Mineral process solutions provider Multotec is in the process of expanding extensively into other parts of the African continent and beyond. The company has recently established branches in Mozambique, Zambia and Ghana, with an agent in Zimbabwe and Thomas Holtz, Multotec CEO says business is “flourishing” in all these areas. He states: “Our growing branch infrastructure is helping us transition from pure equipment sales into the field service maintenance arena. Today we’re in the business of delivering peace of mind – working closely with our customers to provide condition monitoring and process optimisation services for the lifetime of the equipment we supply. We stand by our product and staying with it in the field, ensures it provides a maximum return on investment to our customers.”

He adds: “This portfolio approach means we’re able to offer our customers support from a team comprised of resource generalists and experienced product specialists. A flexible, consultative model like this creates a platform to identify specific opportunities that can be implemented quickly to increase efficiencies.” Illustrating the success of this approach, Holtz cites the Selous Metallurgical Complex at the Makwiro platinum mine in Zimbabwe, where Multotec rehabilitated the flotation plant. “Our equipment was assembled and installed by our Field Maintenance Service crews and hydraulic settings were optimised, thereby improving recoveries.” He also cites a project at First Quantum’s Kansanshi mine in Zambia, where Multotec improved the wear life of the cyclones circuit, the feed and discharge pipes and launders. The crews installed engineered ceramic in their high wear areas and the optimisation of feed and discharge systems increased the operational life to such an extent that Multotec Zambia has been given the go ahead to implement the same wear life improvement solution on other First Quantum mines.

Multotec states that it is also playing on an increasingly global platform, focusing on benchmarking its product offering against international leaders. “For example, in an African context, several Australian companies are operating very successfully in our part of the world. We want to establish ourselves just as successfully in Australia in order to be able to provide a reference base that proves our capabilities in the international arena. Many mining and engineering companies are multi-national and we intend to offer our products and services on an international platform,” stated Holtz. He adds, however, that the challenge with offering on-the-ground support in other regions is the need for significant investment in resources and infrastructure. “Although research and product development keeps our products state-of-the-art and able to hold their own against international competition, having local specialists takes time and money. This process has to be nurtured and built up from scratch to establish a local track record. We’ve realised, however, that we need to operate very selectively in certain foreign markets, initially establishing critical mass. We can’t be all things in all markets, but we’re moving forward in a steady and promising fashion by leveraging the local model that is working so well for us. I can’t deny that it’s been quite a steep learning curve – we’re writing the text book. The challenge is that every market has its own nuance, so it’s not simply a matter of introducing a carbon copy of what’s worked elsewhere. We start out with a narrow portfolio of capital equipment and consumables, supported by product and process experts, who are in turn backed up by metallurgical specialists based in South Africa. We have to start transacting in order to understand exactly what each market wants. This model sees what we call ‘customer intimacy’ as a pivotal factor and this means we need to conduct business in the local language and culture and develop local people as part of our presence there.”