Mineral-processing company Sedgman has reaffirmed its confidence in the African resources market by refocusing its African operations and strengthening its standing as a provider of mineral processing and associated infrastructure solutions globally.

Owing to a strategic company reshuffle towards the end of last year, Sedgman’s service offerings across its offices in Australia, Africa, South America, North America and Asia were assigned to develop Create, Build and Operate groups that would drive its mission to strengthen its market offering.

As a result, Sedgman Africa has adjusted its presence in the local market, with its Centurion office now focusing on the Create project development and implementation phase of projects through feasibility studies and front-end engineering.

“There is a definite upturn in activity across a number of mineral commodities in Africa. It is mainly early study type work that we see at present with our new structure, which allows us to provide our clients with a locally based team at a cost-effective rate for their African projects,” says Sedgman Africa business and projects manager Mark Berger.

He adds that, when the company was established in South Africa in 2008, a similar development approach was applied. This allowed the company to complete a number of coal projects in Mozambique and copper projects in Botswana, the majority of which were executed on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis.

Once projects move into execution, the local core team is maintained and draws support from the global Build team to meet client and project requirements.

While many mineral processing companies deliver projects under an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) model, Sedgman is commercially flexible with a history of EPC delivery, says Sedgman project delivery group manager Danie Coetzee, which he believes adds value to the company and the projects it delivers.

“Lump sum EPC has been Sedgman’s primary method of delivery throughout its 35-year history and it remains our core offering because it provides assurance – both cost and time – for our clients,” he adds.

With Sedgman taking fixed price risk, which proves to be commercially effective for clients, the company is also open to sharing risk value and impacts against target outcomes with a client in target cost or guaranteed maximum price models.

Moreover, Coetzee indicates that Sedgman has also expanded its operational implementation options, which now range from consulting through to full contract operations.

“Our operations business has added immense value to our clients over the years and has become an integral link between project completion and steady-state operations,” he points out.

Adding to this, Sedgman engineering group manager Kent van Twest states that a long-standing emphasis on technological advancements remains key under the new structure.

“Through concept development and studies, we work closely with clients to create a cost-effective solution suited for their operation,” he notes.

Morever, the company designs and uses technological advancements to build the desired plant to be cost efficient and allows efficient productivity, Van Twest indicates.

“After construction, our team ensures the plant is operational and meets the required specifications.”

Owing to this, Van Twest mentions that the restructure enables Sedgman to stay ahead of its competitors by harnessing its core technical capability and commercial knowledge globally to build the design, delivering effective, tailored solutions for clients.

He explains that different tasks pertaining to the project being worked on are assigned to the most appropriate offices to provide the best technical and most cost-efficient solution.

“Drawing advice and expertise from our global offices allows us to remain streamlined to market needs and deliver accordingly. We customise every project to our client’s needs harnessing our core technical capability and commercial knowledge,” Van Twest concludes.