Juanita Pienaar spoke with John Martin, Vice President, Southern Africa, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, about the company’s growing footprint in Southern Africa, its strategic approach to tyre management, and the innovations reshaping uptime and sustainability across mine sites.
A growing footprint across Africa
Kal Tire’s presence on the African continent stretches back nearly two decades. “Kal Tire has been operating on the African continent since 2007,” explains Martin, “where we currently have a business presence in eight countries, with four being in West Africa and four in Southern Africa.”
Within Southern Africa, the company’s operational focus centres on Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa, with “a small presence at this time, in Mozambique.” From these hubs, Kal Tire supports a broad network of operations. “We have more than 1,100 team members across the region serving more than 80 mine sites across all commodities, covering both surface and underground operations.”
The reach extends beyond its core operational bases. Martin notes that Kal Tire “additionally serves customers in just about every country in the region, including the DRC, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and customers operating in North Africa.”
Transformation and sustainability form an important part of the company’s regional strategy. “For our South African operations, we have been fully B-BBEE compliant from a transformational and sustainability perspective for some years already,” he says. The business is also “embarking on a similar transformational journey in Zambia, that will provide economic and developmental benefit to the Zambian communities, which will be in place by mid-2026.”
At the operational core, the company places significant emphasis on on-site service capability and data-driven tyre management. “Kal Tire is heavily invested in our on-site services, technical services, and tyre management that is recorded in Kal Tire’s proprietary TOMS (Tire & Operations Management System), which is, together with our tyre technicians, at the heart of the full range of services we offer to our customers.”
Independent supply, lifecycle thinking
In a market often dominated by manufacturer-aligned supply models, Kal Tire positions itself differently. “Kal Tire is a multi-brand dealer, and we also offer unique retreading and repair services, including KalPRO™ Ultra Repair, Ultra Tread, and retreads,” says Martin.
Crucially, the business is independent. “Kal Tire is fully independent, with no ownership by any manufacturer, allowing Kal Tire to source and supply any brand of tyre that makes the best economic sense to the operational management.” For mines navigating fluctuating commodity prices and tightening margins, this flexibility is a significant advantage.
However, tyre supply is only part of the equation. Today’s mining operations are under increasing pressure to improve environmental performance and meet ESG commitments. Martin points out that “today’s mines are placing greater focus on sustainability, as well as the requirements of the ESG charter, so our tyre supply and tyre life solutions allow us to help customers improve productivity, contribute to their sustainability goals, and reduce their carbon footprint and tyre longevity.”
The company’s approach encompasses the full tyre lifecycle. “Kal Tire’s wide range of services includes the management of tyres from the point of manufacture, through to the end of the tyre’s useful life,” he explains. “Through several initiatives and unique innovations, we can extend the life of mining tyres, generating much-needed returns for our customers, on the significant amount of capital invested in the tyres.”
When tyres truly reach the end of their operational life, Kal Tire is also addressing the disposal challenge. “Once the tyre casings have genuinely reached their end of life, our KalPRO Thermal Conversion OTR tyre recycling technology, in use in Chile, gives mines the most sustainable, ethical and circular way to dispose of their tyres.”
This lifecycle thinking – from sourcing and fitment to repair, retreading and responsible disposal – reflects a broader shift in how mines evaluate tyre performance: not simply as a consumable, but as a strategic asset.
Tyre management as strategy
Across global operations, Kal Tire describes itself not merely as a supplier, but as a long-term partner. “Kal Tire is a mining tyre service and supply partner for mines across five continents, across a wide range of commodities,” says Martin. “We have over 50 years of tyre service expertise and tyre performance insights to bring to our customers’ sites.”
This experience underpins what he calls a strategic approach to tyre management. “Our approach to tyre management is a strategic one to ensure our work supports each mine’s operational goals and at every stage of tyre life.”
Importantly, performance is measured in operational impact rather than simply tyre hours. “Tyre work, for us, isn’t just about hours of tyre life, it’s about keeping trucks hauling as safely and productively as possible.”
At the centre of this strategy is KalPRO TOMS. “Focusing specifically on strategy and optimising tyre performance, TOMS is central to our work,” Martin explains. “TOMS is a proactive maintenance planning platform that identifies, schedules, and aggregates required tyre work to provide planning teams with timely information to minimise unplanned equipment downtime.”
The impact is tangible. “Together, this ensures we’re extending tyre life and improving safety while enhancing fleet use.”
Artificial intelligence plays a growing role. “AI is a core feature of TOMS, supporting site teams to ensure all required tyre work can be planned effectively and spare inventory levels managed.” Given the scale of modern mining fleets, this is no small task. “With typical mine service teams managing over 400 tyres (and larger sites up to 2,000 tyres), TOMS helps avoid unnecessary downtime and can reduce tyre-related downtime events by 20% or more.”
On the ground, access to accurate data is critical. “The TOMS app ensures our team members have access to the most up-to-date information for making informed decisions and the efficient capture of required inspection and shop work information.”
Performance transparency further strengthens decision-making. “Service delivery performance visibility is key to effective decision making and strategy,” Martin adds. “Kal Tire uses PowerBI dashboards to provide a suite of almost live reporting solutions to Kal Tire service and customer teams. These provide standardised reporting across all Kal Tire service sites and enable performance trending and benchmarking.”
For mine managers, this combination of AI-driven planning and near real-time reporting translates into greater predictability and control – two critical levers in high-value, high-risk operations.
Innovations that protect uptime
Reducing downtime and operating costs remains a constant priority for mining companies. According to Martin, “helping mines boost productivity as well as tyre life and safety has driven Kal Tire’s innovation programme.”
Among the most notable developments is KalPRO TireSight. “TireSight autonomous inspections can detect different kinds of tyre damage without haul trucks even needing to stop,” he explains. “It significantly improves the quality and frequency of inspections and reduces technicians’ exposure to trucks and autonomous operation areas, which will become increasingly important as mine sites automate.”
Complementing this is KalPRO HaulSight. “HaulSight, our latest offering, gives our customers instant alerts about hazards such as spillage or road undulations that could damage trucks and tyres or impact cycle speeds and fuel burn.” By identifying and addressing these hazards early, “this is keeping roads at their best so trucks spend less time in the shop and more time hauling.”
Integration is key. “Both HaulSight and TireSight integrate with TOMS, automating work orders and ensuring priority tyre and road work is addressed when needed.” The value proposition is clear: “Every hour and every day we keep a truck on the road represents significant value for our customers.”
Behind the technology are dedicated teams. “On any mine we serve, dedicated on-site teams and 24/7 remote condition monitoring experts play a critical role in executing the tyre management strategy and using these innovations to their fullest.”
Kal Tire’s Reliability Analyst teams add another layer of optimisation. “Our Reliability Analyst teams help to maximise the output of KalPRO technologies by identifying patterns and developing strategies with customers and OEM partners to increase asset performance.”
Safety remains a central pillar of innovation. “At Kal Tire, we also feel it’s our responsibility to make our work around the wheel as safe as possible,” says Martin. The company’s Innovation Centre in Canada has developed tools to protect technicians while improving efficiency.
These include “GATR (Gravity Assist Tooling Rig), which supports the weight of heavy tools, like torque guns; and WheelJaws, which removes technicians from the danger zone during the final steps of mounting and dismounting assemblies.”
Sometimes, the simplest innovations deliver significant impact. “One tool we’ve developed that’s now available to mine sites everywhere via Haltec and AME that is simple and impactful is ValveShield, which protects flying rocks from displacing valve stems, which can lead to leaks, tyre damage, and downtime.”
Data-driven value in action
While technology and tools are impressive in their own right, their real value lies in measurable results. TOMS, with its AI-driven aggregation of work, enables customers to “aggregate work more effectively using AI functionality to support planning,” ensuring that tyre-related tasks are scheduled strategically rather than reactively.
The outcome is fewer unplanned stoppages, improved safety performance, and extended tyre life – all of which translate into stronger returns on one of the mine’s most significant operating costs.
Across Southern Africa, where mines operate in challenging conditions and under increasing pressure to deliver more with less, the ability to integrate independent supply, lifecycle services, AI-enabled planning, and safety-focused innovation positions Kal Tire as more than a tyre provider. It becomes, in Martin’s words, a partner focused on one overriding goal: “keeping trucks hauling as safely and productively as possible.”
