Established in South Africa in 1979, Novatek has been a pioneer in hydropower ever since. Based in Gauteng, wholly South African owned, and a Level 7 broad-based black economic-empowerment contributor, Novatek develops and manufactures innovative rockdrilling and mining machinery, with the objective to make mining safer, more profitable and to make new technology implementation easy for its clients.

The energy-saving benefits, productivity and safety of hydropower are becoming increasingly important in meeting the challenges facing the South African mining industry and Novatek is considered a market leader in the design and development of water-powered rockdrills and in localised turnkey hydropower systems.

Novatek’s expertise lies in hydropowered mining equipment and it supplies a range of products and services that include complete turnkey hydropowered mining systems, rockdrills for hand-held and rig use, drilling and roofbolting rigs, mining tools, powering systems, reticulation equipment, on-site contract maintenance and hydropower training, assessment and moderation.

Novatek is able to employ a combination of hydropower, oil hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical technologies to suit customer requirements through a product range that extends from simple drilling jigs for ‘appropriate mechanisation’ to more sophisticated electro-hydraulic rigs for drilling in large ends, raises, gullies and in shaft sinking.

Novatek operates nine mine site workshops for key customers in addition to its head office workshop in Robertsham, Johannesburg, and our customers include blue chip mining operations in the gold, platinum and contract mining industries. The head office houses a 3 800 m2 factory, stores, workshops and assembly areas and manufacturing is done in-house in a well-equipped facility to ISO 9001 standards.

Products are all engineered in-house using three-dimensional computer-aided design systems, the firm’s data acquisition capability and dedicated development and testing facilities. Novatek holds a number of patents on its products.