With mining being the most important sector for technology-driven ventilation systems provider and manufacturer TLT-Turbo Africa’s products, sales and marketing head for sub-Saharan Africa Vusi Madlopha emphasises the importance of providing clean, contaminant-free air.

He explains that the provision of clean air enables “men and women working underground to always breathe clean and fresh air”, adding that TLT-Turbo Africa’s products assist in removing noxious gasses from mining operations, while providing continuous airflow for underground operations.

“Our designs are based on the drive for high efficiency and low power consumption. This leads to reduced operational expenditure for the customer,” Madlopha explains.

He adds that the company prides itself on “having saved [its] customers millions of rands in operational costs, while simultaneously achieving reduced power consumption, and therefore a reduced carbon footprint”.

TLT-Turbo Africa’s fans are also designed to have a longer lifespan, making them ideal for harsh environments, such as underground mining.

The company designs, manufactures and supplies ventilation fans to the mining industry, as well as for thermal power plants, cement plants, wastewater evaporation plants and various other industrial process plants.

Through the company’s use of tools such as computational fluid dynamics, it is able to provide purpose-built solutions, which the company’s team of highly specialised aerodynamic and structural engineers use to offer and provide optimum solutions, with a clear and directed focus on improving system efficiency of fans.

Looking at wider economic activity within the sub-Saharan Africa region, Madlopha notes that there has “definitely been a quick bounce-back after the pandemic”.

“We’ve also seen a steady increase in foreign direct investment within the mining and other sectors of the economy, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana and South Africa. This is largely driven by the high demand for battery minerals, gold, copper and cobalt,” he comments.

He adds that these investments come at an opportune time when countries are in great need of capital inflows to lessen the detrimental impact of Covid 19 on the respective countries’ fiscus.

However, the only major challenge that manufacturing companies are grappling with, remains the supply of raw materials, he laments.

TLT-Turbo Africa is actively involved in projects across the African continent, with teams currently working on projects in the DRC, Ghana and Mali.

“Because of our relationship with a global fan technology company, TLT-Turbo Gmbh, we have a vast reference list of installed equipment within the continent that needs attention, hence as a regional entity, our strategy is to focus mainly on rebuilding customer relationships through providing maintenance support,” Madlopha says.

He adds that this also provides the company with the opportunity to assist its customers to improve their operational efficiencies, by upgrading obsolete or inefficient equipment.