May 2014
MODERN MINING
41
COMPANIES
Paragon Diamonds’ Lem-
phane project in Lesotho,
seen during the bulk sam-
pling phase. PPM has a close
and continuing involvement
with the project.
with projects either underway or imminent
in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso. In
principle, we’re prepared to work anywhere
in Africa and we’ve now provided services to
projects in around 18 African countries.”
The scope of the services PPM offers is very
diverse and includes consulting on all aspects
of exploration and mining, project management,
due diligences, engineering design, project
implementation and even business rescue (as
was the case with Mintails, when Clarke was
appointed as interim CEO for a three-month
period during which time he turned the busi-
ness around). The company applies a variety
of models or roles to project delivery, depend-
ing on the client’s requirements. Often it acts as
an EPCM contractor or owner’s representative
while, on other occasions, it will inject specific
resources into the client’s organisation or assist
with building internal capability and capacity.
An interesting question is how it manages
to achieve all this with a staff of just 20 people.
Clarke’s answer is that PPM has forged alliances
and informal partnerships with a number of
specialist companies that, in effect, mean that
it can call on the services of around 300 people,
most of them skilled professionals. “Among the
companies that we are very close to are MSA,
which has a stellar reputation in terms of geo-
logical services in particular, Leeba Electrical,
which handles virtually every aspect of electri-
cal engineering and is very strong in mining,
and Ritchie Midgley Consulting Engineers,
civil and structural specialists,” he says.
While studies form a major part of PPM’s
work, the company’s involvement in project
implementation is impressive. “We don’t have
the resources or balance sheet to chase multi-
billion rand projects, at least not without some
type of joint venture arrangement, but we have
nevertheless been responsible for some quite
substantial projects,” notes Clarke. “Probably
our biggest to date was the execution on an
EPCM basis of a new plant and related infra-
structure – worth a total of US$40 million – at
the Marropino tantalum mine in Mozambique.
In general, we believe that we can take on proj-
ects up to a value of about US$150 million and
we are eager to get an assignment of this scale.”
Clarke says that while PPM can tackle large-
scale projects, it is also quite happy to work on
even small assignments. “Probably our shortest
ever project was a two-day desktop gold plant
review and we also once carried out a study on
the relocation and recommissioning of gensets
from one country to another for which we
charged just R27 000,” he says.
Among current noteworthy contracts that
PPM is involved in is Kalagadi Manganese,
where PPM is acting as the engineer on the
Owner’s Team supervising the development
of Kalagadi’s new underground manganese
mine in the Northern Cape. The company also
remains active in Lesotho, where it has had an
involvement in virtually every diamond proj-
ect including Letšeng, Mothae, Liqhobong and,
now, Lemphane, which is owned by AIM-listed
Paragon Diamonds.
Paragon is planning to start a two-year
Stage 1 mining programme at the site designed
to process 500 000 t/a of kimberlite to pro-
duce an anticipated 10 000 carats a year and
has already stated that PPM will be appointed
to manage the plant operation. The plant that
will be used has been purchased from Lucara’s
Mothae project and PPMwill supervise its strip-
out and transport to Lemphane and adapt it to
suit the characteristics of the Lemphane ore.
Comments Clarke: “We’ll be using an unusual
split crushing system at Lemphane designed to
“In general, we
believe that
we can take on
projects up to a
value of about
US$150 million
and we are
eager to get an
assignment of
this scale.”
PPM’s Jeremy Clarke
