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Weir Minerals posts 10% growth as it bucks first-quarter mining trend

7th October 2016

By: Mia Breytenbach

Creamer Media Deputy Editor: Features

  

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Industrial equipment supplier Weir Minerals Africa has “bucked the mining trend for the year”, says Weir Minerals Africa and Middle East regional MD Gavin Dyer.

Despite double-digit negative growth in the South African mining industry in the first three months of 2016, the company showed 10% positive growth in the same period, he tells Mining Weekly.

This is a significant variance and substantial output for the first half of 2016, says Dyer, who believes that the company is even better positioned for growth in the second half of 2016.

“Weir Minerals has seen this [positive growth] continue through every month of the year, and that has been across our full range of products. There is nothing in terms of the level of order intake and the level of engagement that suggests this growth will taper off towards the second half of the year. We certainly hope that these figures are also indicative [of performance] in 2017 and beyond.”

Weir Minerals Africa’s original-equipment sales for 2016 are also comparable to those of 2013, despite current market conditions, Dyer adds.

He attributes the growth to Weir Minerals Africa’s changed model of engagement and responsiveness and a reshuffled inventory, as well as an integrated approach to customer requirements.

Potential Growth and Current Success
Given a substantial installed base of slurry pumps across Africa, Dyer expects growth to come from new slurry pump technologies and service support for these products, but believes that potential growth will primarily stem from the company’s nonslurry product offering, and particularly its comminution product and solution offering. He attributes this outlook to the infrastructure build opportunities in the Middle East and Africa.

As part of its diversification strategy into different markets, Weir Minerals Africa acquired the Trio group of companies in 2014 and has been investing significantly in enhancing this offering.

Dyer emphasises that the acquisition provided not only an opportunity for Weir Minerals Africa in the sand and aggregates sector but also entry into the crushing, and particularly comminution, divisions of mining.

The ongoing success of the company’s Trio products has enabled it to tap into several opportunities in the infrastructure build and comminution space, with this success evident in two recent significant projects.

Weir Minerals Africa is in the process of delivering a full crushing, screening and conveying solution for a gold mine in Saudi Arabia, says Weir Minerals Africa GM for Trio products JD Singleton. Weir received the order for the solution, valued at more than $3-million, in February.

The plant, which has been shipped to site and is being installed, comprises a 400 t/h three-stage crushing plant that includes a primary crusher, a secondary crusher and a tertiary crusher. All feeders, conveyors, the grizzly and mechanical equipment are designed by Weir Minerals in Africa and built and supplied by Weir Minerals’ Trio facilities in China.

“This is the first significant mining and crushing and screening plant in gold mining in the Middle East,” Singleton highlights, adding that the plant should be completed and commissioned this month.

While the products were manufactured at Weir Minerals’ facilities in China, the entire project was secured, provided for and supported by the Trio teams in Dubai and South Africa, he adds.

Weir Minerals Africa is also commissioning a 300 t/h sand and aggregates production plant, valued at more than $1-million, in Zambia. The project is being undertaken by the Trio support team from the company’s branch in Kitwe, which also supports several mines operating on the country’s Copperbelt.

Weir Minerals Africa received the order in December 2015. Owing to delayed civil works, installation is ongoing, Singleton says.

Key features of the custom-designed plant include its mobility, as it is built on a wheeled base, while new high-speed, top-performance Trio TP cone crushers used at the plant are also lighter than traditional cone crushers, he adds.

Weir Minerals Africa strategy and marketing head Rene Calitz highlights that the company, through its flexibility and operational efficiencies, is continuously developing equipment to meet its customers’ changing needs.

Dyer agrees, adding that, consequently, the company developed the capacity to design, engineer and deliver full crushing plants. “Weir Minerals Africa’s offering of Trio and Enduron equipment has gained increased market acceptance, with a sound reference base of satisfied customers driving incremental market share gains across the region,” he concludes.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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