Axis House Group continues to build on its momentum from a strong 2024, and the company is poised for significant growth heading into 2025. With a portfolio of innovative products and strategic expansions, Axis House Group continues to solidify its leadership in the mining sector. From overcoming logistical challenges with a sophisticated supply chain strategy to launching cutting-edge solutions for mineral processing, the company is setting the stage for a dynamic year ahead. CEO Justine Stubbs Hult shares insights into how Axis House Group is driving efficiencies, embracing sustainability, and expanding its global reach, all while maintaining its commitment to excellence in service and product development.
According to Stubbs Hult, Axis House Group is experiencing a dynamic year in 2024, marked by new product launches and enhancements to existing ranges. “From a fairly depressed quarter three and four in 2023; 2024 is delivering quite an upswing in terms of business for Axis House Group.”
While the reagent manufacturer and supplier to the mining sector continues to scope for new markets that could benefit from its innovative and technical product range, it remains upbeat going into 2025, with its focus firmly set on maximising efforts in North Africa, Middle East and Europe.
“Our aim is to grow the business in territories we recently entered and to increase stockholding in Turkey, while simultaneously growing our product offerings into Europe. There are several mines in and around Eastern Europe and Northern Europe that we believe will benefit from our technical expertise and product range.”
Looking ahead, Axis House Group is committed to delivering innovative products that enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and provide excellent after-sales support, amongst others. Importantly, a key part of its strategy is to continue establishing production facilities closer to areas of operation, given the focus on lowering its carbon footprint and those of its clients. Moreover, having production facilities closer to its customers will assist in alleviating supply chain challenges which negatively impact business. This strategic positioning aims to address potential disruptions related to South Africa’s rail and port capacities, ensuring a more reliable and streamlined service.
“In order to circumvent the logistical challenges at play, we have in place a multi-faceted supply chain approach that encompasses a multi modal tactic, which includes the use of multiple ports, both on the East and West African, as well as the South African coasts, and integrates road, rail, and air freight. This approach ensures that clients have quick turnaround on our products, whenever and wherever it is required.”
Axis House Group supplies its range of products across key mining destinations in Africa and considers the Southern African region as an active territory. It remains well placed to service these markets either from its Cape Town or Johannesburg offices.
Aside from servicing the North African and Middle Eastern markets, the chemical’s solutions provider established an office in Turkey in 2019, targeting Turkey, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia’s industrial metals market as it sought to service the phosphate and fluorspar markets from its cadmium and de-cadmium product range.
At the same time, the company made a play for the European market, with an initial foray into Spain in 2019, just at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trends influencing the mining industry
Low costs and high efficiencies remain the mantra for the mining industry with the sector, particularly during bear markets, keen to secure highly effective products to enhance minerals processing – a space in which Axis House Group has long been a leader.
Stubbs Hult explains that highly efficient products are an imperative as they lower the overall cost of minerals processing.
“Products that are selective in nature and highly efficient work to negate the need for tailings retreatment, for instance. Furthermore, clients are penalised for sub-par products that contain impurities and so seek highly efficient reagents. Axis House Group prides itself on developing innovative products that work to minimise the existence of impurities and thereby increase value for our clients.”
However, given that some of the chemicals used in minerals processing are extremely harmful, Axis House Group, on a drive to find alternatives to hazardous materials in its products, recently launched - VitriAX-E- an acid mist suppressant, which is less hazardous and much easier to dose than traditional sulphides. Moreover, the product is safer for use by employees and production teams.
New product ranges
Axis House Group’s recent focus on product lines for industrial minerals, including lithium, phosphates and rare earth elements, has led to the development of new products, such as the TOFA type reagents, which are currently being rolled out.
“The new product targets selectivity, improved grades and mineral recovery, and has delivered superb results during laboratory testing. We also launched the UniQ and UniQ D5 range, which is well suited to the extraction process of copper and lead. Having been tested at lab-scale and pilot plant scale last year, the products are now being trialled in Turkey.”
According to Stubbs Hult, with cadmium being a major concern for miners, the chemical specialist recently launched its CAD AX and CAD D products, which are being rolled out in various regions.
“The new product ranges have shown great selectivity with the removal of up to 99% of cadmium from cobalt solutions. They offer a much more efficient way of extracting cobalt hydroxide and ensure that the end product has a high purity level of close to 40%. For clients mining cobalt in the DRC, whose export licences require a 39% precipitation of cobalt, Axis House Group’s product range is a game-changer. Products that are currently available in the market are only able to achieve between 27% and 35% cobalt precipitation.”
Axis House Group has also been supplying frothers, specifically oxide collectors, into the platinum industry. “We have been supplying the oxide collectors – our old workhorse, the AM 810 – into the DRC and Zambia and South America for many years. However, we had not supplied them to the platinum industry until now. We have recently begun supplying the AM 810 to the platinum industry in both South Africa and Zimbabwe,” concludes Stubbs Hult.
