Advanced technologies, products and engineering services provider to the global mining, minerals and bulk materials handling industries Tenova Mining & Minerals held its inaugural Southern Africa Client Symposium – with the theme ‘Pushing the boundaries of technology for innovative client solutions’ – in Johannesburg this month.

A similar client symposium was held earlier this year in Denver, in the US, and the next two symposia are planned to take place during 2014 in Moscow, Russia and, thereafter, most likely in Mumbai, India.

Two keynote speakers at the Johannesburg symposium included financial advisory firm Investment Solutions chief economist Chris Hart and scenario planning consultant, author and former Anglo American executive Clem Sunter.

The keynote speakers rein- forced the economic and developmental importance of the global mining and minerals sectors, which, ultimately, serve and benefit all societies in all countries.

Delegates in attendance comprised clients, major project houses, partners, academia, engineering consultancies and suppliers, financial institutions and the media from the Southern Africa region, which includes Botswana, Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique.

Tenova Mining & Minerals hosts these symposia as a plat- form for all interested stake- holders to meet as well as share and discuss their latest technologies and innovations for the global mining, minerals and bulk materials handling sectors.

Tenova Mining & Minerals decided to host the event as client relations and its understanding of the brand’s market offering are critical aspects of its ongoing process of positioning, building and affirming its brand as a preferred supplier in the mining, minerals and bulk mate- rials handling markets, said Tenova Mining & Minerals brand and communications executive Tom Fraser, noting that the company’s market offering is based on its ongoing understanding of evolving client needs.

Tonova Mining & Minerals president Walter Küng added that these symposia afford the company an oppor- tunity to interact with and listen to and best understand its clients’ evolving needs and industry challenges in an open and public discussion forum, while also providing a platform for introducing recent Tenova Mining & Minerals advance technologies and developments.

“This is of great value and benefit to all, as confirmed to us by various clients who attended,” says Küng.

The company plans to hold a client symposium in each of its key trading regions every few years, during which it will strive to foster, build and sustain value adding and mutually beneficial client and stakeholder relationships, while also sharing information with clients.

Tenova Mining & Minerals’ two aims with each symposium are to ensure that each delegate in attendance develops an enhanced understanding of what the company offers its clients so that the company can deliver value to clients through improved client solu- tions based on advanced tech- nologies and, as importantly, that the brand offering evolves through ongoing understanding of changing client needs.

Fraser said the turnout at the Johannesburg symposium was in line with expectations and he was pleased about the mix of delegates who attended.

The event drew existing and potential clients, including major global project houses, mining houses and attendees from the power generation and municipal sectors, as well as various buyers and users of its services, tech- nologies and equipment.

Meanwhile, notwithstanding the ongoing aftermath of the world financial crisis, which is still affecting various regions worldwide and influencing clients in their reviewing plans and projects that involve greenfield investment, Tenova Mining & Minerals achieved its financial objectives for the past financial year ending June 2013, which included focusing more strongly on internal cost management.

While the aftermath of the financial crisis still places pressure on industry players, such as Tenova Mining & Minerals and many of its competitors, the company has noted a tendency by its clients to invest in brownfield plant upgrades and in major refurbishments and maintenance, using newer and better technologies for enhanced efficiencies and per- formance to maximise the sweating of existing assets, said Tenova Takraf Africa sales GM Philip le Roux.

“This trend provides us with an excellent opportunity to lever- age our in-house engineering, procurement and project management services, technology offering, equipment supply and aftermarket client support services to undertake upgrades and major refur- bishments, which we are con- fident will result in our ending the current year on target,” he concludes.