From a modest start 30 years ago as an electrical control and instrumentation company, DRA has morphed into one of the continent’s largest project management and engineering enterprises, with operations in Africa, North America, Europe and the Pacific. It is to these international markets that the company is now looking to fuel its growth plans.

“We are based in South Africa, but we are a global company,” says CEO Paul Thomson, of the private, employee-owned DRA, which Brian Dowding and Tony Reynard established in Johannesburg in 1984.

DRA has proved its capability to execute projects around the world with about half of its business now originating from outside its native South Africa. The company has expanded into nine African countries, Australia, Canada, China and India and its recent acquisition of Taggart Global has cemented its position in the Americas region, establishing DRA as the largest coal processing and engineering firm in the world.

Thomson believes the western hemisphere, where exploration is still going strong, holds the most opportunity for DRA. He says Taggart’s brand awareness and record of project delivery in the coal and power generation industries, coupled with DRA’s minerals and metals experience, make a compelling story for the group in North and South America.

The acquisition of Taggart, which is seen as the number-one coal processing engineering procurement and construction group in North America, has significantly supplemented DRA’s coal capabilities and local and international coal project portfolio.

DRA Taggart CEO Rick McCormick says Taggart controls up to 60% of the coal processing market in the US. The business has also diversified into utilities and operations, with about half of Taggart’s gross margins now coming from utility operations and coal beneficiation operations.

“The utility operations are a unique niche in the coal-fired power plant market. Taggart intercepts the fuel stream to the power plant and, through precombustion treatment, is able to lower mercury, sulphur oxides and nitrous oxides pollutants. This technology, although only licensed to Taggart, has potential for growth throughout the world,” he says.

The Taggart acquisition further provided DRA with cold-weather experience, which the North American market believed DRA lacked, as well as a larger project team and engineering support system in North America.

Fitting into DRA’s international growth strategy, DRA Taggart is continuously investigating diversification options, says McCormick

“While we will continue to defend the US home base in the coal industry, we have set targets for DRA Taggart to develop and become a major player in the biofuels, frac sand and water treatment industry,” he tells Mining Weekly.

He explains that building processing plants for frac sand will be DRA’s entry into the well-established gas industry in North America. DRA Taggart also intends to develop a water treatment group to tackle the growing market of gas well water and the chemicals industry water challenges.

Another focus area for DRA Taggart in North America will be to use the resources available from its South Africa-headquartered parent company to market hard rock and minerals capabilities across the US and Canada.

The DRA Americas office, situated in Toronto, Canada, and the DRA Taggart office in Pittsburgh, US, have been combined to function as one unit – DRA Taggart.

Organic and Acquisitive Growth
DRA has mostly grown organically in the last three decades, but it is increasingly looking at acquisitions, such as the Taggart deal, or joint ventures to expand its global business. “Organic growth is still relevant in the South African context, but to grow an international business organically will take too long to suit our current strategy,” explains Thomson.

In Australia, DRA recently signed a partnership agreement with mine planning consultancy Orelogy to boost its support of Australian companies with African projects. However, to really corner that market, Thomson believes DRA may have to consider another deal and reveals that the group is “looking at options” in the region.

“The time is now – before the boom kicks in, and it will kick in,” he says, adding that the current market is a buyer’s market.

DRA has been operating in Australasia since 2004. Its Mandarin office, in Beijing, supports global procurement and the offices in Perth and Brisbane support the local Australian mining industry and Australian clients with African tenements.

DRA, which also has an agreement with Afrasia Mining & Energy, of Turkey, is continuously looking at partnerships to grow and diversify its business, both geographically and from a service expertise point of view.

It is DRA’s preparedness to take on new challenges in new environments that has contributed to the company’s success in the last 30 years and it also distinguishes the group from many of its competitors.

“How we became the company we are today is really the result of being innovative and adaptive, responding to the environment and not holding onto our successes but being prepared to keep on challenging ourselves and our current boundaries,” says Thomson.

DRA started off in coal and platinum, but diversified into the chrome, diamonds, iron-ore, gold and other commodities. One of the group’s most recent successes is its involvement in gold projects in Africa, with Perseus Mining’s Edikan project, in Ghana, setting it on the gold path. DRA was the project developer of the Kibali gold project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, on behalf of Randgold Resources and AngloGold Ashanti, and is currently developing Aureus Mining’s New Liberty project, in Liberia.

Partnership Approach
DRA’s approach to its relationship with its clients has also hugely contributed to the group’s success. Director Johann de Bruin tells Mining Weekly that, in its 30 years of existence, DRA has never entered litigation, despite completing difficult projects in some of the harshest contracting environments. Regardless of this “unusual” approach in the contracting world, DRA has almost no bad debt.

“Our approach to partnerships is one of understanding that there are always challenges. We try to find a solution that benefits the project, which ultimately benefits the client, ourselves and the contractor,” he says.

DRA’s relationship with its clients means that it is often approached for repeat work, with more than 75% of its business being from existing clients. “That says a lot about DRA’s ability to complete projects with a happy client and a happy contractor,” De Bruin adds.

Looking ahead, Thomson says DRA is highly aware of the negative light in which mining is seen and that it has an obligation to its clients and stakeholders to ensure sustainable mining practices. Hence, the group is pushing a ‘green theme’ in all its engineering designs and project execution to improve the perception of the industry as being more environment friendly.