Construction group Murray & Roberts experienced strong growth in its mining contracting business for the year to June 2009.

Murray & Roberts’ mining business comprises Murray & Roberts Cementation, which is based in South Africa and is responsible for work on the African continent; Cementation Canada, which is based in North Bay and focuses on North America; RUC Cementation, in Australia, which caters for the Australasia region; and the recently estab- lished Cementation South America, in Chile, responsible for opportunities in the Chilean market.

These geographical areas represent about 75% of the regions where exploration spend is incurred by global mining companies, and Murray & Roberts Cementation MD Henry Laas says that Murray & Roberts is well positioned to take up the opportunities that are being presented in these markets.

The company has also decided to use the Cementation brand globally for the Murray & Roberts mining businesses, and the four companies are now collectively referred to as the Cementation Group. The company reports that the Cementation Group is positioning itself as a global business to engage major international mining houses.

Laas says that the Cem-entation Group is well positioned geographically to service the global mining sector even though the current market is still depressed following the global financial downturn.

Murray & Roberts Cem-entation will be exhibiting at the 2010 Mining Indaba, in Cape Town.

Laas reports that Murray & Roberts Cementation had a strong financial performance in 2009 and that it aims to maintain this performance in 2010.

He says that a lack of opportunities for new major projects and market competition are some of the challenges currently facing the mining contracting industry. Opportunities need to be selected with caution and discipline, as a single loss-making contract in the current economic climate can significantly erode overall business profit, he adds.

Laas says that the strength of the rand in South Africa is putting pressure on mining companies to reduce their cost bases. Some of these companies have decided to terminate contracts and rather perform work in-house using resources that became available from cutbacks elsewhere in their businesses.

Safety
Safety remains a significant focus for the company. Murray & Roberts Cementation’s safety initiative, ‘1st Choice Pro-gramme’, was started to engage all its employees in an attempt to improve the safety performance of Murray & Roberts Cementation.

Laas says that the company has noted that good business systems and training are not adequate to achieve outstanding safety performance and it requires a holistic business culture that is supportive of safe outcomes. “We are optimistic that we will achieve a meaningful improvement in our safety performance,” he says.