News & Media

March 2008

CONCOR MINING HAS RESOURCES IN PLACE TO ASSIST MINING INDUSTRY

Concor Mining’s skilled operators can make all the difference on a mining contracting project.

It is simply not good enough for mining contracting companies just to be able to access the appropriate equipment, it is also essential to have experienced management, skilled operators and technicians in place to ensure maximum utilisation of the equipment resulting in a successful project for the client.

As a wholly owned subsidiary of Murray & Roberts, and implementer of mining projects, Concor Mining has a philosophy of ensuring long-term relationships with its clients and a commitment to consistent quality, Trevor Robinson, managing director of Concor Mining tells Mining Weekly.

Robinson stresses that first and foremost, however, the success of any mining contractor is based on the careful planning of the project and the mining method used to ensure the client is given his best product with the least dilution. This is, in part, due to the selection of the equipment/plant mix but obviously experience and expertise in the mining sector plays a vital role.

Married to this fundamental prerequisite is the ability to operate machinery efficiently and productively in order for a contractor to achieve targets. To ensure effective operation of equipment, Concor Mining’s policy is to employ suitable candidates that have the relevant aptitude. “Their skills are evaluated and any shortcomings are identified and, where necessary, worked on at a formal training level to ensure competency,” Robinson says.

Both theoretical and practical training is considered essential. “We do all our training in-house as we have struggled to find suitable external courses that will complement what we find is necessary to ensure productive and safe operation in our environment,” he adds.

“The company has a programme in place to up-skill ancillary personnel for site, by introducing them as tally checkers on site. “In this way they gain exposure to the open cast mining environment,” Robinson says. Their progress is monitored and where aptitude is evident, these individuals are then put into a separate programme where the skills levels are gradually upgraded with the intention of them eventually becoming competent operators.

Trained machine operators are taken through refresher courses and assessed to ensure safe and productive operation on site.

“We are recognised and certified as a training provider by the MQA, and our training is performed through an ISO 9001:2000-approved management system. This ensures that operators are competent and as such they receive recognition in line with SAQA-approved unit standards,” Robinson explains.

Robinson says that it is important to ensure credibility in operator training and this is why Concor Mining embarked on this course of action. “By law we need to show that an operator is qualified, but more importantly, we want to uplift his skills to benefit him and provide a positive spin-off for the company.”

“Besides the fact that we are always open to expanding our fleet of plant to cater for current and new project demands, we also have a programme of replacing and modernising our plant fleet,” Robinson says. This is in line with Concor Mining’s fleet replacement policy which ensures that equipment is up to standard and will produce efficiently.

The central workshops are located at Concor Mining’s facility at Amalgam in Johannesburg. All major repair work is undertaken at this comprehensively equipped facility and it is the back-up for the workshops located at all our ongoing projects.

“Maintenance and servicing of equipment is undertaken in-house by our team of skilled technicians. By doing this it is easier to control the quality of the work and to ensure the turnaround of machinery. This, in turn, ensures machine availability on site which reduces negative impact on productivity levels. Manufacturers are brought in when and where necessary to look at specific issues on machinery. Being self sufficient in this manner has contributed to having a high machine availability,” he says.

The company’s fleet of equipment consists of rigid frame trucks, articulated trucks, excavators, loaders, graders, water tankers, dozers and fixed and mobile crushing equipment. “Technology is changing so rapidly that it is necessary to keep abreast of developments and ensure that the advantages offered by the global market are made available and equipment is modern and can offer the advantages to sites in terms of reliability, productivity etc.,” Robinson says.

“We believe that the skills, capabilities and resources residing within the company are unmatched by any other in our field. This underlines our holistic approach to customer service. By balancing the reliability and application relevance of our comprehensive plant fleet with the expertise needed by our project team to manage large projects, and by adding to this the skills and experience of both the personnel operating the equipment as well as the technical staff maintaining it, we are able to provide customers with best practice and innovative solutions,” Robinson concludes.