TOMRA says it has opened new regional headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, to strengthen its commitment to customers in southern Africa.

The initiative is designed to enhance customer care through even better technical support, service and training, and to ensure prompt availability of spare parts, it said. The move will also improve operational efficiencies by bringing together under one roof all three TOMRA business divisions: Mining, Recycling, and Food.

TOMRA’s new facilities are housed in a two-story, 1,800 sq.m building which accommodates offices, a warehouse, spare parts area, two training rooms, and three meeting rooms connected to TOMRA’s global network of more than 4,000 employees. There is also the space here to demonstrate TOMRA’s sensor-based sorting technologies.

The building’s location on the edge of the Longmeadow Business Estate, Edenvale, to the northeast of Johannesburg, is conveniently close to major road networks and the city’s airport.

The most senior executive at the new headquarters is Albert du Preez, Senior Vice-President and Head of TOMRA Mining. Du Preez said: “This investment affirms TOMRA’s wholehearted and long-term commitment to southern Africa. This is a growing market, and one we take very seriously. The 26-strong team operating out of our new headquarters will support customers in South Africa and all other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

With the mineral industry such a valuable source of export earnings, it is hugely important to national economies in Sub-Saharan Africa, TOMRA said. The African continent can produce up to 500 t/y of gold and accounts for a large share of the world’s diamonds, according to the company.

In April last year, a 1,758 ct diamond, one of the largest in recorded history, was recovered in Botswana through TOMRA X-Ray Transmission (XRT) sorting technology. South Africa is also a crucial global supplier of chrome ore and ferrochrome, exporting 8.5 Mt of ferrochrome annually, mostly to China, and TOMRA’s sorting solutions are ideal for the production of these minerals, it said.

Speaking from TOMRA’s new South African headquarters, Helga van Lochem, Sales Manager of TOMRA Sorting Mining, said: “Opening new premises confirms TOMRA’s belief in southern Africa as a big player in the global market, and our commitment to supporting mining businesses here in the long term. Investment in sorting solutions pays back handsomely and now our new training facility in Johannesburg can empower customers to get the most from our profit-enhancing technologies.”

TOMRA says it manufactures sensor-based sorting solutions for almost every mineral application: diamonds, industrial minerals, ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal, slag metals, and coal and other fuels.