companies
44
08.13
H
atch, founded in Canada
in the 1950s, established
a permanent presence in
South Africa in 1995 (although it
had earlier worked in the country,
in particular on a highly success-
ful expansion for Richards Bay
Minerals). Says Kirk: “The original
intention was that Hatch Africa
would be at most a medium-sized
– perhaps 100-strong – specialist
company operating mainly in the
metals and minerals sector but
this modest ambition was soon
overtaken by events. The opportu-
nity arose to take over Gencor En-
gineering & Technologies (GET),
which was Gencor’s in-house
design and engineering arm, and
Hatch wasted no time in making
the acquisition, which led to about
300 Gencor employees becoming
part of Hatch Africa. This marked
the start of a period of rapid
growth for Hatch Africa, which re-
sulted in it eventually building up
to a staff complement of roughly a
thousand people and an involve-
ment in some very notable projects
in Southern Africa, such as Kum-
ba Iron Ore’s new Kolomela mine
near Postmasburg, completed last
year with an incredible safety re-
cord of 26 million LTI-free hours.”
An electrical engineer by train-
ing, Kirk joined Hatch in 2001 and
was appointed Global MD Africa
in 2005. Earlier in his career he
was with Anglo American and An-
gloGold Ashanti, serving as GM of
Merger
creates new
EPCM/consulting giant
Fine ore stacker at Kumba Iron Ore’s Kolomela mine. Hatch was the EPCM contractor for the plant and stockyard.
Trueman Goba, Chairman of Hatch Goba.
Rory Kirk, MD of Hatch Goba.
The merger of Hatch Africa and Goba, which was completed on 2 April
this year, positions the expanded group – which operates as Hatch Goba
– as one of the largest providers of consulting engineering and EPCM
services in Africa.
Modern Mining
recently spoke to MD Rory Kirk and
Chairman Trueman Goba about the strategy underlying the merger and
the synergies it is likely to release. They believe that not only will the
merger greatly expand the group’s infrastructure capabilities but it will
also give Hatch Goba the ability to offer its mining clients a comprehen-
sive and integrated offering encompassing both the mining and infra-
structural aspects of large-scale mining projects.
