in standards and priorities, the production of differentiated chemistry solutions and things that ultimate benefit specialty materials used in most major industries and everyone concerned.” consumer applications. With sales almost equally divided Another development between North America, Europe and Asia, the company that Meyer has witnessed uses the full breadth of its global chemistry, technology and business expertise to create value for customers within British American and the corporation. Celanese partners with customers Tobacco has been the to solve their most critical needs while making a positive way the business rolls impact on its communities and the world. Based in Dallas, out innovations. “We are Texas, Celanese employs approximately 7,600 employees trying to focus more and worldwide and had 2012 net sales of $6.4 billion. For more more on big ticket items, information about Celanese Corporation and its product rolling out big innovations offerings, visit www.celanese.com or our blog at www.celaneseblog.com faster at a larger pace,” he highlights. “Instead of trying to invent something in a single end market, what we are doing now involves developing innovations and creating products that we can roll out with speed, while making full use of our global presence. Such an approach didn’t exist in the past, but what it shows is how we are increasingly thinking globally about what is right for the Group.”

While the aforementioned developments have made significant positive impacts on British American Tobacco’s business in their own rights, arguably the most significant

Celanese Corporation

44 Quality checks are performed on the tobacco before it goes through to be sorted

British American Tobacco cigarette factories today found in 39 countries

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“We have a situation within the organisation where we have different regions undertaking certain processes in different ways�

Leaf sorting at BAT Souza Cruz

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British American Tobacco evolution to occur within the Group’s supply chain in the last several years has revolved around the concept of having one fully integrated supply chain within the Group rather than having supply chains led by different functions, for instance operations and trade marketing and distribution.

“One of the things we are currently embarking on is the integration of both the primary and secondary supply chains, which have in the past been split into two separate parts,” Meyer says. “While still a work in progress, this supply chain integration programme is now fully in motion and is Production line at Ceylon Tobacco Company achieving further synergies throughout the end to end supply chain.” and safety, environmental At the very heart of British protection and how we can American Tobacco is the best manage resources, belief that in order to grow particularly water.” as a business it must operate Fur t her more, when Number of brands sold by sustainably, creating value it comes to every single British American Tobacco for not only its shareholders, investment decision British but also society as a whole, American Tobacco makes, and as Meyer is keen to the Group ensures that it point out, the global supply chain of the always carries out evaluations in regards Group plays a hugely important role in to the sustainability of the business. For achieving this aim. “Throughout the world example, if the Group decides to build a our factories are constantly working on new factory it will first conduct an extensive achieving improvements in areas such as environmental impact assessment which energy efficiency, power generation, health also considers the long-term impact on the

200

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ENHANCED EMBOSSING DRESS UP YOUR BR AND

www.boegli.ch bg@boegli.ch

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surrounding area of the project in question.

“Long-term thinking has always been a core facet of British American Tobacco,” Meyer enthuses. “The simple fact that we have been around as a business for well over 100 years and plan to be around for well over a hundred more says a lot, in my opinion, about what our thought process is, and without doubt this has influenced the way we look at how our activities influence the world around us.”

As Meyer approaches a year in his role as Global Head of Supply Chain, it seems as good a time as any to ask him what he believes the immediate and long-term future holds for British American Tobacco’s supply chain.

British American Tobacco

Leaf technician in Nigeria

Production line after sorting

“One of the things we are currently embarking on is the integration of both the primary and secondary supply chains” Understandably he has several predictions about what will influence his department going forward, the first of those being changing international regulations that target tobacco products.

“Our product’s quality, its taste, has never been more important and has become the biggest differentiator in the market. From

a supply chain perspective this puts even more focus on sourcing the best tobacco, the best materials, and developing and producing the best blend that our consumers demand. This attention to detail when it comes to the finished product is one of the main reasons why we stand head and shoulders above our competitors.”

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Retail outlet in Lagos, Nigeria

British American Tobacco Continued innovation, both in terms of new products released to market and internal processes will also factor heavily on the future efforts of the supply chain. New product categories that gain significant traction amongst consumers, e-cigarettes for example, require almost an entirely unique supply chain in themselves compared to traditional, combustible products, while advances in technology within the Group’s existing infrastructure are helping make vital information more readily available.

Quick access to facts and figures covering everything from consumption levels to the use of parts in individual factories is also contributing to faster, more accurate decisions being made at local, regional and global levels.

In many ways this all harks back to that key word, integration. “As a global company it is imperative that we work hard to eliminate inefficiencies at a local level, and the best way to do this in my opinion is for us all to be singing from the same hymn sheet as it were,” Meyer concludes. “Personally, I would very much like it if we were able altogether to stop talking about separate regional and local supply chains, and instead focus on the fact that we have an integrated global supply chain. At the end of the day a company like ours should be one where every man and woman shares the same core objectives and targets, and these centre on providing the best products, made to the highest quality, at the best cost to our consumers.”

For more information about British American Tobacco visit: www.bat.com

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PET Project BevPak has successfully taken modern PET bottle technology into the challenging Nigerian market: now it is looking further afield

written by: John O’Hanlon research by: James Boyle

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BevPak

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BevPak

I

n the short space of five years since BevPak was established in Ibadan, Nigeria’s third largest city, the company has put down strong roots in Nigeria. In 2008, a group of entrepreneurs bought a small operation in the city and equipped it with modern machinery to produce the preforms from which PET bottles are blown.

The Managing Director of this operation is Syd Carter, who has 18 years’ experience in the PET conversion industry in Africa.

The rationale for setting up BevPak was simple. Nigeria is a country with a huge population of nearly 170 million people – and it is a growing economy, underpinned by its substantial oil reserves. While it is well developed socially, educationally and politically by the standards of sub-Saharan Africa it also has a massive potential for growth in most consumer sectors, not least food and drink.

Nigeria’s very size and complexity have proved a disincentive for many investors who prefer a tidier market, but Carter and his associates saw the opportunity and were prepared to take the risks. The venture was based on an understanding of the industry’s fundamentals. “Traditionally there are three different options for packaging beverages: glass bottles, metal cans and PET bottles.

Nigeria has always been a predominantly glass bottle market,” he explains.

These days there is a movement into PET for its clear advantages, principally driven by convenience: it is lightweight, it is resealable after opening, and it is safe to the user – no cuts or damage can be done with a PET bottle. From the customer’s point

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1.5 million BevPak’s daily preform output of view, PET bottles carry no deposit, and they are easy to recycle. There is a good recycling infrastructure in Nigeria, where people perceive value in waste, so there is a good rate of conversion of PET into fibre for stuffing mattresses and pillows, and other uses. PET fibre is one of the most widely produced synthetic fibres. It is put to use in products as different as tyre cords and clothing.

Recycled Pet for use in PET bottles is not yet produced in Nigeria at this stage – bottle-to-bottle recycling is expensive and requires much greater volumes to make it viable. Carter is confident that this will become a reality once the PET market in Nigeria reaches sufficient volume to justify the investment.

The Ibadan factory of BevPak now employs 64 people. Ibadan is only 120 km from Lagos, and offers certain advantages: “Many of our staff can walk to work: in Lagos they would probably face a two hour commute – each way!” says Carter. Since the factory is a 24/7 operation this degree of proximity is a significant help.

Infrastructure is also a challenge, as it is throughout Africa. Electric power is unreliable to the extent that a factory like BevPak’s has no option but to generate

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BevPak

its own, and there is no municipal water supply. The state of the roads throughout most of the country is not good; nevertheless Carter has been impressed by the ability of the transport contractors who truck the preforms across this large country to deliver. The ingenuity of Nigerians

to get a job done in the face of problems does them credit, he feels, and is one of their many strengths.

When BevPak arrived in Nigeria it entered a market that was becoming increasingly sophisticated. Customers were looking for the same advantages as their counterparts

“Finding good staff is a key aspect to a successful operation�

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in Europe or America. They wanted lighter preform system from US-based Kortec, Inc. weight products, longer shelf life and One of the characteristics of polyethylene better performance from the packaging terephthalate (PET) bottles is that they permit they were buying, as well as the ability the slow passage of gases through the bottle to add value through design and colour. wall. This means that a carbonated (‘fizzy’) drink will eventually go These customers welcomed the advent of a manufacturer flat over a period of time. who could give them these Multilayer technology options, plus a high level of inserts a layer of much less local technical support. “We permeable material that slows down the migration of put a big emphasis on aftergas and can extend the shelf sales support,” he says.

People employed at Ibadan life of carbonated beverages In 2009 BevPak invested in a state-of-the-art multilayer by a factor of two.

64

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BevPak

“Up to now we have been concentrating on good growth in the local market but now realise there is potential for export” Another advantage of using a multilayer bottle is that it can be made lighter, since it does not rely on the thickness of the bottle wall to hold the internal pressure. This is good news from an environmental point of view.

Since gases can also migrate inward

through single layer PET, beverages, like beer and fruit drinks, are sensitive to oxygen seeping from the atmosphere into the drink. However, a practical shelf life of six months or more can be achieved using multilayer PET bottles, comparable to the performance of glass bottles.

BevPak is an integral part of the business of its customers in many ways, beyond simply supplying them with a value-added product. The factory can produce 1.5 million preforms a day, and can supply the bottling plants at short notice so the customers do not need to store large quantities of stock.

As we have noted they can work with BevPak to create bottle shapes that will help market their products, and bottles whose performance will keep those products in ideal condition. Now it is installing a new line in the factory to make closures. Every bottle needs a cap: from early 2014 BevPak will be a one-stop shop for its customers.

That will mean expanding the workforce as well as the equipment. As the latter becomes more sophisticated, so do the skills needed to operate and maintain it. BevPak places great importance on retaining the skills it needs: “We invest time and money in training our staff,” says Syd Carter. “We do a lot of this work in-house, and augment that

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BevPak with specialist training from the equipment suppliers, either in-house or by sending staff to their premises. Finding good staff is a key aspect to a successful operation,” he adds. “We have been fortunate in being able to recruit some very able people. Low staff turnover and good training have been important factors in our success.”

Already one of the largest manufacturers of PET preforms in West Africa supplying the world’s leading brands of soft drinks and mineral water, and major bottlers throughout Nigeria, BevPak is also looking outward. It would like to become a regional player, and in preparation for that it has secured certification to the ECOWAS Trade Liberalisation Scheme (ETLS).

Once the customs unions of the 13 ECOWAS countries have completed their paperwork, BevPak customers based in those countries will be able to import their preforms and closures duty free.

“Up to now we have been concentrating on good growth in the local market but now realise there is potential for export,” Carter explains. However in the coming year thirsty Nigerians will provide plenty of opportunity to grow the business locally, and BevPak will be working closely with its customers on lightweighting, high performance, and how best to complete the transfer to the most versatile form of packaging available today.

For more information about BevPak visit: www.bevpaknigeria.com

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Wedding the and the City

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Georgiou

Swan

Elizabeth Quay is a project that will return Perth’s focus to the iconic Swan River and enhance the city’s reputation as one of the most ‘liveable’ cities in the world

written by: John O’Hanlon research by: Jeff Abbott

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Complex traffic management was required around Riverside Drive

Georgiou

T

he Perth waterfront has been an under-used asset, but now Western Australia’s capital city is finally making the most of it with the $2.6billion Elizabeth Quay project covering nearly ten hectares of prime riverfront land between Barrack and William streets in the heart of the city. The project will create a magnificent precinct featuring a newly dug 2.7 hectare inlet surrounded by a split level promenade, shops, cafés, restaurants and other exciting entertainment venues.

Additionally the project will help secure Western Australia’s social and economic future. Elizabeth Quay is providing an estimated 1,600 direct and indirect jobs for the local economy during construction and is expected to attract $2.2billion in private sector investment. Perth’s citizens and visitors will be able to enjoy the transformation by the middle of 2015. At the moment it is a work in progress, though a critical phase, the key $60 million forward works contract that was awarded by the Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority (MRA) to Georgiou Group in April 2012 is nearing completion.

The contract covered site remediation; construction of a new bus entry into the Esplanade Busport; creation of a new citybound link between the Point Lewis Rotary (under the Narrows Bridge) and William Street to provide an alternative route into the CBD from the west; and closure and full reconstruction of William Street (south of The Esplanade) as a two-way street. Once all that is complete the way will be open for the building construction and the creation of the inlet.

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Strength.

Performance.

Passion.

Holcim (Australia) Pty Ltd is a leading supplier of aggregates, concrete (readymix) and concrete pipe and products. Gosnells Quarry supplies granite to the Perth Metropolitan area for various end uses including concrete, asphalt manufacture as well as road construction.

www.holcim.com.au

Seen

Contact us today and put your company in the spotlight!

vincent@bus-ex.com

Georgiou The forward contract is Quality Traffic Management so complex that it needed a QTM is a full service business covering all aspects of traffic management solutions. Specialising in Engineering, Design, company with solid experience Electrical and Industry Training enables QTM to manage a in service relocation and project through from planning to implementation stage and realignment, something everything in between. Major WA projects include; a unique Georgiou has built up over the 3 year contract with the Fremantle Port Authority; Job decades. “Your track record sites throughout the City of Perth; Ongoing traffic solutions counts for a lot in our business,” management for the City of Stirling, Perth’s largest shire; says Tony Ricciardello, Group the City of Canning; City of Nedlands as well as managing Project Manager. However all traffic signals for the major reconstruction of the Bunbury Eelup Roundabout. QTM have also worked with no two projects are alike, Mainroads WA, delivered on-site training and assessment and apart from being a big for Rio Tinto and are currently providing their services as one even for Georgiou there part of the iconic Elizabeth Quay project. were a whole host of unique www.qtm.net.au challenges to be faced.

The biggest was the need to be working in the centre of Perth without disrupting daily life too much. “Traffic, pedestrians, cycles all circulating around us need sensitive management, and we have a dedicated relationships manager for the project to liaise with the MRA, whose job it is to communicate day to day impacts to the public.” Riverside Drive is one of Perth’s main thoroughfares.

It has traffic volumes of 35-40,000 vehicles a day so Georgiou had the task of addressing the different kinds of safety hazards faced by the public and its own employees.

Groundwater has been an ever present fact of life, he continues, since the work has been carried out so close to the river. In addition, the waterfront area is built on land reclaimed Early works on the main drain

“We located literally hundreds of unknown services, and that has been a challenge” BE Monthly | 81

Quality is Our Foundation

Geopractika Pty Limited was established in Perth, Western Australia in 2000.

As Geotechnical Contactors our services cover the Mining, Civil Engineering, Building, Industrial & the Resisdential Industries.

We focus on Foundation Engineering, Ground Support & Soil Improvement.

Geopractika Prt Limited PO Box 1362 South Perth, Western Australia 6951 Tel: (08) 9497 5637 | Fax: (08) 9498 3290 | Mob: 0411 140 160 Email: geopractika@iinet.net.au | www.geopractika.com.au

• Coastal and Marine Engineering Services • Feasibility and Master Plan Studies • Shoreline Management • Numerical Modelling • Marina Design 1 416 487-4756 ext 222 Milo Sturm, Principal. msturm@shoreplan.com www.shoreplan.com

Georgiou as long ago as the 19th century.

GEOPRACTIKA PTY LIMITED Much of the land between the A family owned and operated Australian business established with the primary objective of providing a Perth business district, and the comprehensive range of geotechnical and soil improvement Swan River shoreline has been solutions through our geotechnical contracting and reclaimed. From the 1870s consulting services to the industry throughout Australia. right up to the 1960s various The company’s international exposure and association projects have increased the with many major contractors and our involvement across a available foreshore land. Even broad spectrum of industry has provided us with a wealth the historic site of the Perth of experience in many different aspects of the very latest CBD had to be improved, as geotechnical and foundation engineering processes.

Geopractika is presently able to offer capability across the surface was a rather sandy a broad range of specialist geotechnical and foundation and marshy river terrace. techniques and prides itself on offering quality solutions to This made it unsuitable for difficult geotechnical conditions. building foundations, and the www.geopractika.co.au market gardening activities of the early settlers. Even today many buildings have below ground pumps to divert spring water.

In those days civil engineers were not so fussy about the material they used as landfill, which made assessing the existing services unpredictable. “The old records are not very reliable,” says Ricciardello. “We located literally hundreds of unknown services, and that has been a challenge.” Early in the project, Georgiou instigated a process to locate and map as many of these services as possible, using modern techniques such a ground penetrating radar, but still many pipes and conduits turned out not quite to be in the expected position. By meticulous recording and reporting Georgiou has been able to help its clients prepare a definitive map of underground networks in this part of Perth.

One of the biggest challenges and, now it is behind him, the biggest achievements of the project was the realignment of the Perth (Georgiou) Construction Manager, Tony Ricciardello on site Main Drain. This consists of two 1,950 mm

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concrete storm water pipes that discharge into the Swan River. “It actually runs through the middle of our construction site, and would have run across the proposed inlet,” he explains. “As a result it had to be realigned down the middle of an existing road, William Street, across Riverside Drive and then to the outfalls in the river.”

The reconstruction of the main drain was very much at the heart of the critical path of the project, and completing that work in August 2013 was a major milestone. It was done in

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three significant stages. The first was to take the drain from the outfall to Riverside Drive: “We needed to get that completed so we could divert Riverside Drive traffic over the completed drain.”

The next stage was crossing Riverside Drive and the third to follow the line of William Street and connect the re-routed drain to the original pipes. At this point Ricciardello had occasion to bless the original designers of the Main Drain – the twin drains made it possible to isolate one pipe at a time. “That operation to complete the connections took about three

Georgiou

Linemarker preparing major road diversion

and a half weeks. That was far and away our biggest achievement,” he says.

Georgiou will have withdrawn from the site by early November, leaving the way clear for the next contractors the Leighton Broad partnership to complete the inlet and construction work. “We have been on site for nearly 18 months,” says Tony Ricciardello with satisfaction. “It has been a significant achievement for the company, a high profile, high value project. Now we are looking forward to our next challenge!”

With a healthy order book, Georgiou’s

professionals will have no lack of work to do. But they and the subcontractors involved brought in to do specialised work like power installation, welding, fabrication and concrete forming, most of them long associated with Georgiou, will never be able to walk through the centre of Perth without thinking “I did this!”

For more information about Georgiou visit: www.georgiou.com.au

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Creating quality of life

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Ciudad Empresarial Ciudad Empresarial is the largest business park in Chile and one committed to providing an excellent quality of life for everyone

written by: Will Daynes research by: David Brogan & Milton Santander

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Ciudad Empresarial

L

ocated in La Rinconada El Salto, in the province of Huechuraba next to the new Financial District of Santiago, Ciudad Empresarial is the largest business park in Chile. “The concept for the business park came together in 1995,” explains Project Director, Benjamin Labra. “At the heart of this concept was a vision to create a neighbourhood of offices, residential space and retail services, the integration of which would become a milestone moment for Santiago and Chile as a whole.”

It is Ciudad Empresarial’s goal to be recognised as representing the best aspects of the Chilean business community and an urban icon capable of integrating infrastructure, innovation, service and natural beauty, all with the aim of being seen as a fantastic place to work and one that appeals to professional leaders and businesses from all walks of life.

To this end the business park is already well on its way to achieving its targets with more than 330,000 square metres of area built, in which 680 different companies are already taking residence there, meaning approximately 30,000 people today call the business park their working home. “Ciudad Empresarial has grown in such a successful way that it can now be considered to be the principle location for offices in Santiago,” Labra continues. “Across the complex there are currently 70 office buildings and 30 percent of the companies within them are multi-national, including the likes of Walmart, Kimberly-Clark, Xerox, Oracle and CNN Chile to name a few.”

So just what is it that has attracted such elite businesses and organisations to the

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business park? In truth it is a combination of factors and these include the fact that it offers the best price rates within the region and the excellent levels of connectivity it shares Santiago’s other important locations. The business park also take pride in its efficient modern building design, which call for a

maximum of six stories per block, its use of innovative technologies and the fact that the complex’s extensive green areas provide an ideal quality of life in a setting boasting a unique landscape.

“Historically the area around us was under developed with relatively high levels of

“A part of Ciudad Empresarial’s long-term goal for the business park has also been to ensure it possess the very best levels of connectivity with Santiago” 90 | BE Monthly

Ciudad Empresarial

poverty,” states Corporate Communications and Digital Business Manager, Oscar Lazcano.

“However, since we established operations here the area has witnessed sustained growth in terms of infrastructure and employment opportunities. We began by purchasing 50 hectares of land and in time we transformed not only this land but the face of the entire neighbourhood, turning it into one of the Chile’s most important business centres.”

It is not only businesses that are benefitting from the efforts of Ciudad Empresarial. Today there are more than 1,750 families, roughly 7,000 people, residing in the surrounding area. These families are themselves now

reaping the rewards of the positive changes occurring around them, with almost a quarter of men and women in the community currently working on this project. Other benefits on offer include improvements to the local area such as the creation and distribution of car parking areas, from which Ciudad Empresarial now provides more than 2,000 parking spaces for both residents and visitors to the complex.

A part of Ciudad Empresarial’s long-term goal for the business park has also been to ensure it possess the very best levels of connectivity with Santiago. This approach has seen it become a key participant in two major

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transportation and infrastructure projects.

“The first of these projects is the Vespucio Oriente highway concession,” Lazcano says, “the construction of which completes one of the important ring roads around Santiago. The second project is the Bicentennial Cable Car system, an undertaking deemed a project of public interest by Chile’s transportation ministry.

The system, expected to be completed in 2016,

will connect the business park to Santiago’s central business district in the municipality of Providencia in just eleven minutes, transporting up to 7,000 people per hour.”

Ciudad Empresarial’s mission from day one has been to establish itself as property managers of a business park offering the market the best choice in terms of price and quality, and one capable of meeting

“Ciudad Empresarial is a principle player within Chile and much like the real estate sector in the country we continue to experience exponential growth”

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Ciudad Empresarial

the differing needs of its customers. While customer satisfaction surveys highlight that as much as 85 percent of workers at the park are grateful to be employed there, the company continues to strive forward in making it an even better place for employees and residents.

“In 2013 we augmented three intelligent environment prototypes, the first in partnership with Endesa Group and Chilectra,” Labra highlights. “These prototypes are helping to provide technical solutions to issues such as the saving of electricity, the use of efficient illumination

and the control of camera systems, as well as delivering free Wi-Fi to the people working at the business park. Meanwhile, on the outside, we also spent last year working on a detailed reforestation project in partnership with the Environment Ministry planting some 3,500 different native and exotic species of tree in the surrounding area.”

With so much progress already made by Ciudad Empresarial it can be easy to forget that it has a lot of work left to complete on the business park and its surrounding areas. Indeed, with close to 50 percent of

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This is a caption this is a caption

Ciudad Empresarial

30,000 People employed by business based at Ciudad Empresarial

the project now complete it expects to be at work for at least another 20 years before its job here is done.

“The estimated investment for 2014 currently stands at $100 million and includes the building of four new office buildings across around 30,000 square metres of construction area,” Labra says. “Following that we will continue to look at opportunities to add both offices and further retail and commerce space for the delivery of vital services, from supermarkets to health clinics.”

“Ciudad Empresarial is a principle player within Chile and much like the real estate sector in the country we continue to experience exponential growth of our own,” Labra concludes. “This growth is also a result of the fact that more and more leaders of multi-national companies, the likes of DHL and Energizer for example, are starting to recognise and appreciate our concept and business model, and in turn they are quickly finding out that this business park represents the best place to base their operations.”

For more information about Ciudad Empresarial visit: www.ciudadempresarial.cl

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A sustainable future for Zambia 96 | BE Monthly

First Quantum Minerals: Trident project

As its landmark Sentinel copper mine moves ever closer to commissioning and start up, First Quantum Minerals Ltd is also ramping up its efforts to deliver a long lasting sustainable legacy to the people of Zambia

written by: Will Daynes research by: Richard Halfhide BE Monthly | 97

A

s is typical of First Quantum, the project is doing very well and is progressing on-time and to budget.” Those were the words of John Gladston, Trident Resource Optimisation Manager, when we spoke during the summer of last year. The project he was referring to was of course the Trident project, the largest single project investment in Zambian history.

Now with 2014 well under way I find myself receiving an update on the project from Deputy General Manager, Tristan Pascall, and the message is very much the same. “The dry season that runs from March to around November in Zambia presented us with a major opportunity to leap ahead with our activities,” he says. “Come the end of December the project was at approximately 74 percent completion and that matches up with our schedule and our budget very well.”

Located almost 150 kilometres west of Solwezi in north-west Zambia and containing five mining licences over some 950 square kilometres, the Trident project encompasses both the Sentinel low grade copper mine and the Enterprise nickel mine. The Sentinel processing facility of the former will have a target throughput rate of approximately 55 million tonnes per annum of ore at an average grade of 0.5 percent copper. It is estimated that the mine will ultimately provide an annual production rate of around 280,000 up to 300,000 tonnes of copper, with its mine life estimated to be in excess of 15 years, and with possibilities to increase with future successful brownfield exploration.

A strong year of productivity in 2013 has

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The Sentinel process plant will produce 280,000 to 300,000 tonnes of copper per annum at full capacity

First Quantum Minerals: Trident project

$6,335 Sentinel’s approximate capital cost per installed annual tonne of copper production

First Quantum has been working with the Zambian Ministry of Health to combat malaria in the communities around the Trident project

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seen the company reach a point where it has now placed some 96,500 cubic metres of concrete and put up around 9,100 tonnes of steel across the project site. At the end of December more than 13.4 million man-hours had been completed on the project, against a lost time incident (LTI) rate of 0.06.

The mining fleet at Sentinel has come along leaps and bounds in the last six to twelve months with the first truck, a 250 tonne capacity 860E Komatsu vehicle, receiving its first payload. The first 330 tonne 960E Komatsu truck was recently rolled into the completed fleet maintenance shed as well.

Similarly a Komatsu PC5500 unit, the first of three units, has been released for work and the first of three CAT/Bucyrus 7495 is close to commissioning. A number of other important parts of the fleet have and continue to be delivered on a daily base from First Quantum’s contractors and suppliers.

Meanwhile, from a construction perspective, work on Sentinel’s second two trains of 40 foot diameter by 26 foot length (28MW) SAG and 28 foot diameter by 44 foot length (22MW) ball mills continue to gather pace with the Gearless Motor Drive windings recently installed within SAG mill 2, whilst rubber lining of ball mill 1 is now underway.

First Quantum Minerals: Trident project

Minimal numbers of contractors are used at Sentinel, rather First Quantum employs skilled overseas artisans who train local staff on the job

The company has also commissioned the site’s four one megawatt power gen sets, which are now providing site reticulation of construction power. The units will also provide the permanent back up power facility for the site when Sentinel is connected to the state-owned power company ZESCO. Foundations for the first 19 towers for the 68 kilometre power line to connect Sentinel with

the main ZESCO grid at the Lumwana mine have been installed, and the line is expected to be commissioned by June 2014.

In the housing area all 600 concrete slabs have been completed for employee housing, which will be offered to local staff for purchase under an affordable mortgage scheme. More than 60 of these houses are now occupied.

In addition the team has completed roofing

“Come the end of December the project was at approximately 74 percent completion and that matches up with our schedule and our budget very well” BE Monthly | 101

“First Quantum is one of the biggest contributors to corporate social responsibility initiatives in the country” works on all 84 senior houses, and more than 30 houses and 40 singles quarters have been released for occupation “Another major step forward for the project in the last year has been the receipt of full environmental approvals for all works outstanding at the main Sentinel project,”

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Pascall states. “In particular these approvals cover the sites’ process water dam, tailing dam and various resettlement areas. This is an important step forward for the project and means we can now set our sights on achieving the same approval for the Enterprise mine.”

As Business Excellence has covered

First Quantum Minerals: Trident project

The 14km pipeline to the Chisola Dam will supply process water to the plant

previously in some detail, First Quantum has fast-established itself as a hugely important contributor to the upward social development of Zambia and one that endeavours to highlight its own commitment to sustainability through actions as well as words.

“Today 4,700 people are employed at Sentinel, 82 percent of whom are Zambian,” Pascall continues. “Of these 3,800 local staff, roughly 1,700 come from the country’s North Western Province, with around 750 from the villages that lie on our doorstep.

This underlines the impact the construction of the mine has had on local employment, while on a country-wide scale we remain one

of the biggest tax payers, paying out more than $2 billion to the Zambian government in the time that we have been here.”

In addition to tax and revenue generation First Quantum is also one of the biggest contributors to corporate social responsibility initiatives in the country, investing in excess of $20 million on various entitlement and community upliftment programmes across the area surrounding the mine. “These programmes include the rebuilding of four rural health centres, the construction of a police station for the local force, two new schools and the renovation of the District General Hospital,” Pascall says. “We

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“We feel we have the right people in place and they will continue to be supported by a fantastic Zambian workforce�

The crushed ore stockpile at Sentinel has 80,000 tonnes of live capacity and is roughly the size of Lusaka football stadium

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First Quantum Minerals: Trident project also continue to promote conservation farming and this work has seen local farmers successfully increasing their yields by up to 250 percent through better management and access to inputs such as lime and fertiliser.”

It was also during 2013, April to be exact, that First Quantum formally submitted its application for the area under construction around the mine site to be classed as a Multi-Facility Economic Zone. “In the time since then we have received some good initial The Sentinel workforce have been employed from across the country feedback from government,” including more than 1,750 from North Western Province Pascall enthuses. “While such an initiative doesn’t benefit the mine launched with the local community to directly as such, what we want it to do is protect neighbouring forests and the valuable encourage people to come in and invest in ecosystems they support. Once we begin to this region, so it is really about promoting create revenue from Sentinel we anticipate local procurement and local business that such programmes will expand further.” development. This application continues to For all of the company’s achievements in move forward and we excitedly await the 2013, 2014 is poised to be an equally, if not government’s next move.” more, momentous year for First Quantum This all plays into First Quantum’s desire to and the Trident project as the operation leave behind a long-lasting positive legacy in moves towards commissioning and start-up. the region that far exceeds its own presence Upon start up the company expects to have and that of the mine site. “Our work here the required power available from the is far from over and we have several other single circuit 330kV power line to Lumwana programmes that we are hopeful of getting which is adequate to run one of its two under way in the near future, as well as milling trains. Full power is then expected some that are in their infancy,” Pascall to be in place by the end of the year from enthuses. “Such projects include a Joint Forest a longer twin circuit 330kV power line via Management initiative that we have recently Mumbwa and that in itself will be a massive

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A view over the flotation area of the plant towards the copper concentrate building and storage shed

First Quantum Minerals: Trident project milestone for the project. The timing for full commercial production during 2015 will depend on the ramp up at Sentinel and that of the new smelter being built in Solwezi also

by First Quantum.

“We are very happy with the progress we continue to make on the project,” Pascall says. “At a forecast capital cost of $1.9 billion, Sentinel’s capital cost per installed annual tonne of copper production is approximately $6,335 and that is worldleading compared to other projects under development in the industry.”

The market has indeed responded well to the developments being made by First Quantum, particularly now that much of its key operations staff are in place, including the Mine Manager, the Engineering Manager and the Training Superintendent for the incoming mining fleet operators. “We have assembled a quality team ready to take the project into commissioning and into its first years of operations,” Pascall concludes. “We feel we have the right people in place and they of course will continue to be supported by a fantastic Zambian workforce who have consistently shown themselves to be extremely productive, motivated and a great example to the rest of the country about what can be achieved here.

We will now look to utilise this workforce as we move into a new phase of operations, one that I believe will highlight how well placed we are for the future.”

For more information about First Quantum Minerals: Trident project visit: www.first-quantum.com

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108 | BE Monthly

Atlas Copco Tanzania

First in mind and choice for Tanzania Atlas Copco is a big name with a big global reach: here we look at the mining equipment and associated support, maintenance and ancillary services it offers in Tanzania and throughout East Africa

written by: John O’Hanlon research by: Candice Nice

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Atlas Copco Tanzania

O

f all the economies in Africa that are waking up to the resources they are blessed with, Tanzania stands out for several reasons. Not least among these must be its stability. Though it has never been a rich country, since independence in 1962 it has hardly ever been in the news.

Turbulent decades have attracted the wrong type of attention to every one of Tanzania’s neighbours: cross-border conflict, inter-ethnic tension and population displacement have too frequently characterised the post colonial era. Julius Nyerere’s African Socialism may be considered a bit passé these days but there’s no denying that it spared Tanzania from problems of this sort, and that makes it one of the most attractive places in Africa to do business today.

But what are the factors that make Tanzania an attractive place for Atlas Copco to do business? The group has made a longterm commitment to this dynamic East African market. Specialising in industrial productivity equipment, Atlas Copco established a full subsidiary in Tanzania in 2007 to focus on the mining sector. The stability we have spoken about is certainly one reason for this, says Henry Ngugi, Regional General Manager for East Africa, but there are others. “Tanzania has a welldefined mining legislation, something other countries in the region are still working on.

It also has the most developed mining sector in the region, in terms of production and exploration and received the largest share of investment capital in this area: all this makes it an excellent market for our range of mining

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“Tanzania has a well-defined mining legislation, something other countries in the region are still working on” and exploration equipment, tools and after sales support.”

Atlas Copco Tanzania has signed equipment maintenance and spare parts supply contracts with many of the major players in Tanzania’s

112 | BE Monthly

mining sector, including Africa Barrick Gold and Capital Drilling the drilling contractor for AngloGold Ashanti’s Geita Mine. Indeed most of the exploration companies in Tanzania are using Atlas Copco equipment

Atlas Copco Tanzania

and consumables. Gold mining always seems to hold its place as the most sexy sector, nevertheless with prices currently well below $1,250 and showing no immediate sign of rallying this is an industry under pressure, if not yet in crisis. But Henry Ngugi is undismayed: “Our activities in Tanzania are today focused on supporting gold mining players. Of course our customers are under pressure to operate and produce at a lower cost in order to stay in business; so our strategy has been to help them to reduce their operating costs. Several new projects have

been put on hold, so we have had to focus on keeping our existing client base satisfied, and tried to grow the consumables, spare parts and skilled labour segments of our business.”

It is one of the advantages of being part of a group that has international clout and deep pockets – Atlas Copco is always prepared to invest in locations and segments that position it to serve its customers in the best way possible, he says.

Of course mining in Tanzania is not all about gold. It involves a rich mix of minerals, and that is one of the sector’s strengths. If the

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Atlas Copco Tanzania most important commodities in the African context can be said to comprise platinum group metals, coal, gold, iron ore, diamond, copper, manganese ore and mineral sands, Tanzania has them all and can add its diamonds, tanzanite and other precious stones, rare earths, potash and a number of niche minerals. “In the short and mid term I think the greatest opportunities within Tanzania itself will be in gold, copper, coal, nickel, iron ore, titanium and vanadium, but definitely not limited to these!

If I can extend my comments to Eastern Africa, we also see promising development in coal, copper, nickel, potash mining in emerging mining markets such as Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan and Kenya.” he adds. “In a broader sense Oil & Gas is a new segment in the region, particularly in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.”

High enthusiasm for Tanzania, where he is now based, is palpable. Henry Ngugi has amassed unrivalled experience since he joined the company in Kenya 20 years ago.

That subsidiary was established as long ago as 1938, to service Kenya’s more advanced industrial sector but though its presence in Tanzania dates back only to 2003, with full local incorporation in 2007, the fact that he has led regional mining operations from his office in Dar es Salaam for the last five years reflects Tanzania’s rapid growth to its current

status as East Africa’s mining ‘tiger’. “Tanzania is already the largest mining economy in the region and the situation is changing all the time. Early development of the sector was mainly in the Lake Victoria region which is why we placed our warehouse facility and maintenance workshops in Mwanza to service the mines around Kahama, Mwanza, Geita, and the Mara region near the Kenyan border.

But now we see mine companies opening up in the south near Songea, Mbeya and towards the Malawi and Zambia borders.”

Tanzania has resources in every district, but the biggest challenge to developing them remains very poor road, rail and communications networks, not to mention unreliable or nonexistent electricity supplies to some of the areas. Mining companies can

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Atlas Copco Tanzania overcome the last two of these with satellite connectivity and diesel power, but the need to get equipment in and ore out can only be served by good infrastructure, and the investment for this is lagging.

Nevertheless, Atlas Copco is 140 years old, and a pioneer in development of mining equipment, with access to very technically skilled people of different nationalities and it is used to supporting its clients wherever they are. “We believe we are a customer focused organisation,” says Henry Ngugi.

“Since mining companies are becoming more focused on productivity and more cost conscious, we need to focus on increasing our customers’ long term productivity. All our actions are geared in this direction and it resonate well with them. Within our global organisation we have a culture that has evolved over the years and now unites us, and enables us to work towards a common aim: ‘To be first in mind and first in choice, for our customers, by delivering sustainable productivity in whatever we do’.”

The company’s 120 employees are well grounded in this philosophy, which embraces the concept of continuous improvement, he concludes. “We believe that there is always a better way of doing things. We believe every single employee has the capability to contribute to the growth of their business unit by continually improving the processes for which they are responsible.”

For more information about Atlas Copco Tanzania visit: www.tz.atlascopco.com

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SGS/AAL Tanzania

Analysis for Africa The world’s most trusted partner for mineral analysis, SGS is well rooted in Africa and is preparing to support Tanzania’s burgeoning resources sector through the state of the art facilities of its regional subsidiary African Assay Laboratories

written by: John O’Hanlon research by: Candice Nice

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I

t is no exaggeration to say that the future of African economic development, in the near to mid term at least, is inextricably linked with its mineral resources. It is these that will provide the capital that can be re-invested in building a sustainable business infrastructure whether in manufacturing, services or technology and innovation.

Currently, the most important commodities in the African context are platinum group metals, coal, gold, iron ore, diamond, copper, manganese ore and mineral sands, and in Tanzania one could add its diamonds and other precious stones, rare earths, phosphate and a number of niche minerals.

For each and every one of these commodities, sampling is required at all stages in the value chain from exploration, through face sampling, blast-hole sampling and in-mine grade control, ore processing and handling, metallurgical sub-sampling, sub-sampling in the laboratory – and finally quality control and standards used in the analyses of the final samples.

Best practice at each of these stages is required to maintain value. Exploration and development companies have their own procedures based upon operational experience informed either by sampling theory, or for commodities like iron ore, nonferrous metals, sulphide concentrates and coal, by procedures based upon ISO standards.

Nevertheless over the years a number of codes have been introduced to ensure adherence to good sampling and analytical practice.

For mineral resource and reserve estimates the South African Code for reporting of Mineral Resources and Reserves (SAMREC),

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SGS/AAL Tanzania

Chemist determining trace metals in water

presents guidelines for sampling governance that have been a reference for other African nations in developing their own regulations.

In 2003 AMIRA (an independent association of minerals companies which develops, brokers and facilitates collaborative research projects) initiated its P754 research project: Improving Metal Accounting. As a result of global research work, the Code for Metal Accounting was published in its current version in 2007. This was sponsored by international mining companies and covered metal accounting from ore deliveries to final product. This Code has been adopted by several companies and used as a basis for auditing metallurgical operations.

With regard to quality control and accreditation, one requirement is the use of certified reference materials to ensure that the final analyses are accurate and have an acceptable level of precision. In the wake of various financial scams, the so-called Sarbanes Oxley legislation was passed in the USA requiring publicly listed companies to be transparent in reporting factors impacting on their financial statements and this includes year-end stocks. This requires reporting of these stocks within a Confidence Interval, which, in turn necessitates estimates of the uncertainties in sampling, mass measurement

and analysis of these stocks.

So best practice in sampling and the availability of laboratories that are internationally accredited are essential to the mining industry. This is where SGS Tanzania comes in, as a part of the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company. The Swiss based company Société Générale de Surveillance was established in 1878 and today is recognised

“best practice in sampling and the availability of laboratories that are internationally accredited are essential to the mining industry” 122 | BE Monthly

SGS/AAL Tanzania

Chemist on ICP OES for determination of base metals in rocks & soils

as the global benchmark for sector in Tanzania and the quality and integrity, with surrounding East and Central more than 75,000 employees Africa neighbours, was opened in Mwanza in 1997. and a network of more than 1,500 offices and laboratories It offers geochemical analysis SGS/AAL employees around the world. to meet mineral testing needs in Tanzania SGS was incorporated in in Tanzania. Since then SGS Tanzania 50 years ago. It is the has also established dedicated country’s leading inspection, onsite laboratory operations verification, testing and certification company for Tanzania’s Golden Pride mine, Geita gold with more than 300 permanent employees mine, Bulyanhulu gold mine, Tulawaka mine, operating in Dar Es Salaam, Tanga, Mtwara, North Mara mine, and more recently the Mwanza, and at mine-sites spread throughout Buzwagi gold mine. Analysis of drill samples the Lake-Zone area, and any other location and geochemical data is now all carried out where need arises. at the Mwanza laboratory.

SGS Minerals Services’ laboratory, today This type of testing is essential for the trading as African Assay Laboratories (AAL), commercial success of any project, and a key a spin-off company that serves the mining element of the ongoing assessment that is

500

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required right through from pre-feasibility to quality control in production. It is the basis for operational decisions, and also for investors and potential investors, so its importance cannot be exaggerated. However these days investors don’t just need to satisfy themselves as to the financial viability of the project – they need to be reassured as to the environmental and social compliance

that Tanzania insists on. In 2003, SGS also set up an environmental testing laboratory in Mwanza, supporting its clients by testing the quality of water and effluents they release in the surrounding environment.

As far as Tanzania is concerned mining companies’ environmental departments are responsible for the mines complying with the requirements of The National Environment

“Tanzania’s Oil and Gas sector will expand rapidly, opening up the possibility for SGS to bring in its upstream and industrial services into the country”

Analysts at work

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Chemist on AAS for determination of precious and base metals

Management Council (NEMC) , which came into being in 1983. NEMC was established with a broad mandate in response to the national need to oversee environmental management issues and also implement the resolutions of the 1972 Stockholm conference, which called upon all nations to establish and strengthen national environmental councils to advise governments and the international community on environmental issues.

Tanzania’s mining regulatory framework was updated in a new mining code in 2010 that aimed to maximise the retention of value

from mineral exploitation within Tanzania.

“We still see the regulatory framework as stable, although investors will have to see the government’s point of view and work with it,” says SGS Regional Managing Director for East Africa Samuel ‘Kiki’ Gyan.

The Mwanza facility is ISO/IEC 10725 accredited. It has access to the SGS global laboratory network that provides first-class geochemical analysis, including ICP-AES analysis, to mining and exploration companies throughout Africa and around the world, and uses the same global testing methods,

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Technician on fire assay fusion furnace for the determination of precious metals

SGS/AAL Tanzania analytical codes, and sampling preparation techniques. AAL employs two thirds of the 500 trained staff that work for SGS in Tanzania.

It is an asset of which Gyan is very proud: “We can offer our clients a really broad suite of analytical techniques including inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES),” he says. Among the standard on-site analytical capabilities is sample preparation (all samples are reduced to pulp for ease of transportation). Of particular relevance to the gold mining sector are fire-assay (considered the most definitive technique for gold analysis), acid digestion, accelerated cyanide leach and cyanide BLEG leach analyses.

During the course of 2014, faced with a slowdown in the rate of new mine start-ups since 2009, the situation will continue to be challenging, but Tanzania is one of the East African countries with the greatest growth potential, Kiki Gyan believes. “Tanzania’s economy has been expanding at a rate of six to seven percent over the last couple of years and even at its depth the global financial crisis only reduced growth to five percent. The Oil and Gas sector – already serviced by one of our business units – will expand rapidly, opening up the possibility for SGS to bring in its upstream and industrial services into the country. These factors provide a healthy economic outlook for the country and therefore Tanzania sits well with our overall strategy.”

For more information about SGS/AAL Tanzania visit: www.tz.sgs.com

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Exxaro Resources

Opening new possibilities A world-class commodity portfolio that has been developed with sustainability at the forefront of every decision

written by: Will Daynes research by: Candice Nice & Robert Hodgson

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Exxaro Resources

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uilding upon a pedigree and wealth of skills that stretch back decades, Exxaro Resources may be a relatively young business, but it has already solidified itself as one of South Africa’s largest diversified resources groups. Boasting interests in coal, mineral sands, ferrous and energy commodities, it is the country’s second largest coal producer with current production levels reaching 47 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).

Exxaro’s diverse commodity portfolio helped the company record assets of R37 billion and a market capitalisation of R60 billion as of the end of 2011.

Exxaro’s eight managed coal mines produce power station, steam and coking coal, as well as char. The company is the largest supplier of power station coal to South Africa’s national power utility, Eskom.

Exxaro’s Grootegeluk mine is one of the mostefficient mining operations in the world, and operates the world’s largest coal beneficiation complex, where 9,000 tonnes per hour of run-of-mine coal is upgraded in six different plants. Situated 25 kilometres from Lephalale in South Africa’s Limpopo province, this open-pit mine has an estimated minable coal reserve of 2,800 metric tonnes and a total measured coal resource of 4,600 tonnes , from which semi-soft coking coal, thermal coal and metallurgical coal can be produced.

Some 14.8 metric tonnes of annual production is power station coal, transported directly to Eskom’s Matimba power station on a seven kilometre conveyor belt. Grootegeluk also produces 2.5Mtpa of semi-soft coking coal, the bulk of which is railed directly to

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The missing piece in your project Stefanutti Stocks

- a multidisciplinary construction group with a footprint in South Africa, Africa and the Middle East - proudly associated with a variety of Exxaro’s projects.

We undertake projects in the following industries: building, environmental, heavy industrial, marine, mining infrastructure, petrochemical, power, telecommunications, transport nodes, transport infrastructure, water and waste water treatment.

Exxaro Resources Mittal SA under a long-term supply agreement.

Such are the demands for power in South Africa, however, that Grootegeluk’s capacity is being doubled in order to supply Eskom’s new Medupi power station. The $1.3 billion Grootegeluk Medupi Expansion Project (GMEP) will increase throughput to 14,000 tonnes per hour, and supply Medupi with 14.6Mtpa of coal for 40 years.

Since its formation as South Africa’s largest BEE-empowered diversified resources company in November 2006, Exxaro has built itself upon a brand promise, which is “Everything we do and deliver today will allow others to realise their vision

STEFANUTTI STOCKS Multidisciplinary Stefanutti Stocks is a leading South African construction group with the capacity to deliver a range of projects of any scale to a multitude of clients in diverse markets. The group operates across South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East and has been successful in strategically positioning itself across many industries with its portfolio of both conventional and niche skills.

The group operates through its business units of Building; Mechanical & Electrical; Power; Roads, Pipelines & Mining Services and Structures. It is one of the few construction companies in Africa that can offer clients a full range of services, including a single point of responsibility on multidisciplinary projects.

Mining capabilities Stefanutti Stocks’ divisions boasts a wealth of experience and expertise in the design and construction of mining infrastructure as

well as the provision of professional services in the fields of open cast contract mining, bulk material handling and waste residue disposal and recovery facilities. It offers mining clients geotechnical and piling, infrastructure earthworks, water treatment plants, road rehabilitation and surfacing, a broad spectrum of civil construction, mechanical & piping and electrical & instrumentation supply, installation and commissioning.

Stefanutti Stocks has undertaken a variety of projects for Exxaro, ranging from the construction of the largest coalbunkers in the southern hemisphere; to structural steel work, piping, wet services and mechanical installations of a blending and load-out SMPP, through to the construction of numerous major housing contracts. www.stefanuttistocks.com

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Seen

Contact us today and put your company in the spotlight!

vincent@bus-ex.com

Exxaro Resources tomorrow�. It is this promise that the company states has Trollope Mining Services (2000) (Pty) Ltd is a Level 4 influenced its drive towards BBBEE rated company providing the services of opencast sustainable development. mining, crushing, screening and rehabilitation. Established For Exxaro, sustainability in 1975 the company boasts a substantial fleet of is about securing the future. equipment and has enjoyed a sound working relationship Our aim is to harmonise with several well-known companies over the last three decades, including Xstrata, Exxaro, Continental Coal, Sumo business, community and Coal & Anglo American. env i ron menta l needs www.tmsgroup.co.za and obligations to enable Exxaro to achieve its founding goal of being a company that makes a positive social and economic contribution to South Africa.

One of the ways it is achieving this goal is through the development of its employees and stakeholders. The company’s approach to its people is guided by a comprehensive suite of policies covering employment, labour/management relations, occupational health and safety, training and education, diversity and equal opportunity.

Supported by the leading practices developed in recent years, Exxaro concentrates on exceeding compliance targets in South Africa by training and development to maximise individual potential, equality and safety in the workplace, meeting its employment equity targets and improving standards of living in its stakeholder

trollope mining services

2006 The year Exxaro was formed

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A global leader in the steel and mining industries

VR Steel is committed to excellent customer service through research and continuous product improvement.

John van Reenen (South Africa) | Tel: +27 11 864 7630 | Email: johnvreenen@icon.co.za Head Office Tel: +27 11 86 4 7630 | Fax: +27 11 864 7629

www.vrsteel.co.za

Exxaro Resources communities. Collectively, its initiatives are also contributing to reducing the shortage of skills in the industry.

Through its human resource development policy, Exxaro aims to develop and sustain core competencies and maximise human resources to meet the group’s strategic objectives and improve operational performance, while also creating a learning culture by assisting and facilitating the process in which employees and their dependants take responsibility for improving their own educational and competency levels. Further aims include ensuring the integration and uniformity in all learning and development processes by

VR STEEL Rope Shovels have overhauled large surface mining operations around the world. These colossal machines are the preferred choice for any world-class mine. Van Reenen Steel is the official agent for Taiyuan Heavy Industry (TZ) in Africa.

The Grootegeluk Medupi Expansion Project (GMEP) necessitated two additional rope shovels, with more to follow in the coming years. Two WK-35 series rope shovels were delivered to Exxaro Resources, Grootegeluk coal mine in July 2012. The shovels took 3 months to build on site, and went into service at the end of that year. These shovels, which have 44 mÂł coal dippers, are the first TZ shovels to be delivered in Africa.

Sifiso Magagula the, Director of V R Mining Products, says that the skills being transferred from China will not only be

beneficial for the workers at Exxarro but also local artisans that are part of the maintenance team.

VR Steel recently broke into the North American market by delivering its first U.S manufactured dragline bucket to Three Oaks Mine in Texas. This bucket, which weighs 136,400 pounds, was shipped from Conroe, Texas, where it was built by local fabricators.

Lauded for its innovative haul truck body design, VR Steel has delivered two of its biggest truck bodies, with 360 ton carrying capacity to Swakop Uranium mine in Namibia.

Further delivery of truckbodies and buckets are expected to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first quarter of 2014, and to a number of other Southern African mines. www.vrsteel.co.za

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Exxaro Resources leveraging technologies, African Reptiles & Venom supporting and reinforcing African Reptiles & Venom was founded in 1999, by lifelong its values through learning snake enthusiast Mike Perry, to supply snake venom for initiatives, making sure that antivenom manufacture. These antivenoms are suitable these are career-focused for treatment of snakebite in Sub-Sahara Africa. and aligned with business The main business of the company today comes from objectives, and establishing provide a Snake ID & Snakebite Treatment course. The course covers the recognition of dangerous snakes, the life-long learning as the different venoms & symptoms of snakebite, the correct major thrust of learning first aid treatment, the medical treatment and finally the and development. recognition of allergies and their treatment. A venomous While its portfolio in coal, snake handling course is offered as well. mineral sands, base metals Approximately 5,500 people have been trained by Mike, with and ferroalloys has been well nobody being bitten by a snake during 12 years of courses. documented, Exxaro has also www.africanreptiles-venom.co.za recently been increasing its exposure to iron ore through its interest in Sishen Iron Ore Company and its acquisition of African Iron in early 2012. Since assuming direct management and operational control of African Iron the company has completed a broad financial, technical and operational review of its projects in the Republic of Congo, one of the major ones being the Mayoko iron ore project.

Early findings from the project at Mayoko indicate that this mine has significant potential in terms of resource quality and size, with much of the groundwork for this near-term development opportunity in an emerging iron ore province already completed by African

“Exxaro Resources may be a relatively young business, but it has already solidified itself as one of South Africa’s largest diversified resources groups�

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Bonec Lubrication Equipment Suppliers of specialized greases, gear lubricants, hydraulic fluids, metal working fluids, automotive lubricants, environmental control products as well as lubrication systems for various applications in all industries.

With a wide range of products and our drive for customer satisfaction and after installation support services we can be your solution to any crisis.

Supplying from environmental control and cleaning agents for industrial use to Earthmoving Wearparts. www.bonec-le.co.za

Exxaro Resources Iron. The project currently has a JORC -compliant mineral resource of 685 metric tonnes of iron ore, consisting of a hematite cap of direct shipping ore (DSO) at 55 percent Fe and beneficial DSO ore at 41 percent Fe. With a revised exploration programme and accelerated drilling, production began in 2013. This has already begun to be an economic boost for the small village of Mayoko and the broader region, from which much of the required labour will be drawn.

Exxaro is also currently investigating additional regional potential in terms of size and quality, with exploration drilling under way at Ngoubou-Ngoubou, adjacent to Mayoko, Mt Lekoumou and Mt Mipoundi.

BONEC LUBRICATION EQUIPMENT Bonec Lubrication Equipment is based in South Africa in the Limpopo Region. Through the years we have become specialized in using a wide range of products and equipment.

The first range of specialities lay in the use of automatic lubrication systems. We meet the needs of our customers by installing and maintaining all types of lubrication systems, including Single Line, Dual Line and Progressive Systems. Our second range of specialities come in the form of G.E.T ‘s, ground engaging tools, which we supply and manufacture for use alongside all earthmoving equipment.

The third range of specialities rest in the use of high quality lubrication equipment and products, from foot pumps to air operated double diaphragm pumps, measuring from 1/4” up to 3” .We also handle all types of grease

pumps, including hand pumps, pneumatic pumps, hydraulic grease pumps and electric grease pumps. Bonec also specializes in the use of a Heavy Equipment Vision solution camera system. We have a massive range of products and the best thing about them is the warranty. We don’t repair them, we replace them immediately, and there is a ten year warranty on the cameras and five year warranty on the monitors. Bonec also supplies many of the sectors’ leading environmental products like Absorbent, Hydro Carbon spill kits and much more. Bonec are proud suppliers of Carl Bechem Africa. Together we supply one of the best grease products and have a huge range of greases for every application available, as well as a wide range of oils. www.bonec-le.co.za

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Exxaro Resources

R60 Billion Exxaro’s market capitalisation as of the end of 2011 Prospects for iron ore from this region are promising and the shortfall in lump ore production, due to growing production from Brazil and India, means production of pellets could double by 2021. For Exxaro, unlocking the full potential of this opportunity will require an intense focus on capital intensity to move Mayoko further down the US dollar per tonne scale, where it is already positioned in the lower half.

Exxaro has proven already time and again in South Africa that it has the expertise and experience to develop a large scale mining project from conceptual phase to production.

The company’s track record showcases its extensive engineering capabilities in design, operational expertise, maintenance and project management, as well as its experience with bulk mining, opencast and underground operations, beneficiation and downstream processing and value-added products. It is characteristics like these that leave little doubt that the future of the Mayoko mine, and other projects yet to come, is in good hands.

For more information about Exxaro Resources visit: www.exxaro.com

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ATS Group

Mining marches on its stomach Allterrain Services (ATS) Group is a facility management company but that statement tells only half the story, if that: this is a company that fills its niche as a hand fills a glove – it has grown into its market and is identified with it

written by: John O’Hanlon research by: Richard Halfhide

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ATS Group

A

TS started life in 1996 by plugging a hole in the market.

A Canadian minerals company working in Ghana and other African countries found it impossible to get the support it needed at its remote sites – like an army, an exploration company marches on its stomach. It hired an experienced facilities manager Jez Simms to meet its immediate needs, with such success that the unit quickly grew into an entity in its own right, taking its first outside contract in 1997.

Next came a merger with Oasis Management also founded in 1997 as a hospitality company

by Sanjay Narain and Martin Ryan which resulted in ATS Group being spun out as an independent company in 1998 under the management of its founders who are all still actively involved in the company.

Sanjay Narain is the CEO of the group and his vision has driven every stage of its development to a point where it has a presence in 14 African countries and more than 4,000 employees. “It has been a story of steady growth,” he says. “We have partnered with most of the big names as well as with junior mining companies on their projects, and in the last three years we have made significant inroads into the oil and gas sector.” Wherever there is a company that needs to outsource its non-core business ATS is ready to step in. Mineral production and exploration are highly specialised: so is feeding the workforce.

ATS started as a foodservice organisation but quickly grew to provide other equally important facilities from accommodation management to leisure facilities management - even swimming pools. Non-food activities

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now account for 40 percent of its turnover.

Every project starts with a small camp for a short term drilling campaign, but as we have frequently seen this can end up five or ten years later with a mine in production – employing many people and with a lot of infrastructure needed to support it. At one end ATS offers a simple deal whereby it supplies catering and perhaps staff for specific jobs like gardening or housekeeping. Year later it provides a complete service, operating the entire camp, maintaining buildings and infrastructure and effectively outsourcing all non-core activities for the customer.

This approach is at the heart of ATS’s Customers for Life approach. It has contracts today that date back to 1999 and has a client list that looks like a directory of Africa’s mining and O&G players. Majors such as AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick, First Quantum, Newmont; O&G sector specialists like Tullow Oil, ENI, Baker Hughes and British Gas; growing companies like Shanta Gold, Endeavour Mining and Newcrest; and service providers such as Lycopodium, Schlumberger, DRA and Geodrill: all these and many more place their trust in ATS for the very good reason that it allows them to outsource essential but noncore aspects of their business.

Global facilities management companies are waking up to the opportunities that Africa presents, Narain admits, but their origins are

in New York or London, a far cry from the untouched parts of Africa. “A few years ago there were only a couple of people tendering on jobs now it can be nine or ten,” says Narain.

“But we welcome this because it confirms that our market is becoming established.” His USP is the way ATS understands the challenges, having operated in DRC, Côte d’Ivoire and other countries through troubled times. It understands how to work at a distance from urban centres: its longest current supply route is in Liberia, a 15-hour journey from

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ATS Group

Dining mess ready for service

Monrovia! “When a project Takoradi. “Our market is subSaharan Africa,” he says. starts we are among the first people to get to the site, In 2014 he would like to see the work he does in East well before any construction starts, so we will normally be Africa expanding. Kenya, ATS employees in Africa on site with the security crew, where the company opened working out of tents without last year, has many openings, and Tanzania is poised to hit any facilities in place.”

Mining is the client base ATS really the big time in both minerals and offshore understands, and there’s plenty of room for gas, and ATS is already working with Shanta growth within that sector, confirms Narain, Gold and, with British Gas, at the southern oil though its skills are applicable in many other port of Mtwara. It has also just commenced its sectors. The company is putting a lot of first significant contract in Mozambique. “We effort into developing O&G clients, whether are also looking forward to getting back into the work onshore or in the waters off West Nigeria,” he says. The government there has and East Africa: in these cases it handles the focused all its attention on oil and neglected operational bases of the companies working the mineral wealth in this huge country, but at sea – for example at Ghana’s oil port that will change over the coming five years.

4,000

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“Every time we involve a local business in food distribution it creates three or four jobs” With a new partner in place, he hopes to set up a subsidiary in the course of 2014.

ATS’s modus operandi is to select a strong and engaged local partner in any country it enters, retaining a significant shareholding up to 50 percent. The model of partnership is at the heart of the ethos of this business, and that is why it places a huge emphasis on its community engagement.

Social responsibility runs in ATS’s veins – it depends on local suppliers and needs them to succeed. That is why it looks on them as

150 | BE Monthly

a part of its own business. “CSR is one of the mining industry’s highest priorities, and we can be right at the centre of the client’s strategy,” declares Sanjay Narain.

ATS has a policy of local sourcing, and it uses a lot of food, 22 percent of which is bought from the community around the site – a spend it estimates at $6 million a year. That in itself creates jobs, and as 90 percent of its direct employees come from the same community, the positive impact is huge. Whereas an NGO might fund a tomato

ATS Group

Community development

growing programme, ATS provides a market on the grower’s doorstep, and compels him to meet the highest food production standards – this is a challenge at first but in the end creates a sustainable business that can go on to sell its products in other local and even international markets.

“Every time we involve a local business in food distribution it creates three or four jobs,” Narain points out. A good example is Nana Bra’s mushroom farm close to Gold Fields’ Damang mine in Ghana. This business is the sole supplier of mushrooms to ATS in Ghana, with production of more than 2,000 bags per season. “We have community engagement officers looking for partners that have the entrepreneurial spark! We provide the market, training in best practice, financial advice and

the like. Some of these projects start with a turnover of a few hundred dollars but grow into $150,000 businesses over time.”

This is happening across Africa wherever ATS is present. In Zambia, for example, James Bright Mubanga started out by supplying 2,000 doughnuts a week from his premises, a thatched hut. Now with ATS support his business is in a modern building with the capacity to produce and supply 10,000 doughnuts to ATS per week. Not only was Mr. Mubanga able to employ twelve young people from surrounding communities, who earn their livelihood from this business, but he’s now planning to extend production to other bakery products.

Last year Barrick awarded ATS a worldwide award for its community

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Electrical maintenance

ATS Group projects in Zambia where ATS Zambia is contracted at its Lumwana mine to provide industrial catering, events coordination, housekeeping, landscaping, accommodation management and facilities maintenance. Of 438 employees in Zambia 95 percent are Zambian nationals, says Narain.

Many of these will be new to the food industry, unfamiliar with sophisticated kitchen equipment let alone international standards of health, safety and hygiene. ATS is accredited to ISO 22000:2005 standard and was the first African catering company to gain ISO 22000:2005 certification, which ensures traceability in the foodchain. In 2013, ATS achieved OHSAS 18001 certification for its maintenace operations in Ghana.

ATS was the first Catering company in East, Central and West Africa to gain HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) certification in 2008. To reach and maintain these standards involves a great deal of training not only of ATS staff but of vendors as well. When it sets up a new project, of any scale, the company will hire or build a facility and set up a training school. “We have a whole range of training programmes, using the latest interactive video and DVD materials.”

Sanjay Narain says. This is managed through the Group’s long term subsidiary Oasis Management, which specialises in training and compliance.

For more information about ATS Group visit: www.atsgroup.net

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Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics

Delivering data from the air With its pilots at the controls of its reliable, robust fleet of aircraft, Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics is using industry leading technology to deliver geoscientific solutions to clients across Africa

written by: Will Daynes research by: James Boyle

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I

n a little over ten years, South Africa based airborne geophysical company, Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics has successfully collected over three million line kilometres of low level data for its client base of major mining companies and junior exploration businesses. Specialising in ultra-high resolution and standard airborne surveys, utilising gradient magnetics and radiometrics, time-domain electromagnetics and gravimetry, Xcaliber’s fleet of robust turbine Air Tractors, BN-2T turbine Islanders, Jet Rangers and Eurocopters have since been operational throughout the African continent.

“Since its formation in 2002,” explains Chief Geophysicist, Tiaan Le Roux, “the company has grown from a small team of about four or five people to one that today employs just under 20 individuals, including geophysicists, data processors, engineers, pilots, field operators, and support personnel.”

Originally founded by Billy Steenkamp, Xcalibur today possesses a team who collectively offer more than 100 years of managerial and practical experience in fields including exploration geophysics, aviation, business management, electronic engineering, and airborne survey operations.

The company’s pilots are some of the most experienced in their field, amassing thousands of flying hours between them.

The aforementioned fleet of aircraft at these pilots’ disposal are unique in that they enable Xcalibur to collect data at the lowest ground clearance that is possible within operational safety constraints, typically between 20 and 40 metres. Flying at such altitudes provides for better spatial resolution

156 | BE Monthly

Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics

and data signal-to-noise ratios, thus resulting in significantly more detailed information for kimberlite detection, base and precious metal exploration, litho-structural mapping and environmental or mine planning applications.

“We recognise the fact that we are very much a company delivering a niche service, and what we take great pride in

is delivering excellent quality products in the most cost efficient way possible,” Le Roux continues. “The technologies that we employ are among the most advanced and modern of their kind and are mounted on airborne platforms that are really robust and conditioned for use in Africa. These aircraft are characterised

“Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics has successfully collected over three million line kilometres of low level data for its client base”

Hi-Res Fixed-Wing Surveys

158 | BE Monthly

Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics

Hi-Res Helicopter Surveys

by their endurance and low data quality is maintained. maintenance costs, which High sensitivity wingtip helps drive our costs down. mounted or boom mounted Ultimately we pass these magnetometer sensors and state of the art multi-crystal savings onto our clients The year Xcalibur together with quality data.” pack spectrometers are used Airborne Geophysics The airborne platforms to measure exceptionally was established small variations in horizontal that Le Roux speaks of are magnetic gradients and equipped with state of the art navigational, positioning natural radioactive emissions.

Xcalibur’s geophysical ser vices, and geophysical equipment. The Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) allows individually trademarked as the Xtract, the for accurate positioning of better than one Xgrad and the Xgrav Systems, are further metre, while the navigational system allows boosted by the company’s value add data for accurate dynamic navigation along pre- processing and interpretation Xval service. determined flight paths, which will ensure that “This particular service aims to offer

2002

BE Monthly | 159

“Xcalibur’s technology and efficient services have consistently produced first class results time and again” our clients a more complete package of services,” Le Roux states. “Rather than simply acquiring the data and passing it back to our clients, our own extensive geophysical and geological experience means we can offer consultancy services that cover a wide range of methodologies and applications with the

160 | BE Monthly

view to properly integrate the information we collect with other geoscientific data.”

Xcalibur’s technology and efficient services have consistently produced first class results time and again. It is this level of consistency that has seen the company being awarded numerous projects by a wide range of major

Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics

mining and exploration companies, junior and government organisations. Such projects have allowed Xcalibur to prosper where others have struggled during the recent difficult times for the mining community.

In the coming months Xcalibur will be moving forward with the introduction of its newest solution, the XtractEM System.

“There is a strong demand in the market today for combined high resolution magnetics and electromagnetics,” Le Roux says. “The reason for this is that some of the targets of our airborne applications only have very subtle magnetic signatures. By acquiring electromagnetic data, in addition to

magnetics and radiometrics, one can often not only confirm these targets, but also better delineate and characterise them, which gives clients the confidence needed to follow up and drill these prospects.”

While completing and testing the new XtractEM System, Xcalibur will continue to build upon its growing reputation for delivering first class results and services to its clients.

For more information about Xcalibur Airborne Geophysics visit: www.xagsa.com

BE Monthly | 161

162 | BE Monthly

Anglo American: Los Bronces

Champions of Chile’s copper The Los Bronces mine in the Chilean Andes is continuing along a path to becoming the fifth largest copper mine in the world and one with several decades of productivity still ahead of it

written by: Will Daynes research by: Candice Nice & Robert Hodgson

BE Monthly | 163

A

pproximately 65 kilometres away from Santiago, in the Metropolitan Region, and 3,500 metres above sea level, one will find the Los Bronces division of Anglo American. Managed by a team of executives, the head of which is General Manager, Christian Thiele, the Los Bronces division boasts a workforce of more than 1,700 people, including company employees and operation and project contractors. Collectively they are responsible for implementing the Los Bronces Development Project, the objective of which is to boost the mine’s production capacity.

An open-cut copper and molybdenum mine, Los Bronces produced 221,762 tonnes of fine copper in 2011, including high-purity cathodes and copper concentrate, as well as 948 tonnes of molybdenum concentrate. The ore extracted from the mine is crushed and transported down a 56 kilometre long ore slurry pipeline to the Las Tórtolas flotation plant, where copper and molybdenum concentrates are produced.

In November 2007 the board approved an expansion plan aimed at increasing the mine’s annual copper output by some 278,000 tonnes in its first three years and by around 200,000 in the first ten years. Construction of the project started up in 2007 and includes the introduction of new grinding facilities in the Confluencia sector, a flotation plant at Las Tórtolas in Colina, and new piping and pumping stations. Molybdenum output is expected to rise to some 5,400 tonnes annually.

With a total start up capex of $2.8 billion, the project produced its first concentrate in November 2011.

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Confluencia from above

Anglo American: Los Bronces

Anglo American: Los Bronces An environmental impact Production at Los Bronces study for the project, carried is fairly traditional, being as out in 2006, was also given it is an open-pit mine where formal approval by Chile’s ore is transported by truck National Environmental to a bank of two crushers Agency (CONAMA) in 2007. and later by conveyer to The study itself considered grinding facilities, for a the use of areas intervened total processing capacity of to date and will therefore not 148,000 tonnes per day. The affect other environmental mine’s SAG mill uses modern assets. Most of the additional gearless drive technology, water will come from Inspecting the copper sheets where the axis of the mill greater recirculation from is mounted with induction the Las Tórtolas tailings dam to the mine. windings and becomes the motor drive rotor, The quantity of fresh water used per tonne while the grinders bristle with sensors and of copper produced will therefore drop by circuits to control speed, flow and lubrication. around 40 percent.

At its peak of output, Los Bronces will

ENAEX Working as a Team With a history of 92 years operating in the market and more than 25 years supplying and providing services to Anglo American, Enaex is the leader of integral rock fragmentation services and ammonium nitrate production in Chile. The company is also present in more than 40 countries, supplying explosives and ammonium nitrate. Thanks to the teamwork between Anglo American and Enaex, various successful initiatives have been carried out in the Los Bronces division, such as Hidrex®, a variable density product that is specially designed to be used in controlled blasting, and wall control. The Milodón®, explosives mixer truck will also soon start operating in the same company division. This truck is the largest of its

kind in the world, with capacity for 30 tons in situ. Milodón® represents significant benefits in terms of both productivity and safety.

On the other hand, the Air Blast Monitoring service implemented in the El Soldado division also stands out, as it allows Anglo American to measure the impact that air blasts caused during mining operations may have in the community, and then search for mitigation strategies. In terms of innovation and new products, Energex® high-power explosive should be highlighted, with its fragmentation power that lowers the ore “work index” aiming to reduce electricity consumption in crushing and grinding, improving the processing capacity of the crusher. www.enaex.com

BE Monthly | 167

SPECIALISED SERVICES EFFECTIVE CONTRACTOR Operation and Maintenance in Mining facilities • Operational support in harvesting cathodes • Inspection and maintenance of anodes • Maintenance of stainless steel plates • Painting of structures, facilities and equipment • Handling of cathodes in yards • Grouping of packages and strapping • Preparation and minor repairs of segments for hyperbaric filters • Operation of Laboratory samples

Industrial Cleaning in Plants • Pressure water washing • Industrial Vacuum cleaning • Material Recovery Other Services • Management and Operation of Warehouses • Port logistics • Maintenance of equipment • Administration of boats

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168 | BE Monthly

become the fifth largest copper mine in the world. Based on the latest expansions, despite having mined there for the best part of 150 years, Anglo American estimates the mine will be productive for roughly a further 30 years whether or not further deposits are discovered.

Los Bronces is just one of five operations Anglo American operates in four regions of the country with shareholding in a sixth, all managed from a head office in Santiago.

In fact, Anglo American is one of the most important copper producers in Chile.

Being such an important part of the Chilean economy, it should come as little surprise that Anglo American recognises and honours its social responsibilities. In addition to their individual corporate initiatives each division of the group is responsible for implementing their

Anglo American: Los Bronces

Routine cleandown of the exploration access tunnel

own community engagement plans, which are based on Anglo American’s Good Citizenship Principles and the results of its socio-economic assessment toolbox (SEAT) process.

In the case of the Los Bronces division its community engagement plans are focused on four work areas, these being education, health, the environment and social development, with the districts directly benefiting from its work being Colina, Lo Barnechea and Til-Til

and the town of Riecillos in the district of Los Andes. In 2009 alone, more than $2.3 million was allocated towards these community engagement projects, 85 percent of which was directed specifically towards education and academic infrastructure programmes. In addition to the contributions made to these programmes, the division donated $32,516 to hold local celebrations and processes and support the work of the fire department.

“Los Bronces produced 221,762 tonnes of fine copper in 2011, including high-purity cathodes and copper concentrate�

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General view of the open pit at Los Bronces

Anglo American: Los Bronces

1,700+ Size of Anglo American’s Los Bronces workforce In the year ahead Anglo American will also be utilising and leveraging the knowledge and experience gained at Los Bronces to develop a significant high quality copper prospect at Los Sulfatos, six kilometres south of its current activities. Based on 22,000 metres of drilling, the current Inferred Mineral Resources are estimated at 1.2 billion tonnes at 1.46 percent copper and 0.02 percent molybdenum, containing an estimated 17.5 million tonnes of copper. The deposit is open in various directions and in terms of overall potential for the Los Sulfatos exploration target, the tonnage is expected to be between four and five billion tonnes at grades of between 0.8 percent and 1.0 percent copper.

Located within and under high mountain ridges at altitudes between 4,000 and 4,500 metres, the Los Sulfatos prospect poses unique environmental challenges, however, considering Anglo American’s track record within Chile and similar sensitive geographic regions the smart money is on Los Sulfatos emerging into a development of equal importance to that of Los Bronces.

For more information about Anglo American: Los Bronces visit: www.angloamerican.com

BE Monthly | 171

High altitu

Extracting minerals in t of the high Andes is jus world’s fourth lar

written by: J research by: Candice Ni

172 | BE Monthly

Collahuasi Mine

ude mining

the rarefied atmosphere st one challenge for the rgest copper mine

John O’Hanlon ice and Robert Hodgson

BE Monthly | 173

Collahuasi Mine

D

oña Inés de Collahuasi, a Chilean mining company, operates the world’s fourth largest copper mine. The operation comprises two principal porphyry copper deposits, Ujina and Rosario, as well as a smaller deposit called Huinquintipa that contains only sulphide mineralisation and copper oxides. It is a joint venture owned by two mining majors, Swiss-based Xstrata and London-based Anglo American, with 44 percent of the shares apiece. The remaining equity is in the hands of a group of Japanese interests led by Mitsui & Co Ltd, one of Japan’s largest trading companies that has under its umbrella both Nippon Mining & Metals and Mitsui Mining & Smelting. Not surprisingly, then, Japan is an important taker for the mine’s products, mainly copper concentrate of which 245,288 tonnes were produced in 2012, with a smaller amount of copper in the form of 99.99 percent pure copper cathode, of which 36,808 tonnes were sold.

The mine is located in the Andean plateau 4,400 metres above sea level in the Tarapacá Region, a region in the north of Chile that is close to the border with Bolivia. It is a poor but fertile region, with some of the most significant vineyards in Chile and a very long history of mineral extraction, best known in the past for its production of saltpetre.

Copper has been exploited since 1880 when the Tarapacá systems of high-grade copper and silver veins began e attracting interest.

Fast forward to 1991, when a combination of satellite, aerial photography and onsite studies, along with drilling activities, resulted in the discovery of the Ujina deposit. From the

BE Monthly | 175

Collahuasi Mine concentrator plant in Ujina, a 203 kilometre slurry pipeline leads down to the filter plant and loading facilities in Punta Patache, 65 kilometres south of Iquique, Tarapacá’s capital.

The molybdenum plant is also located here as well as the port terminal from which processed products are shipped to markets around the world.

In all Anglo American produced 282,096 tonnes of copper in 2012, accounting for 5.1 percent of Chile’s total output over that year. These figures were down on the previous year’s production, as reported in the article we published in 2013,

however Anglo American announced last October that in the third-quarter of 2013 copper production went up by nearly a third compared to the same period in 2012, reaching a quarterly record mainly thanks to improved performance at the Collahuasi mine. Production of copper, the second-most important contributor to Anglo’s balance sheet after iron ore, rose 32 percent to 207,300 tonnes in the three months to September, beating analysts’ expectations – and Collahuasi more than doubled output to 63,600 tonnes in those three months. However Anglo American’s plans for the future of the

ICV ICV, Ingeniería Civil Vicente S.A., is present in the most important mining projects in Chile.

ICV, a leader in the civil engineering, construction and mining sectors, has based its strength on adding value for its clients, employees and the communities where it has operations. With its headquarters in Santiago and many offices in the rest of the country, it is able to respond successfully to the impressive expansion of large-scale mining in Chile.

With a track record that goes back 50 years, ICV has established a consolidated position as an important player in the mining industry, providing integral services for large-scale mining companies and, particularly, Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi where it hopes to

contribute - with its modern fleet of machinery to the initiative to reach an output of more than one million tonnes of fine copper by 2017.

ICV is present in the most important mining projects in Chile thanks to its policy of constantly renewing equipment and machinery with annual investments of over US$70 million, transforming it into the company with the most modern and competitive mechanized fleet in its field.

The key factor in the consolidation of the company’s prestige has, however, undoubtedly been its constant focus on recruiting and retaining the best human team. www.icv.cl

BE Monthly | 177

Strategy Consulting and sustainability management of hydric resources, Collahuasi mine

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Collahuasi Mine mine are far more ambitious.

An ongoing pre-feasibility ARCADIS Chile’s service strategy based model intends to study for the company’s establish a close relationship with our corporate clients, proposed $6.5 million Phase giving them access to our full complement of engineering III expansion project will pave and consulting solutions at the lowest possible costs. the way towards a total copper A single ARCADIS Chile representative helps our production target of more clients become acquainted with, evaluate, and develop comprehensive solutions placed at their disposal by than a million tonnes per ARCADIS Chile. annum (tpa) by 2017, which Based on this model, our Business Managers — organized would make it the biggest by economic sectors — collect information regarding our mining project in Chile. corporate clients’ specific contexts, needs, expectations, The Chilean, Japanese and and priorities of every project. Then, ARCADIS Chile’s Chinese markets together Project Managers design, propose, and implement account for around 80 percent appropriate integral solutions and guarantee the clients’ satisfaction through the benefits of our committed service. of Collahuasi’s exports of www.arcadis.cl copper concentrate, while over 70 percent of its copper cathodes go to the Chinese market. In the case of the molybdenum, a by-product of which 1,953 tonnes were produced in 2011, 99 percent is sold within Chile and the remaining one percent exported to Thailand. In 2012 China accounted for 31 percent of Collahuasi’s copper concentrate sales, Japanese and Chilean offtakers for 24 percent each, India for 18 percent, while three percent went to South Korea.

Sustainable development is a crucial pillar of Collahuasi’s business strategy, guiding its approach to its production process and

ARCADIS Chile

4,400 metres Altitude of the Collahuasi mine

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relations with its surroundings. In 2012, the company implemented important measures related to sustainability. A key initiative was the creation of a Vice-Presidency for Sustainability to bring together all the areas of the company’s activities that are related to sustainable development and to represent a common corporate vision of the concept of sustainability, taking into account aspects related to the exploitation of natural resources, the cultural and social diversity of the area where the company has its operations and economic aspects of its operations.

2012 was also a crucial year as regards community relations. In this context, the inclusion of environmental performance under the new Vice-Presidency for Sustainability enabled the company to establish even closer relations with communities, particularly as regards providing information, understanding their concerns and achieving reciprocal benefits. This approach, the company believes, has empowered local communities and boosted their engagement in the activities of the mine and the logistics corridor used by vehicles related to its operations. The communities which it has identified as coming under direct influence are Cáñamo, Chanavayita, Caramucho, Huatacondo, Pica and Matilla. In 2012, the company’s total social investment

reached $15.2 million, up by around ten percent on the previous year. Most of this amount was devoted to education, the environment and community social development.

Education is the way out of the cycle of deprivation in these communities. In its relations with the Tarapacá Region, and as part of its promise to contribute to educational

“Education is the way out of the cycle of deprivation in these communities” 180 | BE Monthly

Collahuasi Mine

improvement, the company continues to work through the Collahuasi Educational Foundation.

In 2012, for the fourth consecutive year, the Foundation implemented its Educational Improvement Programme involving 18 state primary schools in seven municipal districts over a period of four years. In June 2013, in order to ensure the Programme’s ongoing development, the company signed a new agreement with the municipal governments of Iquique, Alto Hospicio, Pica, Huara, Camiña and Pozo Almonte for the period 20132016 under which educational practices of excellence will be implemented and systematic work will take place with the communities of the schools in the Programme.

Healthcare is another area in which Collahuasi is involved, particularly in the case of the more vulnerable members of the community.

Currently the company is participating in the improvement of the infrastructure of Tarapacá’s health centres. To this end, it signed an agreement with the Regional Government to provide financial support for the design phase of state-funded projects in the Iquique and Alto Hospicio Hospitals and primary and family health centres around the region.

For more information about Collahuasi Mine visit: www.collahuasi.cl

BE Monthly | 181

182 | BE Monthly

DNI Metals

Operating in a Polymetallic Paradise DNI Metals’ Preliminary Economic Assessment of its Buckton Zone Property has confirmed a number of the company’s predictions, the main one being that the Buckton polymetallic black shale deposit represents an incredible untapped mining resource

written by: Will Daynes research by: Peter Rowlston

BE Monthly | 183

Typical ridgeline outcrop of the black shale

DNI Metals

W

hen we last spoke to President and CEO of DNI Metals Shahe Sabag towards the end of 2011 his company had just achieved a significant milestone in its history, identifying the first mineral resource from one of its six mineral systems located within the 2,720 square kilometre property the company holds in the Birch Mountains, north of Fort McMurray adjacent to the oilsands deposits of northern Alberta, Canada.

“In the months and years following the discovery of the Buckton Zone, we set out to expand the mineral resource several times over with the intention of building enough critical mass to carry out a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA),” Sabag explains.

“The result of these activities is that the Buckton resource has grown to around a five billion tonne critical mass, with part of it upgraded from the Inferred to the Indicted resource category.”

It was during these expansion activities that the company went on to discover and carve out a second mineral resource, Buckton South, a zone located seven kilometres south of Buckton. DNI expects one day to link up the two zones. The Buckton South ‘maiden’ resource is a half-a-billion tonne starter and the perfect example to industry watchers that there are other zones on the property that can be successfully drilled and measured to carve out additional mineral resources.

The PEA study for the Buckton Deposit was launched in mid-2013, the results of which were released in December, with the technical report following on 17 January, 2014. The PEA

BE Monthly | 185

$1.6 Billion Estimated pre-tax value of the Buckton operation

Geo mapping sampling another vertical cliff face outcrop of the black shale

186 | BE Monthly

itself demonstrates that the Buckton Deposit has the potential to be a significant long term supplier of uranium and rare earth elements, in addition to nickel, cobalt, copper and zinc.

It also indicates that the envisioned Buckton operation possesses a net present pre-tax value of $1.6 billion at a six percent discount rate, with an 8.7 percent internal rate of return. The mining operation has the ability to generate an average of $349 million in pretax net cash flow annually over its 64 year mine life, representing aggregate life of mine revenues of $75 billion. The PEA identified several key opportunities to significantly enhance economics and DNI is confident that several can be implemented with minimal additional work or expenditures.

“With completion of the Buckton Deposit PEA we have concluded what we set out to achieve in 2008, and that was to take at least one of the six zones we hold and demonstrate that it does contain a mineable mineral resource,” Sabag continues. “This places us at a crossroad as it were, at which we must now decide in what direction we move forward from here.”

Situated within an active mining area, where other players are mining oilsands as opposed to metals, and with access to considerable existing infrastructure, the

DNI Metals

2012 summer drilling program

location of the Buckton Deposit could hardly be more ideal. Whereas from a logistical, technical and scientific point of view the Buckton project has been relatively smooth sailing, the principle challenge that DNI Metals has found itself facing involves bridging the knowledge gap regarding just what type of mineral deposit it has on its hands.

“The first challenge we faced is that what we have here is a metals property in Alberta, a part of the world known for oil and gas.

That means that the first hurdle to clear involves informing people that yes there are indeed metals present in Alberta,” Sabag says.

“The next hurdle revolves around introducing people to the novel leaching techniques that we are using; things like bio-leaching and bio-heap leaching. Once that is cleared, it is then a case of explaining the unique qualities possessed by polymetallic deposits, and the fact that there have been countless example over the last 200 years of mining history in North America of deposits delivering multiple metals whose value is locked up in the aggregate value of the multiple metals contained. So, bridging the knowledge gap through constant communication has certainly been our biggest challenge to date.”

“The PEA demonstrates that the Buckton Deposit has the potential to be a significant long term supplier of uranium and rare earth elements” BE Monthly | 187

“Our strategy from day one has been to develop one of our six zones to the PEA study stage before ultimately either vending it out or advancing it further in collaboration with a third party�

Shahe Sabag inspecting shale

188 | BE Monthly

DNI Metals The 2,720 square kilometres of area held by DNI not only contains the aforementioned Buckton and Buckton South zones, but also four other assets dubbed Asphalt, McIvor West, North Lily and Eaglenest. Each of these contains a zone with the potential to deliver the kind of black shale polymetallic deposit found at Buckton if explored and developed accordingly.

“Buckton and South Buckton are undoubtedly our highest priority assets at present, as can be seen in the way we have taken the former and moved it ahead as fast as possible toward a PEA,” Sabag states. “While it is fair to say that with similar levels of attention the other properties have the potential to become Buckton sized assets in their own right, we have no immediate intentions to rush into development of these, rather our approach right now is for the Buckton Deposit to be a template for what can be achieved elsewhere on the property.”

Since the PEA study of Buckton was released in December, DNI Metals has received considerable positive feedback from both its shareholders and from various financial analysts. Now, with another milestone achieved, thoughts turn to the short and long terms futures of the company and its assets.

“DNI Metals is an exploration and development company, not a mining

Aerial view of ridgline shale outcrop

company,” Sabag highlights. “As such we have no aspirations to becoming a producer, and our strategy from day one has been to develop one of our six zones to the PEA study stage before ultimately either vending it out or advancing it further in collaboration with a third party. So our immediate game plan involves following up on various discussions we have had in the past with potential interested third parties with the aim of enlisting their collaboration. Once this is in motion we can turn our attentions toward what we hope will be the next successful project at the property.”

For more information about DNI Metals visit: www.dnimetals.com

BE Monthly | 189

190 | BE Monthly

Eldorado Gold

Discipline delivers Based in Vancouver, Eldorado Gold presents itself as a low-cost gold producer with a vision to create a long-term, profitable business with healthy margins using a disciplined approach to growth

written by: john o’hanlon research by: Jeff Abbott

BE Monthly | 191

Development works in the main 8,5km tunnel linking Stratoni to Olympias mine

Eldorado Gold

D

iscipline is a great virtue in the Eldorado has seven operating mines and challenging price environment a pipeline of projects in different stages of the gold mining industry finds construction, development and exploration. itself in today: the players who Though it also operates in Turkey, China and can keep operating through the South America the company has a special lean times will be the ones best place to take focus on northern Greece, to which it was advantage of anticipated price rises. But though attracted by its solid infrastructure, wellthese struggled upward to the tune of some educated labour force, reliable legal system $60 over the course of January – and western and consolidated democratic institutions. economies are showing signs of growth allied Eldorado Gold has been present in Greece to greater confidence – prospects for 2014 since 2008, when it acquired the Perama Hill remain uncertain. Investors know that, and project in Thrace, which is at an advanced they continue to set a premium on discipline. stage of development with an environmental This disciplined approach is reflected impact assessment (EIA) expected to be nowhere better than in the cost of production. approved during the course of this year. Final With that in mind it was an approval of the Perama Hill achievement for Eldorado’s EIA was in fact expected in 2013, however with local Chief Executive Officer elections taking place this Paul N Wright to be able year it is not now thought that to announce a ten percent the approval will be granted increase in production over Increase in gold before then. Assuming the course of 2013. Gold production in 2013 production for the year was a late 2014 construction 721,201 ounces. However start, Eldorado now expects at an average of $494 an ounce, cash costs to be committing $25 million, less than came within a whisker of the 2012 figure of had been previously earmarked.

Perama Hill together with the Olympias $483 and considerably better than the midyear estimate of $520 per ounce. It will be and Skouries deposits that Eldorado Gold no surprise if that rises in 2014 to between is currently advancing in Greece have the $550 and $590 an ounce, but against a potential to make that country Europe’s further six percent expected increase in gold leading gold producer by 2016. With proven production this year to between 730,000 and probable reserves of approximately 8.6 and 800,000 ounces that rise should remain million ounces of gold in Greece, Eldorado’s sustainable. The positive effect on cash flow operations are estimated to be able to generate of $272.5 million saved last year, derived more than €1.6 billion in direct taxes for the from reductions in capital expenditure, Greek State over the next 20 years. Having exploration and G&A costs will further already spent more than €78 million in Greece impress the market. since February 2012, Eldorado will invest

10%

BE Monthly | 193

FREDERIKOS S.A is an engineering firm located in Kavala, North Greece.

FREDERIKOS S.A premises, covering an area of 6000 sq. meters, have the capability to produce high quality castings and demanding machine works. Field of expertise includes mining, oil, renewable energy and chemical industries.

T: 0030 2510316793 0030 2510316968 F: 00302510316967 E: info@frederikos.com www.frederikos.com

Q U A L I T Y

Services and products include: n turn key electromechanical projects n casting of various ferrous non-ferrous parts n construction and maintenance of industrial equipment n construction of different types of pumps n construction of crushers

H A S

I T S

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FREDERIKOS SA FREDERIKOS SA, was established in 1972 .

Today it is a modern unit able to provide high quality services by investing in cutting edge technologies and by having a comprehensive selection of equipment.

The company is divided in two divisions; the machine shop and the foundry.

The combination of the foundry and the machine shop gives the flexibility to fulfil difficult tasks and bring innovative ideas to life.

FREDERIKOS SA philosophy is simple; “Treat all our clients with the dignity and courtesy they expect, from small business to the largest industry”. This includes the exemplary customer service, combining lasting and effective support at all levels.

FREDERIKOS SA has managed through the years, to build strong ties with partners like HELLAS GOLD (member of the EL DORADO GOLD family), AKTOR (the leading

construction company in Greece), ROKAS renewable ( a subsidiary company of IBERDOLA, Spain’s largest energy group), KAVALA OIL (the only oil extraction company in Greece) EL.FE(one of the largest fertilizer industries) and a long list of large and small industries throughout the Greek territory and abroad.

FREDERIKOS SA is at the top of the industry and undertakes large projects. Quality is a prime importance in the engineering industry in general. FREDERIKOS S.A. highlights the quality control system by highly qualified staff performing inspections, disciplined quality control of all equipment, continuous training of staff, and the availability to quality control by our customers.

E. info@frederikos.com www.frederikos.com

BE Monthly BE WEEKLY| 195 |2

Mr. Roderick Trigwell | General Manager | rod@gedh.com Mr. Adrian Vuvrea | Manager | vuvrea.adrian@genfor.com

www.genfor.com

Quality Drilling Services • Reverse Circulation • Diamond Core • Grade Control • Blast Hole • Open Hole Water Bore • Geotechnical • Horizontal Mud Rotary • Rab and Air Core • Underground

NEW PRECIOUS RESOURCE DISCOVERED

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Eldorado Gold

Olympias mine: a jumbo drilling machine and employees at work

operational in 2015 and is expected to be in operation for more than 25 years in total.

In 2013 the project received its installation permit, while construction and underground development started under an experienced management team aided by around 400 employees. 2014 will see plant construction continuing, with work starting on the open pit and tailings dams.

Olympias is a replacement mixed sulphide body with 3.8 million ounces of gold, 57.7 million ounces of silver, 599,000 tonnes of lead, and 796,000 tonnes of zinc in proven and probable reserves. Olympias also contains 270,000 ounces of gold in tailings left over from earlier operations, and these are being re-processed. During 2014 the company will continue to process

“The positive effect on cash flow of $272.5 million saved last year‌ will further impress the marketâ€?

BE Monthly | 197

tailings as part of a mandated environmental clean-up. At this site, Eldorado is currently cleaning up over 2.4 million tons of tailings left by a previous operator. When complete, 30 hectares of the Olympias valley will be returned to a greenfield state and given back to the local community.

The Chalkidiki Peninsula where the mine is situated is an attractive part of northern Greece, peppered with ancient sites and an

attraction for tourists. Where areas are no longer needed for mining, Eldorado focuses on rehabilitation wherever it operates, but Greece is somehow uniquely precious, so rehabilitation is a very sensitive topic for the community. The area will be re-planted with native species grown in the company’s own plant nursery – the largest in northern Greece and the company is already working with the Forestry and Natural

“At Olympias Eldorado is currently cleaning up over 2.4 million tonnes of tailings left by a previous operator”

Rehabilitation of Olympias tailings pond

198 | BE Monthly

Eldorado Gold

Olympias flotation plant: employees at work

Environment Department of Aristotle University in Thessaloniki to conduct in-situ pilot planting tests 760,000 tonnes of tailings will be processed this year at a grade of 3.1 grammes per tonne (g/t). Additionally, $60 million will be spent on continuing underground development to access the ore body as well as mining equipment, infrastructure, and the decline linking Olympias to the adjacent Stratoni Valley deposit. Last year 1.4 kilometres of this 8 kilometre linking tunnel was constructed.

When completed it will pave the way to ore extraction from the underground mine at a rate of 400,000 tonnes per annum. 2013 also saw three kilometres of underground development and one kilometre of

underground rehabilitation at Olympias, as well as the announcement of a ten percent increase in measured and indicated reserves to 4.7 million ounces.

Looking to the future, Eldorado Gold as a group has ambitious growth targets, aiming to produce 1.7 million ounces of gold by 2016.

This figure represents more than double its total gold production of 721,000 ounces for 2013 and equates to 160 percent growth over a five year period. Needless to say then that its operations in Greece will play a critical role in delivering this.

For more information about Eldorado Gold visit: www.eldoradogold.com

BE Monthly | 199

200 | BE Monthly

Petromoc

Fuelling

a nation Mozambique’s state-owned distributor of petroleum products continues to expand, both within its home nation’s borders and further across Southern Africa

written by: Will Daynes research by: Abi Abagun

BE Monthly | 201

Petromoc

R

ecognised as the second largest oil and gas firm in Southern Africa, Petromoc, or Petróleos de Moçambique to give it its local name, was formed in 1999 and is Mozambique’s state-owned distributor of petroleum products. Born out of the transformation of the Mozambique National Fuel Company, Petromoc today owns the largest retail network in the country, one that consists of 119 filling stations and supply posts, and 300 local consumer positions.

The company owns and operates storage facilities and pipelines found across all the main Mozambican ports, with said storage facilities including 19 inland and coastal depots which boast a combined storage capacity of around 500,000 cubic metres.

Petromoc markets fuels, oils, greaseoils and lubricants for use in the country’s major industry sectors, these being mining, agriculture and maritime, and is also able to provide customers with complete technical support. The largest supplier of fuel to Mozambique’s leading industrial and commercial companies, Petromoc also provides fuel to a host of neighbouring countries such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the DRC. In total Petromoc is able to claim annual sales of approximately 407,000 cubic metres of petroleum products, 375,000 cubic metres of which are distributed to Mozambique’s domestic market, which equates to a domestic market share of around 42 percent.

Meanwhile, some 33,000 cubic metres end up being supplied within the company’s foreign markets.

BE Monthly | 203

Intertek Valued Quality. Delivered

Our Organisation

What we do

Environmental Services Government Services Commodities Analytical Services Industrial Services Minerals Services

Testing Inpsection Certification Auditing Outsourcing Advisory Training Quality Assurance

Contact: Dawie du Plessis Phone +258 23322658 | Fax +258 23324262 Email: cbe.mozambique@intertek.com | www.intertek.com

Petromoc

INTERTEK Intertek, a leading provider of quality testing, inspection and safety services to a wide range of industries around the world, has been awarded a Laboratory “Outsourcing” contract for provision of testing services at its Matola facility, Mozambique. At present Intertek provides Inspection & “Key” Laboratory testing services to Petromoc from its terminals, viz: Matola; Beira & Nacala respectively. The Intertek / Petromoc Matola laboratory is to undergo a facelift.

This will include, but not limited to, the redesign of its present facility with upgraded laboratory furniture, extraction systems, Gas supply, IT infrastructure, Specialized Testing room, Controlled sample receipt facility & sample retention store. Intertek is committed to a significant investment in acquiring the latest testing equipment, in accordance with

Intertek international test procedures, able to meet the demands of product certification.

This new facility shall provide for increased test capabilities able to meet local legislation as well as adhering to “export” requirements to land-locked countries. Also included are opportunities in providing water & microbiological testing by this facility.

By virtue of providing services to Petromoc, Intertek shall provide independent services to third parties which shall remain in the strictest confidence and impartial by this facility. The laboratory shall operate on a 24/7/365 basis. It is Intertek’s vision to acquire the ISO 9001 certification within twelve months of the initial contract period.

E. cbe.mozambique@intertek.com www.intertek.com

BE Monthly | 205

Petromoc It will come as a surprise Grindrod Fuelogic Mozambique (Pty) Ltd to few that a company the Grindrod Fuelogic Mozambique (Pty) Ltd is proud to have size of Petromoc comes Petromoc as a shareholder. Grindrod Fuelogic operations blessed with significant are to be significantly expanded to meet Petromoc’s and the infrastructure assets from oil industry’s needs, with the addition of 60 vehicles. This which all of its activities will provide for additional delivery capacity out of Maputo, originate. These assets Beira and transport operations will be established in Nacala and Pemba by mid- 2014. Expanded operations are to include the Lingamo Oceanic include deliveries out of Mozambique into neighbouring Oil Terminal (IOL), the Beira countries. Petromoc is key to our success in Mozambique.

Oceanic Oil Terminal (IOB) www.grindrod.co.za and the Nacala Oceanic Installation (ION).

Located in the port area of Matola city and possessing san installed capacity of 412,000 cubic metres, the IOL facility covers an area of 40 hectares and acts as one of the gateways for the entry of petroleum products into Mozambique. The largest facility of its kind in the country the IOL is linked by pipeline to the fuel terminal through which it receive petroleum products from oil tankers.

It handles a range of products including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petrol, aviation fuel, kerosene, diesel, fuel oil, various grades of bitumen, and lubricating oils and greases.

At present the IOL is undergoing work that will reshape the complex, increasing its operational capacity, modernising its

“Petromoc today owns the largest retail network in the country” BE Monthly | 207

Transportes Lalgy LDA Where the road ends we carry on…

Tel: 21 720 482/21 724 414; Cell: 258 82 303 5713/258 84 303 5317; Fax: 258 720 452/258 724 298; Email: Lalgy@lalgy.co.mz Avenida Uniao Africana, 4341 (Antiga Estrada Velha da Matola) Matola—Mocambique

Petromoc loading gantries for rail wagons and road tankers, and implementing other projects of importance to improve operational effectiveness. The success of the IOL becomes ever more important when taking into account that it represents a pilot facility for Petromoc’s plans to develop an integrated management system based on the principles of quality, environmental protection and occupational health and safety.

Located in Munhava, the IOB may have a smaller installed capacity, in this case 26,000 cubic metres, but it is responsible for

handling massive volumes of fuel thanks to its strategic location that makes it a gateway for the distribution of petroleum products to landlocked neighbouring countries. In order to distribute fuel, and receive and backload

TRANSPORTES LALGY LDA The company has a variety of transport options available to meet our clients’ needs and respond to market requirements based on an aggressive growth strategy and continuously growing fleet which consists of over 500 vehicles: • Interlink side tippers • Side and Back end tippers • Fuel tankers • Low-beds • Superlinks and triaxles • Earth moving equipment The reconstruction and new opportunities within our country are creating a period of unprecedented growth. To support this period

of growth there is a huge and urgent need for quality logistics service providers.

The geography of the country (with the seaports of Maputo, Beira and Nacala) coupled with the extremely limited rail infrastructure makes road transport the only viable option to support the growth and development within our country.Transportes Lalgy LDA is involved in many of these projects which include (but are not limited to): transport for infrastructure and construction projects in the coal and mining industry, gas products, regional imports and exports.

E. helio@lalgy.co.mz

BE Monthly | 209

Petromoc

407,000 m3 Petromoc’s annual sales of petroleum products calling oil tankers, the terminal relies upon a powerful and modern loading gantry.

Meanwhile its link to the MozambiqueZimbabwe Pipeline Company pipeline gives it a unique opportunity to pump products into Zimbabwe.

The ION also holds a critically important role for both the company and the country, in that it is responsible for the supply of fuels to the northern region of Mozambique. Linked to the fuel terminal by a four kilometre long pipeline, also belonging to Petromoc, the ION is able to receive fuel products and undertake backloading operations.

Recently rehabilitated, the pipeline allows

the company to pump different petroleum products separately, thus improving their individual integrity and durability.

Designed to have a storage capacity of 45,000 cubic metres, the ION is able to store petrol, kerosene, aviation fuel, diesel, and lubricating oils and greases. As well supplying Enviroshore the domestic market, the The close partnership between Petromoc and Enviroshore terminal is also used as provides specialist solution services to the oil, petroleum, a gateway to landlocked shipping and mining industries through the use of nations such as Zambia specialised organic waste processing, world-best practices and Malawi. and state-of-the-art environmental technology.

We are focussed on creating a healthy environment for Of course, while the our children, while providing meaningful and rewarding company’s facilities are opportunities that improve the financial performance of huge importance, the of our partners. work carried out across Our vision is to be a world-class collaboration, and the Petromoc’s operations would principal partner of choice in the rehabilitation of onsite not be possible without its storage clean-up, soil and groundwater remediation. workforce. When it comes www.enviroshore.co.za to its human resources

BE Monthly | 211

© SGS Group Management SA – 2013 – All rights reserved - SGS is a registered trademark of SGS Group Management SA

20

T RUSTED SOLUTIONS 40.078

TRANSPORTATION

Cargo safety and integrity is critical. You need the peace of mind that comes from knowing that wherever your cargo is in the world, whichever transport route and vehicle it is contained in, best practice has been adhered too. SGS experts check against current standards and regulations, ensuring all health and safety requirements are met and that the right quantity and quality reaches the destination. Trust the integrity of your cargo with SGS Inspection Services, for more information visit www.sgs.com/ogc or contact ogc@sgs.com. Solutions for Oil, Gas & Chemicals that go ON and ON and ON...

SGS IS THE WORLD’S LEADING INSPECTION, VERIFICATION, TESTING AND CERTIFICATION COMPANY

WWW.SGS.COM

Petromoc the company’s primary objective revolves around SGS has been active in Mozambique since 1962, providing being able to empower services through its offices in Maputo, Beira and Nacala. human capital through We are the leader in independent inspection, verification, the constant development testing and certification services. of a skilled, dynamic and Providing trustable services to national and international motivated work force. clients like Imopetro, Petromoc, IPG, Vitol, BP, Shell, Trafigura and Glencore. SGS has established an expertise In its quest to motivate network including an ISO/IEC17025 accredited laboratories and permanently mobilise (OGC), and over 150 experts. its workforce for its Regarding the Oil, Gas & Chemical sector (OGC); SGS cause, Petromoc is in the can provide the following specialized services: blending process of implementing and cargo treatment services, sample management a comprehensive Human and outsourcing, calibration services, monitoring and Resources Management supervision of terminal and vessel operations (onshore and offshore), upstream services and collateral management.

System. This will consist of www.sgs.com recruitment and selection, training and development, performance evaluation and professional careers subsystems, as well as wage administration regulations.

Outside of its internal structure, Petromoc has also spent consideration amounts of time and effort to extend what it describes as its “brand of excellence” to the social, cultural and environmental sectors. Aware of its social responsibilities the company is always striving to act as an agent for sustainable human development, all the while retaining full respect for environmental standards.

Petromoc’s social and environmental

sgs

1999 The year that Petromoc was formed

BE Monthly | 213

This is a caption this is a caption

Petromoc responsibility programmes are structured towards continuous and regular activities that support cultural, social, sport, health and environmental undertakings. The company’s efforts have seen it sponsor various national sporting programmes, initiate various awareness campaigns against Malaria, HIV and Poliomyelitis, and lend its support to events related to the development of Mozambique’s national culture and identity.

In aiding the educational needs of the country, Petromoc has contributed towards the rehabilitation of the Bagamoyo Primary School and volunteered to cover the enrolment fees of students who had dropped out due to a lack of financial resources. Elsewhere it was the company’s contributions that saw equipment supplied for an IT room at Liberdade Secondary School, while moves were also made to involve senior staff members in training activities and workshops centred on the themes of corporate social responsibility and combating HIV. Such corporate social responsibility efforts continue to form a core part of Petromoc’s existence, while at the same time the company remains as committed as ever to achieving its strategic goals, these being regional expansion, the maximisation of its logistics network and the further diversification of its energy portfolio by developing new products and services that add value and stability to the business.

For more information about Petromoc visit: www.petromoc.co.mz

BE Monthly | 215

saving lives It was Mike Perry’s fascination with snakes, and his unfortunate mishaps with several of their venomous species, that ultimately led to the founding of African Reptiles & Venom

H

aving had an early childhood encounter with a Ringkals while hunting for snakes, it was his near fatal brush with a puff adder in August 1971 that led him to start what would become a lifelong study of snakebite treatment.

In 1999 Mike started the company to supply snake venom for antivenom manufacture. The company is an accredited supplier of snake venom to SA Vaccine Producers (Pty) Ltd, the manufacturer of the South African (SAIMR) polyvalent snakebite antivenom and monovalent Boomslang antivenom. These antivenoms are

“ Approximately 5,500 people have been trained

by Mike - with nobody being bitten in 12 years” 216 | be directory

suitable for treatment of snakebite in Sub-Sahara Africa. Today, Mike maintains and extracts the venom of 500 snakes per month during the summer months for venom supply.

The Snake ID & Snakebite Treatment course was the eventual result of Mike’s lifelong study. The course covers the recognition of dangerous snakes, the different venoms & symptoms of snakebite, the correct first aid treatment, the medical treatment and finally the recognition of allergies and their treatment. A venomous snake handling course is offered as well as black mamba handling and Snake Awareness. So a wide scope is covered from people that just need a general knowledge to people that may be called upon to treat snakebites and capture dangerous snakes in situations where the snake would pose a danger to the work force. Snake handling equipment is also supplied.

Some of the companies that have

African Reptiles & Venom

received training from Mike include: Anglo Coal, Anglo Platinum, Anglo Gold Ashanti, Anvil Mining, Africa Copper, Barrick Mining, BHP Billiton, Croc World, Exxaro, Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Tourism & Conservation, Kamoto Copper Company, Kumba Iron Ore, Mondi Paper, Sasol Mining, Sasol Secunda, Pretoria Zoo, Johannesburg Zoo, Eskom, Resolute Mining, Murray & Roberts, Rapid Care Paramedics, Rio Tinto, Vale & Damelin College to name but a few.

Approximately 5,500 people have been trained by Mike, with nobody being bitten by a snake during 12 years of courses.

The courses are FGASA (Field

Guides Association of Southern Africa) accredited as specialist snake courses.

Those that pass will receive a certificate with the FGASA emblem on it. The snakebite treatment course is also accredited with the WITSHEALTH CPD Office. Doctors can receive five CPD points when they do the course.

African Reptiles & Venom P.O. Box 70564, Bryanston, 2021, Gauteng, South Africa T +27 83 448 8854 E mike@africanreptiles-venom.co.za www.africanreptiles-venom.co.za

be directory | 217

unified fuel management

Imagine a solution that ensures safe and secure fuelling, easy operation, accurate data collection and full reconciliation

I

magine a fuel management solution that is built on 30 years of experience and innovation in the mining industry.

Imagine a solution that transmits your fuelling information automatically, accounting for every litre of fuel from “buy to burn”... That system is Banlaw FuelTrackTM. Banlaw, a global leader in fuel management solutions, specializes in the mining sector and has the people, products and system capabilities to help your operations control its fuel usage from ‘buy to burn’, saving time and money.

With over 30 years of experience and innovation in the mining industry, Banlaw employs a unique end-to-end fuel management process called Fuel-Pro3.

“ We put our clients back in control – providing accurate, measurable data” 218 | be directory

With integrated fuel management hardware and software, complete fuel asset management, consulting, commissioning and training, along with ongoing service and support, Banlaw Fuel Management Solutions delivers productivity gains, accurate real time reconciliation and cost reduction like no other competing solution. Our easy, safe, accurate and innovative products and solutions are now used globally in over 29 countries.

Fuel Management Banlaw is a pioneer in the design, manufacture and implementation of refuelling and hydrocarbon management systems for your industry. For more than 30 years, Banlaw has manufactured world class refuelling products. Our deep involvement and commitment to clients over this time has earned Banlaw the reputation of industry specialists for providing complete

BANLAW

A Global Leader in Fuel Management Solutions Easy Safe Accurate Innovative fuel management solutions. Banlaw’s expert design optimizes all aspects of fuel movement including filtration, conditioning, metering, along with existing infrastructure and automated fuel management software delivering truly useable added value.

Banlaw also offers a full range of consulting and support services. We can manage your entire refuelling operations from design concept and installation to ongoing fuel management, maintenance and reporting.

We put our clients back in control of their fuel – providing accurate, measurable data to allow the right decisions to be made around cost, efficiency, productivity, environmental and safety outcomes.

Leading global and local companies in the mining, rail, port and transport sectors have already discovered that investing in Banlaw’s high quality, efficient and integrated fuel management products and services provides quick pay backs.

Let the Banlaw team show you how to improve your fuel management processes.

Banlaw Pty. Ltd 3025 Griffin Street, Carlin Nevada, 89822 T +1 775 754 2763 M 514-475-8888 E salesna@banlaw.com www.banlaw.com

be directory | 219

earthmoving wearparts

Modern lifestyles expect us to satisfy our customers’ expectations.

Through innovation, our aim is to continuously achieve this

A

t Bonec, we specialise in lubrication equipment, and the supplying and installing of the equipment is our business. Our specialised services also include, grease accessories, absorbent and fast fill systems, automotive manufacturing, pulp and paper mills, industrial pumping equipment and accessories, earthmoving wear parts, grease pumps and fittings, the design of lubrication systems, and providing specialised support and training.

“ We place all of our experience and knowledge on the table to share it with the fellow workers, and customers” 220 | be directory

Bonec are expert suppliers of specialized greases, gear lubricants, hydraulic fluids, metal working fluids, automotive lubricants, environmental control products as well as lubrication systems for various applications in all industries. Bonec are proud suppliers of Carl BECHEM Grease, Sasol Oil products, Rocktech Earthmoving Wearparts, Flosolve Products, Graco Products, SKF Lubrication Systems and Orlaco Products.

Our core business is extending the life time of bearings and bushes on heavy mining equipment and plant areas. Our aim is to work together with all our customers with the main focus being to deliver on a pro-active maintenance mind-set.

Our key consultants work closely with the owner of our business, and together have been pursuing this business direction since 1997. Our key

Bonec Lubrication Equipment

consultants have operated in this field since 1978 and today our investment is in the future of our field. We place all of our experience and knowledge on the table to share it with the fellow workers, and customers.

Back-up modern technology and communication with our suppliers and consultants is available on demand.

Customer satisfaction is very important to us and therefore we supply GET’S and specialized lube products where there is a need for it.

With a wide range of products and

our drive for customer satisfaction and after installation support services we can be your solution to any crisis.

Bonec Lubrication Equipment Dikbas str no 1 Shop no 1 Onverwacht Ellisras T +27 (014) 763 4448 www.bonec-le.co.za

be directory | 221

One engineering services company Servicios de Ingeniería, SERVINCA is a company dedicated to provide Engineering and construction services , with over 33 years of experience in the execution of multidisciplinary projects covering the electrical, mechanical and civil areas for the private and public sectors .

Our vast experience provides multiple Engineering solutions to our clients for Energy Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Electrical – Mechanical Industrial projects such as Beer plants, Airports, Hydro Electrical Dams, Metro, Substations, Structural Steel fabrication and similar works for the Mining sector.

Jiguey & Aguacate Dam, Dominican Republic

As a Dominican Company, positioned as leader in the Engineering, procurement, management and construction of projects in the areas of Energy generation, transmission and distribution, we are pleased to have participated in the execution of large and important projects , having fulfilled the clients expectations by providing a high level service that meets international standards.

Our company has been awarded in multiple occasions by the Dominican Chamber of construction (1988 -1990 and 2002 – 2006) as a recognition of the works executed in electrical and electromechanical projects such as Las Americas International Airport and Monción Hydro electrical Dam. Due to the good results obtained during the period of 2008 – 2012, the growth of our company in the local market has consolidated our position as leader in the Electrical – Mechanical areas, now recognized as a key contractor for the construction of projects for the mining sector.

F336 & K136 Projects – PVDC BARRICK

Our experienced Engineering staff provides our clients with the confidence for the Engineering design and construction of projects, supported by the good results obtained during our business trajectory, having always as a goal to represent the most competitive solution to meet the completion date goals with the quality and safety standards that distinguish our company .

Our politics, mission and vision are oriented to exceed the clients expectations; for this purpose we have implemented our own integrated management system , providing all relevant information and standards to be implemented in our projects to ensure that the most modern and proven management techniques are implemented to obtain the expected results.

1

SERVINCA, with over four years working in the execution of Construction and EPC projects for BARRICK Pueblo Viejo Dominicana Corporation gold mine, have completed a milestone of over 1,200,000 Manhours without lost time incidents, with a demonstrated performance that exceeded the clients expectations by providing competitive Engineering solutions for the construction of electrical, mechanical and civil works for important areas of PVDC process plant and surroundings.

SERVINCA Headquarter – No. 737, Francisco Prats Ramírez, st, El Millón, Sto. Dgo., Dominican Republic.

Phone: (809) 363-0928 / 0925 / 0926 | Fax: (809) 363-0570

Engineering & Construction areas of Focus: • Energy Generation, transmission and distribution: Generation fuel oil, diesel, gas, carbon and combined cycle plants, transmission and distribution power lines, substations, instrumentation and fiber optic communication networks.

• Electrical / Mechanical industrial projects: Beer plants, airports, water treatment plants, cement plants and other related industrial projects.

• Hydraulics / Sanitary mechanical projects: Civil and mechanical works for pipelines, distribution, impulsion, fire system, drainage and other potable and sewage treatment plants, Steel pipes, HDPE, carbon steel, Victaulic, PVC and others.

• Structural steel fabrication and installation: SERVINCA have a complete division for the fabrication and installation of steel works for the construction of medium and large structures such as Steel gates for hydro electrics, structural steels for buildings, pipes supports, fittings, tanks, bridges, industrial doors and other metal mechanical related works.

Servinca awarded company of the year in the Energy Industry, CADOCON Awards 2013 Dominican Republic!

SERVINCA, LEADING ENERGY COMPANY!

Business Main Focus Our business main focus is to provide a high level Engineering and construction solutions for the national and international standards, having several technical divisions, managed by an experienced key personnel oriented to maintain and improve the company growth levels and leadership in the Construction industry.

We have a dedicated group of professionals with the support of special tools and equipment, organized by divisions according to the different Engineering areas of expertise for the execution of multidisciplinary projects, providing the knowledge to implement our own integrated management system to meet the expected success.

We have organized the company structure to provide the best technical / commercial proposal for the development of projects in the private and public sectors, prepared to cover all Electrical / Mechanical / Civil requirements of industrial and mining projects.

• Civil works: general contractor for multiple civil works such as earthworks, concrete works., drilling, foundations, sheet piles, soils and concrete testing lab and other related works.

• General contractor for operation, maintenance and construction: A mining division is implemented to perform multiple services covering all areas of the Engineering for the maintenance, operation and construction of expansion and improvement projects for the gold mine process plant facilities at PVDC.

E-mail: servinca@servinca.com.do/cjcabrera@servinca.com.do/ccabrera@servinca.com.do www.servinca.com.do | RNC 1-01-08699-8

2

Chemistry Delivered

For over 60 years Univar has connected the mining industry with the world’s premier chemical manufacturers

E

stablished in 1924 as a local Seattle source for soda ash and a handful of related products, Univar has grown into a global chemical distributor, employing 7,000 people at 180 sites in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. We serve over 115,000 customers in more than 115 countries, and represent nearly every major industry and a highly diverse set of end markets. We source chemicals from more than 3,500 producers, including the premier global chemical manufacturers, and distribute more than 4,500 chemical products.

Univar began serving Canada in 1950. Today, Univar Canada Ltd. is

“ Univar has grown into a global chemical distributor” 224 | be directory

Canada’s leading chemical distributor, and serves industrial chemical and agricultural chemical needs from over 20 facilities coast-to-coast, from British Columbia to Newfoundland.

Unsurpassed service and product lines Univar is the distribution partner that is transforming the way chemicals are bought, sold and managed in the mining industry. We supply a comprehensive selection of core and specialty chemicals for every stage of mine development, from exploration and extraction to reclamation. The breadth of our product line is unsurpassed, including absorbents and adsorbents, acids and acid cleaners, coagulants, collectors, frothers, mining and ore digging aids, surfactants, water treatment and much more. Our extensive distribution network, global reach and unparalleled logistical expertise provide our customers a consistent and reliable source of supply.

Univar Mining

In addition to our vast product offering, we provide important valueadded services for our customers and suppliers, including: • Product availability and inventory management • Product specification and technical expertise • Blending and mixing • Repackaging and labeling • Just-in-time delivery • Waste management Health, safety and the environment As a world leader in chemical distribution, Univar is committed to being a responsible corporate citizen with a global focus on safety, health, the environment, and

sustainability. The highest priority in the conduct of our business is safety and environmental protection.

Univar mandates commitment to this priority, requiring thorough compliance with our own stringent standards and all government regulations. We are committed to constant vigilance and continuous improvement.

Univar Mining 9800 Van Horne Way Richmond BC V6X 1W5 T +1 855 888 8648 www.univar.com

be directory | 225

WHERE THE WORLD’S MINERAL INDUSTRY MEETS

ONLY GOING TO ONE MINING INVESTMENT SHOW THIS YEAR? MAKE IT PDAC. March 2 – 5, 2014 International Convention, Trade Show & Investors Exchange Metro Toronto Convention Centre Toronto, Canada convention.pdac.ca/pdac/conv/

Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada