QMASTOR has finalised contracts with one of South Africa’s largest and fastest growing mining groups. After a competitive tender process, Exxaro Resources has finalised software licensing, professional services and support & maintenance contracts with QMASTOR for the implementation of its Pit to Port commodity supply chain management system. The system will enable the Exxaro group to improve the decision support and management of their bulk commodity tonnage, quality and value across their export and domestic supply chains.While the contract size cannot be released to the market the Exxaro deal is a major contract for QMASTOR. A significant amount of the contract revenue is expected to contribute to the 2011 financial year. Ongoing services plus support and maintenance revenue is expected to underpin the QMASTOR South African operation into the future.
The Exxaro group will specifically use the software to manage their sales, marketing and logistics of their coal and mineral sands products. The Pit to Port system will be used for the following Exxaro operations:
- Namakwa Sands
- KZN Sands
- Australia Sands (TiWest)
- Grootegeluk Coal
- Leeuwpan Coal
- New Clydesdale Colliery
- North Block Coal Complex
- Inyanda Coal
- Exxaro Corporate Centre, Pretoria
QMASTOR General Manager, Steve Maxwell, said “QMASTOR welcomes the start of our relationship with such a significant and well respected African company in Exxaro Resources. This contract is of strategic significance to QMASTOR. It further validates our international distribution strategy that provides global reach for our products, with competitive local delivery capability and customer services for our clients.QMASTOR looks forward to a successful system deployment with Exxaro and the ability to leverage this African delivery capability into the future. This relationship also enables QMASTOR to diversify into a new commodity group, mineral sands, and increase the significant market potential for our company”.
The company has also acquired Algosys, a Canadian software and services company located in Quebec that specialises in metallurgical accounting software. It has application in mining, processing and smelting operations. It has strong capabilities in base and precious metals such as gold, copper and zinc where process losses become an extremely expensive problem. The software reconciles process inputs to outputs and inventories to ensure an accurate mass and grade balances to identify areas within process plant where losses maybe occurring.
The acquisition will add significant value to QMASTOR’s offering to a wider range of customers and markets than it has currently. Algosys’s expertise in this metallurgical accounting, reconciliation and mass balancing in process plants and smelters will add significantly to QMASTORs software and reputation in the industry.
QMASTOR is a market leader in the provision of specialist management information systems and services to global mining. It has pioneered innovative solutions to empower clients to improve their operations and maximise profit through the efficient use of resources across the supply chain.
Exxaro has a diverse and world-class commodity portfolio in coal, mineral sands and industrial minerals, with exposure to iron ore through a 20% interest in Sishen Iron Ore Co (SIOC). As the second-largest South African coal producer with capacity of 45 Mt/y and the third-largest global producer of mineral sands, Exxaro is a significant participant in the coal and mineral sands markets and provides a unique listed investment opportunity into these commodities.