https://www.miningweekly.com

SRK gearing up for African expansion

7th November 2014

By: Sashnee Moodley

Senior Deputy Editor Polity and Multimedia

  

Font size: - +

Global engineering consultancy SRK Consulting is gearing up to expand its African footprint, with a focus on local skills development and a strategy to be a leader in providing African natural resource development solutions and sustainable solutions.

Speaking at a media briefing at the SRK House, in Johannesburg, last month, SRK chairperson and corporate consultant Roger Dixon said the company’s strategy included harnessing the available skills in-country and providing ongoing mentoring.

SRK Consulting invited a panel of its managers and partners from SRK offices across Africa to discuss the prospects in their respective regions.

SRK Consulting has 776 projects across 26 countries in Africa with 15 offices on the continent.

SRK Consulting MD Peter Labrum said the company’s expansion strategy was based on long-term investments in selected countries where it had identified the right local experts and a landscape of opportunity.

He added that this might mean that there were no quick returns, but the company could ensure its exacting standards were applied and its capacity was continuously built overtime.

Dixon noted that there was a need for improved monitoring of projects in Africa as well as capacity building. The services most in demand are water, environmental, social and infrastructure.

Labrum noted that the importance of environmental and social services had become critical to the success of mining and infrastructure projects in recent years.

“The demand for our water expertise has also grown owing to infrastructure requirements, especially in rural area. “It is important that African professionals and technical skills drive economic development on the continent, spreading the benefits of investment and ensuring that primary industries, such as mining and energy, create a broader foundation of diversified growth,” he said.

SRK Consulting Congo country manager Susa Maleba noted that the services most in demand in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were exploration and resource estimation for geology, environmental- and social-impact assessments and environmental audits.

“The major geology projects in the region are exploration and resource estimation. There is also a need for environmental and social studies, which we are conducting for three cement plants north-west of the DRC. We are also trying to develop skills in-house for studies requiring international standards so that most work can be done internally,” he revealed

Looking to the future, the prospects in the DRC looked bright, he said.

The company is building its employee capacity through expertise from other SRK offices, workshops and fieldwork on selected projects.

SRK Congo is positioning itself as a consultant of choice for companies in the DRC through competitive costs, reduced timeframes, availability and a good understanding of the operating environment.

Further, its environmental and social studies meet DRC requirements and the company’s exploration teams are familiar with the regional geology and working environment.

Maleba added that exploration activities in the region had started to increase and that infrastructure was being upgraded and electricity problems were being resolved, attracting more mining investments and providing more work.

SRK Zimbabwe country manager Arimon Ngilazi revealed that the company’s prospects were positive, adding that it was undertaking a $4.5-million exploration, geology and mining prefeasibility and feasibility study of a platinum-group metals project in Zimbabwe.

The exploration work has started and the prefeasibility study is expected to start in 2015.

He said there was the possibility of another bankable feasibility study in the diamond sector.

“Our projections show the best quarter will be between October and December 2014 and the outlook is good going into 2015. We will continue with small projects, such as the life-of-mine extension advisory services, the compilation of competent persons’ reports, and project reviews,” he said.

However, he noted that the financing of mining projects from local banks would remain elusive as the banks were also stressed. Large companies would remain the mainstay of mining business, especially those with external linkages for new financing.

Meanwhile, small companies or new entrants from within Zimbabwe would require SRK’s services to attract external investments, he said.

Mining Market Downturn
The past year had been challenging, owing to the general downturn in the mining market, Dixon noted. However, the industry appeared to be recovering from the downturn.

Exploration activities in the West African subregion had started increasing and new mines were opening in Burkina Faso. Interest in the mineral sector was also increasing in Nigeria and the oil industry was booming, offering opportunities for social and environmental services.

The industry had also seen retrenchments and unemployment, with major mining companies cutting employment across the board.

“It is unclear when the sector will start recovering from its cyclical low, but mining companies will then need the technical skills that they are now retrenching. “Some skills are readily available, as a good number of mining personnel have been laid off owing to this downturn,” Dixon said.

Further, declining commodity prices were affecting not only Africa but also countries like Australia.

The Ebola outbreak in certain parts of West Africa had also presented a challenge, as SRK could not respond to client requests coming out of the Ebola endemic countries.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION