There are only a handful of companies supplying Africa’s mining industry that can boast of having a 100-year history behind them. One of this select few is Johannesburg-based Osborn, founded in 1919 as Samuel Osborn SA. To learn more about the company, including its achievements and current strategy, Modern Mining recently spoke to Managing Director Johan Goosen and Director of Sales & Marketing Vinesh Surajlall.
View of an Osborn primary crusher installation.
Although it was originally established as a subsidiary of a British steel company and is today part of US-based Astec Industries, Osborn is a thoroughly South African enterprise, both in its people and its products. The company operates from premises in Elandsfontein which it originally moved into in 1979 and which have since been substantially expanded, with the original small fabrication shop on site having grown tenfold into a large, modern manufacturing facility able to produce equipment which can hold its own with the best available internationally.
While Osborn has access to all the equipment designed and manufactured by its sister companies within the Astec Industries group, notably Telsmith, KPI-JCI and BTI Breaker Technology, all based in the US or Canada, most of the products it markets have been designed in-house and are manufactured at the Elandsfontein factory. “The simple fact is that South African rocks and ores are very different – and generally typically much harder – than those encountered in other countries,” says Goosen. “The Osborn equipment is therefore designed to handle the conditions that characterise hard rock mining.”
By way of example, Goosen notes that Osborn started manufacturing in South Africa under licence to Telsmith as far back as 1950. “We soon found out that some of the Telsmith machines, though superbly engineered, had to be adapted to cope with our hard rock, ultimately becoming, to all intents and purposes, South African products. We’ve reached the point today where around 90 % of what we sell is designed and manufactured here in South Africa with the balance coming from our sister companies overseas.”
The product line-up available from Osborn includes crushing equipment for both hard rock and coal, apron, pan and grizzly feeders, screens, stackers and scrubbers. The single biggest machine manufactured locally is the Osborn 80 x 60 single toggle jaw crusher which weighs 140 tonnes and can handle up to 2 x 1,5 m feed size. Osborn is thought to be the only South African manufacturer of large crushers and its crushing range comprises single and double toggle jaw crushers, cone crushers and entire modular crushing plants.
Surajlall, who joined Osborn last year, says that while Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for around 70 % of Osborn’s business, the company’s equipment is to be found even further afield. “We’ve done very well in the CSI countries, notably Russia and Kazakhstan, as well as Turkey and Spain, and we’ve even supplied to China, a country which typically exports mining and processing equipment rather than importing it,” he says. He adds that Osborn is also becoming more active in Australia through its local dealer network and is already delivering positive results
A particularly big seller at the moment for the company is its range of apron feeders. The feeders are offered in sizes from 900 mm wide to 3 500 mm wide and with either electro-mechanical or hydraulic drives and are constructed using traditional D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8 and D9 track components. Recent orders have come from Petra’s Cullinan mine (which also employs Osborn screens and crushers), the Bisie tin mine in the DRC (currently under development by Alphamin Resources), an iron ore mine in the Northern Cape and a Spanish copper mine. Says Surajlall:“There’s no question that our apron feeders are world-class products and this is confirmed by our customers, many of whom have used products from other manufacturers in the past but who now regard the Osborn machines as the benchmark.”
Elaborating on the order from the Northern Cape iron ore mine (which is currently being fulfilled), Goosen says that Osborn’s ability to offer a bespoke design for what is a challenging installation was instrumental in its winning the contract. “The problem was the space available on site which meant that even the smallest standard-size apron feeders were not suitable,” he states. “We offered the client a new custom-designed smaller size feeder and our proposal was accepted. This contract highlights one of our core values, which is innovation. We are always prepared to work with customers to accommodate the specific needs of their projects and, in fact, we welcome challenges of this type.”
He adds that the Northern Cape is home to one of the highest concentrations of Osborn equipment anywhere in the world, with its machines being deployed on many of the iron ore, manganese and diamond mines in the region. A notable recent order was for Sebilo Resources’ new manganese mine near Hotazel which saw the company supplying an Osborn Telsmith vibrating feeder, an Osborn Telsmith 25 x 40 jaw crusher, an Osborn modular Telsmith 38 SBS Gyrasphere crusher and an Osborn modular 16 x 20 double-deck screen. The Osborn machines are employed in a new fixed plant designed by Johannesburg-based process engineers MET63 on behalf of Sebilo.
Surajlall makes the point that the high performance characteristics of the Osborn machines can often lead to substantial savings for clients. “In one of the CSI countries, we’ve supplied one of our double toggle jaw crushers to a chrome operation. It replaces two single toggle jaw crushers from another supplier and has allowed a significant improvement in throughput.”
Goosen stresses that Osborn is constantly renewing and upgrading its equipment and says there are currently some exciting new products in the pipeline, although he declines to go into specifics at this stage. “The focus with the new equipment will be on safety and ease of maintenance and also – and perhaps even more importantly – on the ability to interface with the increasingly sophisticated information and control systems found on mines and quarries,” he observes.
“If you look at countries such as the US, you can see that – to take one example – entire quarries are being controlled by just two or three people. To fit into this type of automated environment, equipment needs to have a degree of ‘intelligence’ and we are working – in collaboration with our customers, who are providing input – to make sure that our products measure up in this respect.”
A high-level of aftermarket support remains a key element of Osborn’s business philosophy, with Goosen stressing that the company delivers the same individual attention and personalised service to every customer, big or small. “All suppliers, of course, will tell you that their support is excellent but we really do believe we are different. We are committed to ensuring that we meet our customers’ expectations on time, every time, and it is our firm conviction that this is one of the factors that has enabled us to operate so successfully for 100 years.”
Discussing market conditions, Goosen says the mining sector continues to be constrained in Southern Africa. “Essentially, everyone is fighting to maintain or increase their share of a cake that is not really growing in terms of size. We believe we’re doing well given the circumstances. We’re profitable and our market share is increasing. Our geographical spread has certainly helped us and our intention is to continuing growing our international business,” he states. He adds that being part of an international group such as Astec Industries, which has regional sales offices around the world, will facilitate Osborn’s international expansion.
Finally, Goosen reveals that Osborn, appropriately in its centennial year, is on its way to concluding an empowerment deal that will see it becoming a Level 4 B-BBEE supplier. “We’ve been working on this for a considerable amount of time as we want to get everything right. Our objective is to comply not just with the letter but also the spirit of the Mining Charter. We are nearly there and we should be in a position to make an announcement shortly. We’re very excited by this transformational development which will help secure our future as we enter our next hundred years as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent suppliers to the mining and quarrying industries, both locally and globally.”
