Gauteng-based independent and focused mining engineering services provider Ukwazi supplies services to any size of operation, from small mines to large-scale operations moving one-million tons of material a day.
Ukwazi specialises in mine design and mine planning, as well as mine engineering and project management. The company is mining- software-independent and sees itself not only as a user, but also as an expert in the field, working closely with various software suppliers, including Dassault Systèmes, RungePincockMinarco, Trimble, MineRP, Datamine and Bentley.
The company’s services include planning systems implementation, short-, medium- and long-term planning on and off site, feasibility studies and corporate studies such as reporting compliance and due diligence studies.
Ukwazi has five teams operating in a number of focus areas, including underground narrow tabular mining, underground massive mining, openpit mining, opencast and underground coal mining and operational mine planning maintenance.
The company has worked on several prominent projects over the last 12 months, providing independent professional mining engineering services for clients, such as platinum mining major Impala Platinum, diversified miner Glencore, iron-ore major Kumba Iron Ore, Total Coal SA (now Exxaro), Anglo American Coal, diamond producers Petra Diamonds and Gem Diamonds, a number of manganese operations in the Northern Cape and coal producers in Botswana, among many others.
Representing the mine owners’ team on all the projects it is involved in, Ukwazi approaches each project with a proven and compliant planning and mining engineering process, using experienced in-house mining engineers, mine planners, project managers and the most appropriate software tools for each specific project.
“We work as teams, and not as individuals, to ensure long-term continuity and ownership of a project,” says Ukwazi director and principal mining engineer Jaco Lotheringen, adding that Ukwazi’s teams are diversely experienced and focused on its planning and design solutions and the appropriate application thereof.
Established in 2004, Ukwazi employs a staff complement of 30, including 16 mining engineers with 10 to 35 years’ appropriate experience, 11 mine planners and three support staff. Ukwazi employees enjoy a 30% shareholding in the company.
Ukwazi’s 600 m2 office is located at Unit 4B, Hazel Close, at 141 Witch Hazel avenue, in Highveld, Centurion.