Employment management solutions provider Quyn hopes to capitalise on the recent upturn in the South African mining industry – particularly the range of junior mining groups “coming to the fore” – and leverage its experience in the sector to assist local mining with recruitment.
“We’ve recently had a meeting with a smaller mining group who’ve had a mining right for several years, but is only now beginning to set up a mine. This is similar in other regions of the country, where smaller, junior miners conducted exploration activities before the Covid-19 pandemic and, as a result, have only recently received approval and financing,” explains Quyn manager Pierre Bekker.
There is also significant interest in juniors from international companies, particularly those from India, China and Australia, adds Quyn CEO Wayne Alcock.
Quyn operates a large database of workers who have useful mining skills – this will help the company to serve the sector. This database is also supported by the company’s back office, services, software and “pool of working talent”.
“We have a network of employees who are constantly looking to find and become involved in smaller mines as they are setting up their site and operations.”
Alcock adds that the company has been involved in providing its employment management solutions for a variety of South African commodity sectors including platinum-group metals, iron-ore, manganese, chrome, zinc, diamonds, gold, coal and copper.
Bekker notes that a stronger mining industry will also provide significant growth opportunities for Quyn, particularly as smaller miners and mine contractors continue to grow.
This, in turn, will create a higher demand for the company’s services, as smaller, independent miners and contractors do not have the resources and facilities of larger companies.
Alcock also points out that Quyn is a “niche type of business”, as it mainly focuses on providing services for the mining, construction and engineering sectors. The company aims to become involved in new projects, particularly in these sectors.
This will also enable the company to become involved in embedded-generation projects in local mining, since the licensing threshold for self-embedded generation was lifted last year to 100 MW, and the company can leverage its experience gained from solar energy projects.
“We generally never used to deal with larger mining houses, as they handle their own labour, but we would help with setting up mines and with mine expansions. Now, with smaller miners, after the mine is established, there’s still a need for assistance in managing employees, which our services cater to.
“So, we’re expecting to see our services change a bit in terms of dealing directly with the miners and the subcontractors that develop or expand a mine,” explains Bekker.
Alcock also notes that, as a lot of smaller mines are bought by foreign companies that are often unfamiliar with the local rules and regulations regarding employment in mining, these companies would rely on Quyn to assist in providing employment management solutions.
“Our aim is to attract more clients for the long term, where we deliver services directly to the mine, which, in turn, will give us more stability in terms of long-term income. We hope to build on the years of experience we have got in this sector, create employment for people in these areas, and widen the gap between us and our competitors,” Bekker concludes.