Industry intelligence
Bell wins exporter of the year award
Bell Equipment won the Exporter of
the Year Award (large category; turnover
>R200 million) and was runner-up in the
Exporter of the Year Africa Award (turnover
>R100 million) at the inaugural Exporter
of the Year Awards for capital equipment
manufacturers held in Johannesburg at the
end of May.
A collaboration by the South African
Capital Equipment Export Council
(SACEEC) and Specialised Exhibitions
Montgomery, the awards formed part of
the Southern African Local Manufacturing
Expo. SACEEC CEO, Eric Bruggeman,
said: “It is fitting and certainly no mere
coincidence, that the first-ever SACEEC
Exporter of the Year Awards took place at
the Local Southern African Manufacturing
Expo. The Expo is the perfect showcase for
the vast array of products available from
local manufacturers. There is a wealth of
talent in Southern African manufacturing
and SACEEC is thrilled that the industry
is being placed in the spotlight. There is no
doubt in our minds that the quality and
innovation being exhibited at the Expo
equals, and even exceeds, that which is
available on the global stage.
“The SACEEC Exporter of the Year
Awards allow us to further recognise the
supreme efforts invested by a number of
these local manufacturers. There were a large
number of entries, all of which are notable for
their focused drive to provide products that
are characterised by out-of-the-box thinking,
coupled with careful and systematic attention
to detail. Selecting the finalists, and later the
winners, was an extremely hard task since all
MCSA selects office beares
The Minerals Council of South Africa
has elected new office bearers. Mxolisi
Mgojo, CEO of Exxaro Resources, has
been re-elected as president. Steve Phiri,
CEO of Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Andile
Sangqu, executive head of Anglo American
South Africa and Neal Froneman, CEO of
Sibanye-Stillwater have been re-elected as
vice-presidents.
In addition, Zanele Matlala, CEO of
Merafe Resources, has been elected as vice-
president of the Minerals Council. Matlala
joined the Merafe board as an independent
non-executive director in 2005, becoming the
chief financial officer in October 2010. She
was appointed chief excucitive officer in June
2012. She is also a non-executive director
of Dipula Income Fund, Stefanutti Stocks
Holdings, RAC Limited and Old Mutual
Investment Group Holdings.
There have been several changes to the
board. Norman Mbazima, deputy chairman
of Anglo American South Africa, will retire
from the board when he retires from Anglo
American in June. Nick Holland, a long-
standing board member, will be replaced
by Martin Preece, executive vice-president:
South Africa at Gold Fields.
SA industrial facilities at risk of cyber attacks
As international analysts warn of a
growing risk of cyber war, sabotage and
espionage impacting industrial and mining
facilities, South African stakeholders must
step up their efforts to mitigate risk. This
is according to GECI, an international
tactical cyber security specialist now
launching its portfolio of cyber security
solutions in South Africa. After Europe,
GECI has chosen to expand its platform
of innovative solutions in Africa, starting
with South Africa where the need is
clearly identified.
Cyber attacks have escalated beyond
theft of data and ransomware attacks, to
attacks specifically designed to shut down
critical infrastructure, manipulate markets
and even cripple entire countries, says
South African GECI representative
Mike Bergen.
Citing attacks on major enterprises,
power plants and nuclear facilities, Bergen
says the increasing connectedness of
industrial plants is putting them at greater
risk of attack.
However, Thuli Mgwebile, business
development agent at GECI South Africa
[6] MINING MIRROR AUGUST 2019
and MD of local GECI partner Sinac
Group, says early discussions with local
infrastructure stakeholders indicate
that their focus on cyber security is
inadequate. “For example, we see local
industrial players saying their own risk
assessment exercises have found a huge
amount of data leakage taking place,”
she says.
This, coupled with inadequate
access controls at plants, presents
significant vulnerabilities which could
be misused to devastating effect. In
many industrial environments, IT
and operations are still run in siloes,
Bergen says, with cyber security a focus
in the enterprise’s administration and
data centres and little focus on cyber
security in plant operations.
“In many companies, Information
Technology (IT) and Operational
Technology (OT) are two domains –
engineers in the plants manage their own
systems and equipment and they consider
themselves separate from IT. Not all OT
specialists are as aware as IT professionals
are of the importance of cyber security.”
qualifying companies have excelled in their
respective field of expertise.”
Bell Equipment exports its products to over
80 countries worldwide. “Exports account
for about 40% of turnover and our exports
increased year-on-year from 2017 to 2018 by
19%. We’re also proud that our exports have
70% local content and we are always looking at
ways to increase this,” said Stephen Jones, Bell
Equipment Director: Global Product Portfolio
and Marketing.
“Manufacturing is one industry that has
the single greatest potential to make a massive
difference to our economy and level of
unemployment so we appreciate attention that
the Expo and the Exporter of the Year Awards
has focused on the sector and are proud to
have received these awards for our role,” he
concluded.
AngloPlat discloses
tailings details
Anglo American Platinum has published
details of its nine mineral residue facilities,
comprising six managed tailings storage
facilities (TSF) and three slag stockpiles.
Details of an additional eight TSFs at non-
managed JV operations in which it has an
ownership interest are also disclosed. This
disclosure is in response to a request by the
Church of England Pensions Board and
the Swedish Council on Ethics for the AP
Funds, representing 96 institutional investors.
According to Chris Griffith, CEO of
Anglo American Platinum, the company’s
TSFs are subject to the highest global safety
and stewardship standards.
Anglo American Platinum manages
six active TSFs, five of which are in the
Limpopo province of South Africa. One
TSF is located in the Midlands province
of Zimbabwe. The company also manages
three slag dumps, two located in the
Limpopo province of South Africa, and one
in the Midlands province of Zimbabwe.
In addition, at the non-managed joint
venture operations, there are eight TSFs
(two of which are currently on care and
maintenance), in the North West and
Limpopo provinces of South Africa.
All of Anglo American Platinum’s
managed tailings dams have been
constructed using the upstream
method, except the Blinkwater dam at
Mogalakwena platinum mine in Limpopo,
which uses a downstream method of
construction, and Dam 1 at Unki mine,
in Zimbabwe, which uses a hybrid
downstream and upstream method.
Anglo American’s Group Technical
Standard, which applies to all TSFs
managed by Anglo American Platinum, sets
minimum requirements for design criteria,
monitoring, inspection and surveillance,
and was peer-reviewed by international
specialists.
www.miningmirror.co.za