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O N L I N E

SEDGMAN

www.sedgman.com

C O R P O R AT E B R O C H U R E

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Sedgman made its name in coal handling and pre all the processes that coal goes through once it h Currently focused on a $5.5 billion global pipeline in coal and metals, some of its biggest opportunit

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eparation, which encompasses has been brought to the surface. e of targeted project opportunities ties now lie in Africa

Sedgman

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o unded 32 years ago in Queensland Australia as a consultant to the engineering and contracting requirements of the mining industry in that country, Sedgman has since grown to be a major international player in coal and minerals processing and materials handling. In 2006 it listed on the ASX, a move that was quickly followed by two significant acquisitions that added a wealth of expertise in the metals mining sector. It bought Pac-Rim, a crushing and screening services company in late 2006 and six months later the minerals process engineering and project management company, Intermet Engineering. So though its core business remains the design, construction and operation of coal handling and preparation plants (CHPPs), of which it has completed more than 100, Sedgman has given itself a much broader market, and is taking this expertise into a number of important markets outside of Australia.

Sedgman Sedgman targets both greenfield and brownfield projects in the main metals provinces in Australia, Southern Africa, Asia and South America. In 2005, it opened an office in Santiago, Chile, which is the regional centre for the company in the Americas, a key area for growth in Sedgman’s international expansion strategy. An office was opened in Beijing in 2008 to secure coal projects that support China’s industrialisation, particularly in Mongolia. In the same year it signed a contract with the Brazilian company Vale Rio Doce to provide design services on the multi-billion dollar Moatize coal project in northern Mozambique.

This was seen as a first step in the company’s global coal expansion programme: in 2010, Sedgman opened an office in Centurion, South Africa, to give it a base for its projects throughout Southern Africa.

So though it’s a fairly new player in South Africa itself, Sedgman plans to become a major player throughout the region.

Jaco Badenhorst joined Sedgman in 2009 from TWP Projects, one of the foremost mining industry EPCM service providers in Southern Africa. He worked in Australia for a couple of years before returning to Africa as chief operations officer, and is currently based in Mozambique keeping an eye on the delivery of a CHPP at the Benga Mine that Rio Tinto recently took over as part of its acquisition of Riversdale.

Mozambique has the biggest coal deposits on the continent, and Badenhorst is keenly aware that the field is wide open for Sedgman. “We are a new player. It might be some time before Sedgman is among the top 10 in South Africa, which is a mature

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market, but there are lots of opportunities in Mozambique that we intend to exploit.

Sedgman intends to be the biggest player in Mozambique!”

The Benga project, in Tete province, is an 850-tonne-per-hour (tph) coking and thermal coal plant that includes run-of-mine (ROM) coal feed, he explains. “Our scope of supply on this site was the coal preparation plant consisting of a separation plant, product

procurement and construction) contract.

It is extremely satisfying to get a plant from design to running, says Badenhorst. Sedgman’s great advantage in Africa is the experience it has gained in Australia, where it has taken the EPCM concept a stage further to the build, own, operate (BOO)

coal handling plant, feed conveyors, reject conveyors and crushers. We are expecting to complete in late 2011.”

Major international mining companies like Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale are lining up to invest in this region, and development is certain to take off once infrastructure— particularly rail links to the Indian Ocean ports and the coal facilities at these ports— has been sufficiently improved. One project already completed in Mozambique is the Sedgman-designed plant in Moatize. It’s a 4,000 tph process plant, one of the world’s largest single-building, four-module coal preparation plants and the largest in the southern hemisphere. “The Moatize plant is running at 1,000 tph now, and there are Sedgman consultants on site assisting Vale to commission the rest of the plant.” Vale is already planning to expand that plant, he says, and when that happens Sedgman will be well placed to land the EPC (engineering,

model in which it has a closed loop from design right though to operating the plant. “In BOO plants we are able to capture the performance feedback and incorporate what we learn into subsequent plants we design. We see that as a great way of refining the efficiency and safety of these plants.” BOO has not yet come to South Africa, but Sedgman is already in discussions with some clients who are interested in the efficiencies offered by this model.

Down in South Africa, Sedgman’s first big project is close to being completed. This is the $48 million expansion at Xstrata’s Atcom coal mine at Witbank near Johannesburg where the CPP was upgraded from 1,000 to 1,700 tph and ROM feeders, conveyors and a new crushing station added. Now it is hoping to land a number of new EPC contracts on the coal side, is in discussions with large-scale iron ore operators in both South Africa and Mozambique, and is already well ahead with its first metal projects. An $85 million EPC contract to develop Discovery Metals’ Boseto copper project in Botswana awarded in 2010 is nearing completion and should be commissioned by

Sedgman the end of this year. “When our expansion and EPC projects come to completion we will revert back to doing consultancy work and studies until such time as we secure more EPC work.�

At Boseto, Sedgman delivered the initial front end engineering design (FEED) and related metallurgical testing for the three million tpa copper flotation plant, then went on to construct the plant consisting of a ball mill, primary crusher, fine ore bin, conveyor and secondary and tertiary crushers. Almost as important as their engineering know-how is the culture of good practice that the Australians export.

The safety record at Boseto includes zero lost time injuries over 150,000 man hours worked on site.

The Boseto Copper Project is located within the Kalahari copper reserve that extends from the Zambian Copperbelt across north-west Botswana and into Namibia. With copper in short supply

there is bound to be more investment in this and in the copper fields of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sedgman has already delivered one project there, at Kinsevere, and will be developing a lot more business in that region, says Badenhorst. However the largest expansion will take place in the coalfields further south, he says.

Meanwhile, when not at his desk, Badenhorst may be found at the gym getting fit for the pre-Christmas cycle race that Sedgman is organising as part of its employee wellness programme. The 50-mile ride from Tete to the Cabora Bassa Dam will take place in late November, and will benefit more people than just the participants—after the race, the bikes brought in from South Africa will be donated to the local community. www.sedgman.com BE

SEDGMAN

www.sedgman.com