The world’s largest contract miner, the Leighton Group, yesterday officially launched its operations in Africa at Mining Indaba 2012 in Cape Town, South Africa. The Leighton Group is a leading international contractor and the world’s largest international contract miner. The group, which operates across Australia, the Pacific, Asia, the Middle East and now Africa, has annual revenues of almost $20 billion and work in hand of over $45 billion. Leighton Africa has been established to capitalise on the growing opportunities in the African mining industry. Although initially focusing on opportunities in contract mining and mine infrastructure, the company intends to pursue opportunities in other sectors including civil infrastructure, rail and oil & gas.

The company secured its first project, the $590 million Jwaneng diamond mine for Debswana in Botswana, in 2010 and is actively pursuing other similar opportunities across the continent. Leighton Africa’s Executive General Manager, Iain Speirs, said Africa offers an important new growth market for Leighton and is ideally suited for Leighton’s skill-set. “Leighton’s expertise in contract mining and mine infrastructure is second to none. Our extensive global experience is perfectly suited to the massive opportunities offered across Africa and we have established our operations here to capitalise on those opportunities. We are currently pursuing a number of prospects in southern Africa – including opportunities in Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Namibia and Tanzania – and intend to investigate other opportunities in West Africa. We’ve been operating under the radar in Africa for about 18 months now, but we felt that African Mining Indaba 2012 was the most appropriate forum to officially launch our presence in Africa and to outline our intentions for the continent,” he said. Leighton Africa is headquartered in Johannesburg, and intends to establish an office in West Africa in 2012.