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Company initiates training on explosives for mining industry

13th September 2013

By: Zandile Mavuso

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

  

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To take full advantage of the booming commodities market in Zambia over the next few years, explosives supplier BME plans to intensively invest in new blasting technologies and training, BME international marketing GM Ralf Hennecke tells Mining Weekly.

For this reason, the South Africa-based company has initiated training programmes in Zambia in the past year.

“Blasting is crucial to success in any mining operation. However, declining levels of blasting skills are costing the mining industry millions in lost production every year,” he notes.

With 37 clients in Zambia, BME regards the skills development of local staff as its responsibility, thereby ensuring the provision of excellent service. The company currently employs over 130 people in Zambia and it believes that skills development is essential to building a valuable and sustainable business in the country.

“In line with our growing Zambian footprint, the company has an administration head office in the Copperbelt city of Chingola – which it is currently expanding – and depots in Lusaka, Kafue and Ndola, which will serve as a pivotal support structure for the company’s expansion target,” Hennecke says.

BME international business manager Johann Kotze further states that it is important that the company keeps support functions updated in the country where it operates, as it has to stay abreast of the pace of its market expansion. These support functions include administration, human resources, safety, finance and technical support.

“With rapid expansion, outdated support functions can lead to misadministration and/or diminishing quality performance in the market, leading to loss in efficiencies or reputation. Neither of these can be afforded if a company wants to remain attractive to a foreign environment, such as the Zambian mining sector,” says Kotze.

He further points out that developing skills among staff will also be important in supporting the company’s expansion into neighbouring countries. “We are active in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there are significant opportunities for us to supply our services and products for effective use in the mining sector,” he adds.

Blasting Conference in Africa
To strengthen skills in the sector, BME aims to replicate – albeit on a smaller scale – its highly successful yearly blasting conference, which it hosts for the mining industry in South Africa.

BME will host its twenty-first yearly drilling and blasting conference on November 7 at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), in Pretoria. BME MD Francois Hay notes that BME is committed to creating customer wealth by leveraging knowledge, which is the reason why the company hosts the conference every year. It promises to be an informative day, when personnel from the industry will have the opportunity to network.

“In July, we had a well-attended underground-focused conference in Chingola and an opencast-focused seminar in Solwezi, where interested parties shared expertise among the members of the national community of practitioners and authorities.

“We plan to develop this conference into a forum to which we will invite international speakers, where customers can present papers on their experiences and government officials can talk about issues such as legislation and compliance,” Hennecke points out.

BME highlights that the outcome of the conference in July has triggered the need to host such conferences biennially in Zambia, prompting the company to plan the second conference of this nature.

“We also noted, through the conference, that mining companies could really benefit from more sophisticated training and knowledge. The knowledge imparted during the conference cannot be disseminated into the mining sector within days – it calls for many training interventions in the future. The hunger for knowledge by the Zambian mining sector was very evident,” Kotze explains.

The company has also partnered with the University of the Copperbelt, at Kitwe, as part of its corporate social responsibility drive to improve the skills and employability of local learners.

“We have worked with the university to refurbish lecture rooms for the engineering department and fitted them with computer hardware. Also, we are evaluating the success of this project as we plan to expand it further,” highlights Hennecke.

Further, the company has been involved with the community at its administrative hub, in Chingola, for some years, where it has built a school for 150 local children and funds the costs of teachers, school lunches, stationery and other items.

“This is an ongoing project for us and is just another way of giving back to the community that hosts us. By getting involved in education in its earliest stages, we hope to help build the skills and abilities that will feed the development of the Zambian economy in the future,” he concludes.

Edited by Megan van Wyngaardt
Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

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