Turnkey laboratory solutions provider Tramecon services mining projects worldwide from its wholly owned Randburg facility, comprising two mini factories covering 400 m2.

The company further supplies South Africa-based product logistics monitoring for a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) client and has recently been awarded a laboratory planning and design contract for a new mining project in Armenia.

Tramecon specialises in work-load determination, laboratory architecture and services design, equipment specification, equipment, chemicals and consumable acquisition, equipment installation and commissioning, laboratory commissioning and staff training.

The Kya Sands-based company, established in 2007, also offers laboratory management, comprising laboratory audits, change management and quality improvements.

During 2016, Tramecon expanded its laboratory offering to mobile laboratories, successfully completing a panel van conversion into a laboratory for a local soil laboratory.

Tramecon employs ten people and additional quality contractors, generating a yearly turnover of R10-million. The company’s clients include midtier mining group Metorex’s Ruashi and Kinsenda mines, both in the DRC; mining major Glencore’s Mutanda mine, in the DRC; and Teal Exploration & Mining’s Lubambe copper mine, in Zambia.

Tramecon is 100%-owned by Dr Hannelie de Beer, while it has a 34% shareholding in its Level 2 broad-based black economic-empowerment subsidiary, Qotho Laboratory Services.

Qotho, which opened in January 2013, already generates an annual turnover of more than R2-million.

The subsidiary offers support services to mineral laboratories and will be applying for the ISO 17043 accreditation of its proficiency testing schemes (PTS) to the South African National Accreditation System before the end of 2016.

The service provider and ISO Guide 34 reference material producer is equipped with suitable equipment to produce matrix-matched reference materials in batch sizes varying from 50 kg to 1 000 kg, depending on client requirements.

Qotho’s workflow comprises the receipt of material from suppliers, rigorous material preparation to ensure homogeneity, homogeneity testing, packaging and labelling, distribution, the receipt of results, the statistical processing of results, the scientific interpretation of results and laboratory performance, and the preparation and distribution of performance reports.

Qotho continues to expand its PTS suite of products, which now covers chrome, manganese, iron, nickel, platinum-group metals, gold, copper and cobalt, for ore, concentrate and final product. It will also launch its reductant schemes early in 2017.

Qotho’s client base includes mines and commercial labs in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, the DRC, as well as the Philippines, Holland, Germany, the UK, the US, Australia, China and Canada.