Leading construction group Aveng reports that it is pleased with
the growth in its mining and earthmoving cluster, which now
accounts for about a quarter of the total revenue of the
construction cluster.
During the 12 months to June this year, the JSE Securities
Exchange-listed group attained a total revenue of R13,2-billion, of
which 72% was accounted for by the construction cluster, which
comprises Grinaker-LTA, a wholly-owned subsidiary, and its seven
business units. Aveng is also involved in steel trading and
processing, through Trident Steel and Grinaker-LTA Infrastructure
and Mining Services, and in cement producfactor of lime stone crusher to clinkertion, through Alpha
Cement, a 46%-owned subsidiary. During the last financial year,
Aveng increased the ratio of revenue from outside the rand area
– comprising South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland
– from 35% to 45%, and CE Carl Grim is optimistic that the
figure will reach 50% in the next year.
aggregate production mobile crushers and screeners
Significant mining revenue is earned from outside the rand area, in
hard currency.
Grim tells Mining Weekly that there has been encouraging growth in
Aveng’s mining business, both in Southern Africa and in other parts
of the continent. Aveng offers underground and opencast
contractrare earth mining equipment-mining services, but Grim says the group is stronger in
surface mining.
„We provide any services to the mining sector which fit in with our
expertise,“ he states, adding that, generally, the contracts that
Aveng gets are of around five years duration. In Africa, it has
undertaken mining projects in Botswana, Guinea, Mali, Namibia,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Grim says that Aveng has bought twelve 100-t trucks, 200-t shovels
and associated equipment for use at the Phoenix mine, in Botswana,
where it has a contract to transport ore from the mine to the
crusher.
The Phoenix mine is one of the two mines owned by Tati Nickel
Mining, which produced 12 600 t of nickel and 2 157 t of copper
last year.
Aveng has also acquired twelve 200-t dump-trucks and two large
electric shovels, to be used at Marikana, a $61-million project
being developed by Australian junior platinum-miner Aquarius.
All the major construction contracts at Marikana are now in place,
with completion of the project expected before year end.
Commissioning of the concentrator is expected to start from
November and continue through December, with the first concentrate
available for delivery by January.
A steady build-up in production is expected during the first half
of next year to a level of 155 000 oz of platinum-group metals a
year.
Grim says the mining sector in South Africa and beyond has also
benefited Aveng’s steel business.
„Structural-steel sales into mining and energy construction
projects have been strong,“ he notes.
Alpha, which controls about 35% of South Africa’s cement market,
saw volumes decline by 1% during the last financial year, but this
was compensated for by improved efficiencies.
Having successfully completed the Alpha 2000 project to improve
operational efficiencies, the company has now embarked on a
three-year R340-million capital-expenditure-driven efficiency
programme.