June 2014
MODERN MINING
43
EXPLORATION AND
GEOLOGY
feature
geological consultancy in South Africa and
there are also many synergies with sister
companies – for example, Fraser Alexander
– within the Royal Bafokeng group. This rela-
tionship with RBH has been wholly positive
for MSA.”
According to Haddon, MSA has long shed
its origins as a mainly South African-focused
company. “We’re now active throughout Africa
and we’ve operated in just about every country
on the continent with any significant miner-
als endowment. More than this, we’ve also
undertaken extensive work outside of Africa
including Europe – as far north as Sweden –
the Americas and Australasia. Currently we
are very busy in the Middle East on gold and
base metals exploration in Saudi Arabia for the
state-owned minerals and mining company
Ma’aden. We’ve also completed assignments in
Turkey and South Yemen,” he says.
He notes that at the moment the majority of
MSA’s turnover derives from Africa (outside
South Africa) with clients ranging from ‘heavy-
weights’ such as Ivanhoe Mines and MMG, for
whom MSA is consulting on projects in the
DRC, to juniors such as Alphamin, which has
a tin project in North Kivu in the DRC, and
Blackthorn Resources, owner of the Mumbwa
copper project west of Lusaka in Zambia.
In West Africa, it has extensive experience
in a number of countries including Nigeria,
Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Burkina Faso and
Cameroon and will soon be going to Togo to
evaluate a client’s project.
Haddon’s colleague, Dr Brendan Clarke,
Head of Geological Services, notes that MSA
has seen a huge drop in exploration spend
over the past year but says it has nevertheless
managed to remain busy. “Public money for
exploration has largely gone, at least for the
time being, but we’ve picked up a lot of work
from private equity companies and sovereign
wealth funds,” he explains. “Moreover, we
have a core group of clients who have good
reputations and good projects and who have
the ability to raise money in any market. We
used to do about 70 % of our work for listed
juniors but now it’s only 30 %.”
Clarke points out that while geology
remains at the heart of MSA’s business, its
Mining Studies Division – started several years
ago – has gone from strength to strength. “We
do just about every conceivable study you can
think of up to pre-feasibility level including
Competent Persons Reports, Mineral Resource
and Mineral Reserve estimates, PEAs, scoping
studies, and benchmarking assessments,” he
says. “Additionally, we can carry out mineral
MSA’s Micro-Diamond
Laboratory is the only ISO/
IEC 17025-accredited facility
of its type in Africa.
asset valuations, due diligences, technical
audits and peer reviews.”
As a result of its healthy workload across
all its divisions, MSA – in contrast to many of
its peers – is still hiring. “Not only are we hir-
ing but we’re hiring only the best – as indeed
we have done for years,” says Haddon. “We
have an incredibly vigorous recruitment pro-
gramme. Every year we present to students at
universities around the country. As a result of
this process, we normally receive around 200
applications for positions with MSA. We then
whittle this figure down to a shortlist of 20 and
from this 20 we then appoint the five or six
who we consider to be the top graduates for the
year. Quite apart from this, and for positions at
more senior level, we will head hunt the best
people we can.
“MSA’s asset base is really its people and
we’re unrelenting in attracting and retaining
top calibre people,” he continues. “We have
over 70 professionals on our staff, roughly
two thirds of them geologists with the balance
drawn from a variety of disciplines, and quite
a few have international reputations. The ser-
vices we offer are not on the cheaper end of the
scale – but this is not surprising given the fact
that our people can add tremendous value to
any project.”
Evidence of MSA’s commitment to providing
an excellent and fulfilling work environment
for its employees is provided by the fact that
last year it won the Business and Professional
Services category of Deloitte’s annual “Best
Company to Work For” survey.
An example of the type of person head-
hunted by MSA is Jeremy Witley, who joined
the Group two years ago after a successful
25-year career with a number of large and
medium tier mining companies, as well as a
competitor international consultancy and,
“Not only are
we hiring but
we’re hiring
only the best
– as indeed we
have done for
years. We have
an incredibly
vigorous
recruitment
programme.”
MSA’s Dr Ian Haddon
