“It’s a very interesting
strategic question for a
company like Afrimat,
to decide when we
actually want to get
involved with a specific
technology. Do you want
to be on the bleeding
edge, or do you want to
be the second guy?”
and move beyond being purely a quarrying
company. We just recently added iron ore
to our portfolio, and as soon as we are more
settled in this area and we start seeing the
results, I would like to look at expanding
into more commodities. And then make sure
that we maintain a consistent growth rate
over the next few years.
In terms of expanding into Africa, it’s
a tough area and we are not the quickest
mover into Africa because we have to fully
examine potential opportunities before
we move forward. So we will move as
opportunities arise and we can see that we
can make a good risk-adjusted return on
any projects into Africa. We previously had
operations in Tanzania and Namibia, but
we have already exited both, and currently
we only have one African operation outside
South Africa, which is in Mozambique.
RG: What would you say are the biggest
challenges facing businesses looking to expand
into Africa?
AvH: I don’t think there’s one single
thing that we can point to as being the
Open pit mining company Afrimat recently added iron
ore to its portfolio, and is planning to expand into more
commodities in future.
34 _ QUARRY SA | MAY 2017
major challenge for companies looking
to expand their business into Africa. You
have to understand the local politics and
the local economics, as well as the lack
of infrastructure – including financial
infrastructure. This is all very challenging
in a new area, over and above the physical
challenges. For instance, in most African
countries you have health-related
challenges such as malaria, or you have
to deal with regional inaccessibility. It’s
really, really tough out there, and it’s just
something completely different to what we
are used to in South Africa, which someone
recently referred to as a little bit of Europe
at the southern tip of Africa.
I think, to a certain extent, Africa was a
bit of a ‘flavour of the month’ a year or two
ago, and that more and more companies are
realising that in addition to large risks, it’s
also extremely difficult to repatriate your
profits once you’ve made them. And as a
company, we’re about making good returns
for our shareholders, so I will only go into an
African project if I’m comfortable with the
risk profile.