Total technology solutions provider to the global mining, minerals and bulk materials handling sectors Tenova Mining & Minerals will showcase its comprehensive offering across the mining and minerals value chain at the 2014 Investing in African Mining Indaba, which will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 3 to 6.

“The focus of the our exhibit will be on the capabilities and track record of Tenova Mining & Minerals’ engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services provider, Tenova Bateman,” says Tenova Bateman Sub-Saharan Africa MD Tollie Nel, who notes that the African Mining Indaba is largely a project-focused event.

However, he adds that the company will use the opportunity to showcase and communicate the full range of services that its other business units offer, which enables Tenova to provide a comprehensive solutions-based approach to its clients.

“Of particular interest is Tenova Bateman Technologies’ modular plants and advanced process technologies, which include the solvent extraction suite of products. Additionally, Tenova Delkor’s solids/liquids separation products and Tenova Takraf opencast and underground mining and bulk handling solutions will be represented,” highlights Nel.

He adds that Tenova Mining & Minerals has participated in the Mining Indaba every year since 2001.

“We previously participated as Bateman Engineering, which is now Tenova Bateman, a Tenova Mining & Minerals company and brand. Most importantly for us, the Mining Indaba enables our people to meet and network with existing clients and potential new ones.

“The Mining Indaba enables us to receive direct feedback from our clients, which enables us to better understand their future project needs. It also strengthens our client relationships and helps us establish the best way of helping them by enhancing our existing processes and technologies, plant design and equipment offerings,” states Nel.

He further emphasises that the Mining Indaba provides a platform that enables and assists companies in their industry to establish relationships, which increases the likelihood of securing new contracts after the conference.

“The Mining Indaba has the potential to attract investments for projects that we can be involved in, which could benefit the industry as a whole and, ultimately, the societies and economies in which we operate,” states Nel.

He adds that the broad range of presentations from experts and industry leaders on the current state and outlook of Africa’s diverse mining industry provides further vital insights for the company.

“The Mining Indaba also affords us the opportunity to better understand what our competitors are doing and what they are offering, which is important for us to ensure that we remain differentiated and competitive,” says Nel.

Insight into African Mining

In November 2013, Nel told Mining Weekly that despite the gold price having dropped, there was still more exploration activity in Africa’s gold sector than in other commodity sectors on the continent.

“Recently, there has been a focus on iron-ore, but it seems that gold is still pursued more actively, even though the gold price is currently low. Once the gold price starts improving, we can expect further developments in Africa’s gold sector,” he said.

Nel notes that West Africa is a promising gold-focused mining market. He highlights that, in the past year, Tenova Mining & Minerals completed a feasibility study for a gold mine in Guinea.

“However, this is not to discount the continued importance of iron-ore, as well as that of other commodities,” notes Nel, adding that Tenova Bateman Sub-Saharan Africa is fully supporting Aim-listed London Mining’s iron-ore growth strategy in Sierra Leone.

Tenova Bateman is involved in the iron-ore miner’s Marampa Phase 1 expansion project and feasibility studies for the future Marampa 5 and Marampa 10 expansion projects.

Nel also predicts that there will be a greater focus on uranium in the next few years. “The market price is currently depressed but, once prices start improving and more nuclear power stations are commissioned, the demand for uranium will improve dramatically, thus resulting in increased uranium mining activity.”

He acknowledged that investors have been more apprehensive about being involved in nuclear power projects since the Fukushima disaster in March 2011. However, he notes the uranium market is expected to grow as interest in alternative sources of power generation increase.

Tenova Bateman Sub-Saharan Africa is part of a joint venture (JV) with engineering firm Amec. The JV is responsible for a reimbursable contract for the EPCM of a uranium metallurgical plant for uranium mining company Swakop Uranium’s Husab project, in Namibia.

“We also recently received work for developing a zinc/lead deposit, and, in 2013, completed a project for a mineral sands operation.

Following commissioning, the 40 tph dry magnetic separation plant for the Unattritioned Mags Material (UMM) plant at Exxaro’s Tronox/Namakwa Sands heavy minerals mine, near Brand-se-Baai, in South Africa, has been operating at full capacity since September 2013. Tenova Bateman’s scope of work covered detailed design, erection, installation testing and commissioning of the plant.

“Owing to the lack of infrastructure in Africa, logistics challenges have affected the continent’s mining industry,” says Nel, who believes that the respective governments, and not private companies, as is customary, need to take greater responsibility for infrastructure development programmes.

“In Africa, many mining companies are developing their own infrastructure, but governments should take over these projects to enable these companies to focus on their core business, which is mining,” he says, adding that mining projects lose viability when forced to take on the responsibility of infrastructure development projects too.

With reference to the Corridor Sands project, in the Gaza province of Mozambique, he says: “That project never progressed beyond the feasibility studies that began 12 years ago, as the need for infrastructure development in the area and the subsequent costs involved outweighed the potential benefits.”

Nel notes that another challenge for the African mining industry is the lack of skilled and professional labour, which makes it increasingly difficult to build competent mining project teams.

“This could result in mining companies entering into more joint ventures to enable large mining projects to share their human resources,” he says.

He adds that, to address this issue, governments need to be more aggressive in their skills development incentive programmes.

Nel, however, is optimistic about the outlook for the African mining industry, noting that the continent has the potential to offer significant returns on investment in the next 10 to 20 years.