Company Announcement -The Murray & Roberts Underground Mining platform not only has growth in its order book, but with 22 active shaft projects underway globally, is the single most active shaft sinking group in the world outside of China. This is according to Allan Widlake, Business Development Executive of Murray & Roberts Cementation. The Murray & Roberts Group has sunk the deepest single-lift shaft in South Africa (at South Deep), the deepest single-lift shaft in the USA (at Resolution) and the deepest shaft in Canada (at Kidd). It is also busy sinking what will be the deepest shaft in the US, namely a winze, at Lucky Friday.
The platform comprises the following businesses: Murray & Roberts Cementation (Johannesburg based); Cementation Canada (North Bay based); Cementation USA (Salt Lake City based); Cementation Sudamérica (Santiago based) and RUC Cementation Mining (Perth based). The Murray & Roberts Group consists of three additional operating platforms. The new Oil & Gas platform was previously known as Construction Australasia Oil & Gas and Minerals, the Energy & Industrial Platform was previously known as Engineering Africa while the Infrastructure & Building platform was previously known as Construction Africa and the Middle East. “The Underground Mining platform will be the main focus at Mining Indaba, with the other three platforms participating too, as a large part of their business is exposed to the mining sector. We believe that Mining Indaba 2015 will be the premier event to showcase our total service offering to the mining industry, with synergies across all four operating platforms,” Widlake says.
“We are utilising both the Australian and Canadian experience in our platform to introduce First World development and shaft sinking expertise into the South African mining industry,” Widlake says. Additional cooperation between South Africa and Australia has involved the establishment of internal joint ventures to bring skill sets together for projects elsewhere in Africa. Murray & Roberts Cementation itself is focusing on West, Southern and East Africa as its main target markets. “We have opened an office in Zambia and entered into a partnership with Enterprise Générale Malta Forrest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In terms of Ghana, the Murray & Roberts Group opened an office in Accra in 2013.
“In Zambia, Murray & Roberts Cementation is blind sinking and equipping the main shaft at Mopani Copper Mines’ Synclinorium Shaft. We are equipping the shaft at present,” Widlake says. Similarly, Murray & Roberts Cementation is carrying out shaft sinking and high speed development at the Mufulira Deeps expansion project for Mopani Copper Mines.
In South Africa, Murray & Roberts Cementation is delivering a twin vertical and single decline shaft (blind sink) at Sasol’s Impumelelo. It is deepening the No. 1 and 3 shafts at Petra Diamonds’ Cullinan mine, in addition to slipe and line development, while it is blind sinking a ventilation shaft at Assmang’s Gloria mine.
Key to this global reputation is the Underground Mining platform’s proactive environment management policy to minimise any potentially negative impacts. Stop.Think.Act.24/7 is the Murray & Roberts Group’s global health and safety brand aimed at educating and motivating employees to take responsibility for their own and their colleagues’ safety at home and in the work environment.
In terms of Murray & Roberts Cementation’s outlook, Widlake says: “We are seeing a lot more opportunity on the continent in terms of new projects. We’ve seen recent growth in our in our order book and we are hopeful to add additional projects in the short term.”