Africa

Alan Swaby talks to the CEO of a platinum mining project in the final phase of exploration waiting to hear exactly how deep he will have to go.

They say that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. In the case of Village Main Reef Limited, the saying would fit better the other way around; but it still portrays the company’s business model of finding projects that others no longer want and turning them around into profitable, saleable assets.

Michel Maalouf, managing director of Astera Engineering, talks to Jayne Alverca about the company’s exponential success within Africa’s fastest growing telecoms market.

Tullow Oil has signed two new production sharing agreements (PSAs) with the government of Uganda, paving the way for completion of its asset sale to France’s Total and China’s CNOOC.

The new PSAs cover the EA-1 and Kanywataba licences in the Lake Albert Rift Basin. Tullow has also been awarded the production licence for the Kingfisher field, which is estimated to hold around 300 million barrels of oil.

Pan African Resources and Wits Gold have joined forces to acquire the Evander Gold Mine from Harmony Gold for R1.7 billion.

The Evander operations are located in Mpumalanga, South Africa, and comprise the operating Evander 8 shaft and several significant development projects: Rolspruit, Poplar, Evander South, Libra and the Kinross metallurgical processing plant. Evander 8 currently has an expected life of mine of more than 10 years.

Alan Swaby talks to a South African mining software company that is resisting being pigeon-holed and, in the process, carving out a successful path for itself.

Is it a mining-savvy IT company or an IT-savvy mining company? At one time it might have been the first; but these days, MineRP is very much a rounded supplier of mining solutions and actually wants to get much rounder. 

Zimbabwe-based Meikles has spent three years rebuilding its retail, hotel and tea growing business in the aftermath of devastating hyperinflation. Executive director Mark Wood talks to Gay Sutton about new business opportunities and plans for growth.

Meikles is a household name in Zimbabwe: 17 Meikles-branded department stores and a luxury five-star Harare hotel form the face of a company that has extensive experience in retail, hospitality and agriculture dating back to 1892.

IPP Resources of Tanzania has a double distinction: not only is the company Tanzania’s largest diversified resources group, but also Tanzania’s only wholly indigenous mining and exploration entity.

A restructure in 2008 has transformed the fortunes and profile of one South African organisation completely, as Alan Swaby reports.

The name is the same. Many of the business sectors and activities are the same. But the profile and vision of Imperial Holdings has undoubtedly changed from what it was five years ago.

After cleaning and greening South Africa, Judy Nankervis, managing director of Blendwell Chemicals, talks to Jayne Alverca about extending the company’s reach across the African sub-continent and beyond.

In a host of industrial, commercial and manufacturing settings, cleanliness has vital implications for employee and customer safety and satisfaction. Grease and dirt is not only unsightly, it can harbour all manner of unpleasant micro-organisms and easily lead to litigation, especially in food handling industries.

As 2012 begins, Jannie Viljoen, manufacturing director of the new Mount Edgecombe site of Altech UEC South Africa, is presiding over the African continent’s most advanced facility of its type. Jayne Alverca reports.