Company optimistic about rebranding despite downturn

22nd January 2016 By: Dylan Stewart - Creamer Media Reporter

Multidisciplinary engineering and technology provider thyssenkrupp, formerly ThyssenKrupp, will showcase its new branding at this year’s Investing in African Mining Indaba as it tackles the scarcity of new projects in the mining sector.

The company’s success in the mining sector last year was mostly as a result of upgrades, improvements and servicing clients to make their existing operations more profitable in a tough mining climate.

thyssenkrupp Minerals Processing, Power & Energy manager Dr Wilfred Barkhuizen explains that, amid the commodities downturn, the company has reported “a few new comminution projects which proceeded into execution”, mostly in diamond mining. These projects are currently being executed in Botswana, Angola and South Africa, as well as a materials handling project in iron-ore in the Northern Cape.

“We also see a big interest from various mining clients in in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) and, owing to the savings in operational and maintenance costs, we believe IPCC has the potential to evolve the mining operations of the future,” Barkhuizen says.

The Mining Indaba – to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from February 8 to 11 – is an important event, which the company has attended every year since 2008, he states.

This year is yet another opportunity to discuss the projects that thyssenkrupp clients are excited about and to see how the company can offer solutions that will improve the feasibility of their projects and the profitability of their operations.

“We are very optimistic about Mining Indaba 2016 and keen to show our continuous support to our clients, some of which have been in operation for more than 40 years. We, therefore, have long-term relationships with clients in the mining industry that we maintain, despite the low point reached in the commodities cycles,” Barkhuizen highlights.