I just had a visit back to base in South Africa and I thought I would give you an update on Turgis Consulting via email rather than trying to arrange a visit to you right now. If however you require a one-on-one discussion please don't hesitate to contact me by return email to arrange a meeting.
The global financial crisis has obviously had an impact on our business. The hectic order book of last year has been reduced to a manageable pace, with new work slower, but a pickup in mine operational support becoming evident. So have we taken any learning from this event? The answer is a resounding yes, and it is one of reinforcement of what we already know - the best client is the one you have and when he needs you, stand by him.
We have just completed a review of mine designs for a major platinum producer, and have just completed annual insurance valuation reviews for a major gold producer over several shafts and plants. It is interesting to see the results of construction commodity prices on total capital. A further interesting project is development of a maintenance strategy for a major platinum producer. This includes the relative merits and demerits of in-house and outsourced approaches, and to us, forms a good basis for decision making in the environment we find ourselves in right now.
Full feasibility studies of a manganese deposit in the Northern Cape and a platinum deposit in the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld are coming to a successful conclusion in the next week or so. They are currently both progressing through our quality review process.
The Lead Engineer role for the bulk infrastructure at Areva's Trekkoppie Uranium Mine in Namibia is progressing well as is the Owners Engineer role at GBG's Burnstone Gold Mine. Both these assignments have resulted in increasing engineering design assignments, and we are expanding our drawing capacity in line with these requirements.
We have just started a second round of independant engineer's due diligence review work for a major platinum project, which fell fowl of the funding crisis, but has taken a new route for fund raising. We are pleased to see that their efforts are being rewarded by a number of interested parties.
On the immediate horizon is a full feasibility study for a major coal deposit. This will include an in-fill exploration drilling programme at the beginning of the project.
On the managerial side of things, Alex du Plessis has stepped down as non-Executive Chairman of our board and Naren Bhojaram has been appointed in this capacity. Naren is also Chairman of DHV Africa. Alex will continue to grow DHV’s mining interests globally.
Patrick Willis