Weir has established the largest installed base of dewatering and slurry pumps in Africa’s mining sector by helping customers de-risk their pumping operations – combining technical excellence and equipment optimisation with a service network founded on a fully compliant social licence to operate.
Marnus Koorts, General Manager – Original Equipment at Weir, explains that the company’s dominance rests not only on the quality of its pumping solutions but on a full value chain approach that mitigates risk for mine operators at every stage.
“Mining is continuous and extremely capital intensive, so equipment must perform reliably and optimally,” Koorts says. “It is no surprise, therefore, that mines are risk averse when partnering with solution providers – they need to deal with partners they can trust.”
Achieving the performance levels and uptime demanded by modern mining operations requires a depth of process and engineering expertise, he explains, supported by a continent-wide service network.
“Our customers’ first question is often about our references in a specific country or commodity,” he says. “Thanks to our extensive footprint and vast experience, we’re almost always familiar with their operating environments – from the minerals being mined and processing conditions to the local regulatory landscape.”
Koorts highlights that the large installed base gives Weir a considerable advantage: real-world data across multiple commodities, climatic zones and operating conditions, all feeding directly into ongoing product optimisation.
“We are continuously releasing new variants of components based on feedback from the field,” he says. “We are also digitally monitoring a large portion of our installed base, so it is not just physical site visits, but smart monitoring that allows us to improve performance, longevity and total cost of ownership.”
This knowledge translates into valuable operational insights, such as the benefits of standardisation of equipment across separate sites with one mining company. In a recent project for a West African gold miner, Weir was able to recommend a slight design alteration which allowed two sites to standardise on the same mill-pump configuration.
By having the knowledge and experience of the first site, Weir could suggest to the engineering house how commonality among motors and gearboxes would save the customer millions in parts inventory while ensuring a low downtime risk.
“We have this capability due to our institutional knowledge of hundreds of projects and product applications,” he says. “This is a crucial part of the value that we bring as an OEM where we can collaborate with customers in applying the best solutions possible.”
As every country has its own procurement regulations for the mining sector, a reliable partner must also ensure its sustainability through legal compliance. There are regulations in procurement which supply partners must understand and comply with to ensure a robust and high quality value chain that always delivers to world class standards.
“Weir’s service network in Africa is staffed by local engineers, account managers and process specialists,” Koorts says. “We employ and empower local people, and we invest heavily in skills development.”
Weir’s graduate programmes, for instance, recruit from regional universities and develop young engineers into full time employees.
“This is all part of being a good corporate citizen and it ensures that our customers are supported by experts who understand the terrain, the language and the mining culture,” he says.
Weir’s success across Africa comes from understanding that its leading pump offering is just the start of the journey with customers and needs to be supported by a depth of engineering expertise, a strong and compliant local presence, a stream of performance data and all the relevant governance systems to ensure a social licence to operate.
“Working with Weir gives customers access to our knowledge, our compliance and our ability to mitigate their operational risk. Our market leading products are just the visible part of a complex value chain,” Koorts concludes.