Mining houses cut back on exploration budgets

Despite the global economic crisis, Africa continues to offer much opportunity in the mining sector to South African importers, exporters and traders, says Jade Da Costa, managing director of Intraspeed. “We are all aware that due to the current global economic downturn a number of sectors will be affected by the global recession. It is already happening in the mining industry, first and foremost,” says Da Costa. “Generally in the mining industry exploration is first to start and first to go. I think a lot of the mining houses have cut back on the exploration budgets and costs for the new year and there is not too much exploration going on. At the same time, with the DRC, the total downturn and the closure of various mines at this stage has affected the mining business substantially.” But, says Da Costa, major opportunities remain. “Importers, exporters or traders should look at other options and other alternatives to move their freight throughout the continent, while it is also a good time now to get comparative pricing. With the majority of Intraspeed business managed from South Africa through joint ventures in various countries as well as offices throughout the continent, 2008 proved to be a fantastic year for the organisation, especially in terms of new areas such as mining, said Da Costa. “We went into the mining sector at a stage when it was still booming. With the early 2008 copper boom in the DRC, we opened our own operation in Lubumbashi. We were also involved with other mining projects going through East Africa up into West Africa as well as oil being hit in Uganda and Rwanda. “We were very successful in handling a large variety of mobilisations of exploration equipment throughout the continent as well as de-mobilisation of these, obviously fairly specialised charter work and aircraft specification.” According to Da Costa, Intraspeed business became far more streamlined during the course of 2008. “We have split our business into various divisions and have specific, qualified, skilled people in the divisions. This gives us an edge as our operators are fully aware of their equipment and the commodities that we are handling and how to handle them into certain very specific and very difficult destinations. We are also looking at moving into other areas on the continent in the coming months.” Despite having to put some of their future plans for the mining sector on hold, Da Costa says there is light at the end of the tunnel. “In spite of the downturn and global recession, opportunity is still there and the business relationships we have with our current clients will continue, even though the volumes will be down. When those businesses come back on line and become streamlined again, the volumes will increase. It is just a period that we all need to move through, while remaining positive and looking for opportunities.”