John Martin, vice president, Southern Africa, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group. Photo by © Leon Louw
It has been a better-than-expected year for tyre service provider Kal Tire in Africa, with the mini mining boom during and soon after the first Covid-19 lockdowns, John Martin, vice president, Southern Africa, Kal Tire’s Mining Tire Group, tells Leon Louw.
On a global basis, the company is now focusing on the recycling of tyres after the successful commissioning of the first of two reactors at their mining tyre recycling facility in Chile.
Leon Louw spoke to John Martin about the impact of Covid on Kal Tire Mining Tire Group, the company’s growth, and products and expansions in the pipeline.
John, what was the impact of Covid-19 on your operations and on the mining industry?
In 2020 everybody had a severe set-back during the first hard lock down. The mining industry recovered well though, and we were fortunate to have been given the opportunity to re-open earlier than most industries.
Underground mines were allowed 50% capacity and 100% of surface miners returned to work within a reasonably short period of time. That assisted us a lot to move away from what was initially forecast to be a doom and gloom scenario.
The quick recovery of the mining sector was most welcome, as mining is a massive employer and a significant contributor to the country’s GDP. What the South African mining industry achieved under tremendously tough conditions was phenomenal.
Where did Kal Tire see the biggest growth during the past year or so?
Kal Tire has a strong presence in underground mining. Therefore, it was good to see that most underground mines (99%) returned to normality quickly. In addition, we have seen significant growth and expansion in the surface mining division. Growth in the mining industry is driven by the fact that South African commodities are gaining more favour from China. For example, coal exports to China have increased, while there has also been good growth in the manganese and iron ore sector. The platinum industry, of course, has recovered spectacularly from its lows of a couple of years ago.
In which regions is Kal Tire seeing the most growth?
There has been substantial growth in the Northern Cape province in South Africa. Although Kal Tire already has a presence in the Northern Cape, we are planning to strengthen that significantly in the coming months.
Has 2021 been a busy first quarter for Kal Tire?
We’ve had better than expected results from what have traditionally been slow months in January and February. March was our first month of the new financial year and it was extremely positive. We are hopeful and optimistic that the industry is on a bull market rather than a downswing, so we are looking forward to a good 2021 and 2022 financial year.
Any new products or expansions into other regions in the pipeline, and if so, which countries have caught your attention?
Yes, absolutely. I think Botswana, for example, remains a very exciting prospect for us. We’ve had a presence in Botswana for many years and we continue to serve the major mining players in the Botswana market. BCL will be re-opening soon; there is a large copper development at Khoemacau in the north of the country; and two or three other projects are coming on-line within the next 12 to 18 months. Therefore, Kal Tire will continue to have a strong presence in Botswana.
We continue to service some of the largest mining operations in Mozambique and there are additional opportunities at new operations where we are busy putting service infrastructure in place. Then, of course, Total’s oil and gas development in the north of Mozambique continues providing opportunities. However, the security situation in the area remains a concern. Nevertheless, we
Zambia and Tanzania have had their share of problems recently. Are they still on your radar?
Zambia remains a difficult market. The government has, for the last couple of years, imposed quite heavy additional levies and taxes on the mining industry. Glencore recently sold their final shareholding in the Mopani operation to ZZCM. It will remain a challenge for suppliers to receive payment from government, which is already battling to get foreign currency. The question is how will they continue to operate those mines if they do not have access to needed foreign currency?
Kal Tire has a presence in both Kitwe and the capital Lusaka, so we continue to serve the Copperbelt region and the Northern province of Zambia, as well as the southern Democratic of the Congo (DRC) from these offices.
There are huge opportunities in the DRC with Kamoa Copper in Katanga opening soon. We certainly regard the DRC as a great region of growth. We continue keeping a close eye on developments in Zimbabwe and Tanzania as well. Despite the political change in Tanzania, the country remains another challenging environment.
We are continuously looking at new products. In South Africa we have been pushing the ‘Alpha’ mining systems brand, which are purpose-built products for coal and underground hard rock mining applications. We have furthermore introduced an exciting range of products called MAXAM, which is focused on surface mining.
Our mining business makes up a significant portion of our total operations, which is currently dominated by underground mining. Kal Tire also has a healthy interest in the commercial trucking business, where we continue to expand quite significantly.
We are extremely happy with these developments on the commercial trucking side of the business. We are offering products to customers that are unique to Kal Tire. As a result, we have seen the sale of those products increase almost fivefold in the last two years since we started. We are backing up these products with retread guarantees, as Kal Tire’s commitment of the quality of the product we offer.
So, the South African region remains your main market?
In the Southern African Region, South Africa is the biggest mining market by a significant margin. Botswana will always be a significant growth prospect for Kal Tire. At the same time, we plan to expand our presence in Zambia and into the southern DRC and Mozambique. Significant investment has recently put into operation one of the largest OTR tyre repair facilities in the region, located in Tete in Mozambique.
Kal Tire has constructed a recycling plant in Chile. What is the significance of that plant, and could it be duplicated in South Africa?
Kal Tire started evaluating the opportunity to construct a recycling plant about five years ago. Recycling waste tyres is probably one of the biggest environmental challenges for mining companies and governments around the world. There are several initiatives in recycling which includes activities like shredding and devulcanising or turning it into some form of usable product that can be repurposed in the industry.
However, not all processes comply with required environmental standards. In most cases, tyres get shredded and put into containers for export, to be burned in furnaces and kilns.
Kal Tire developed a recycling solution we call thermal conversion, which is a pyrolysis-based process. During the thermal conversion process, the tyre is broken down into its primary components which can be re-purposed into many applications.
Carbon black is one of the primary products that is generated, which has various applications like pigments, paints, and it can be used again in the manufacturing of new tyres. The high-quality steel in tyres can be used again and the process also yields a basic fuel oil that can be utilised in power generation, for example.
The oil can also be filtered, cleaned, and repurposed to be used in moving machinery, or it can be blended with existing diesel. Synthetic gas is another by-product of the recycling process. The gas gets repurposed to retain the heat of the kiln so one uses very little external energy to fire up and maintain the process.
The plant in Chile consists of two chambers and its current capacity is about 7 500 tonnes per year. The plant is modular by design so it can be constructed and operated in a format from one chamber to multiple chambers. We are currently evaluating expansion plans, given the effect of the Chile legislation, tyre supply and as end product markets develop and are more fully understood. The beauty of the system is that it is modular, and you can adapt it to the requirements.
So, you can create a plant anywhere in the world with one, two or three chambers depending on the quantity of the feedstock that is available. Is this a viable solution for the South African environment?
Yes, definitely. Currently waste tyre management is the responsibility of the South African government through the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs and the Waste Bureau. However, at the moment there is no real solution to the challenge of sustainably recycling OTR tyres in South Africa.
It is part of our plans to introduce this plant in South Africa. It is not a simple process though, as there are so many different stakeholders in the tyre recycling business in South Africa, which includes, amongst others, the customer, government, local communities, and other partners that either have to fund, or manage these facilities. To get the maximum value out of the facility you would probably need to run it for about ten years, it is thus a long-term commitment.
The tonnage of waste tyres in South Africa is enormous. One potential solution could be to put a facility in place in a specific location and then have several mining operations feeding that central plant. One could probably construct three or four of them around the country. It does not only have to be used on OTR tyres though, but it can also be used for any other type of tyre.
What does Kal Tire do with the old tyres now?
The Waste Bureau collects old tyres daily. Government has created storage space for tyres by renting vast tracks of land to store the tyres on, which seems to be a temporary mechanism until they can reintroduce a waste tyre management programme.
For every single tyre that gets imported or manufactured in this country, a levy of R2.30 per kg goes to government for the processing of tyres. At the moment it appears the bulk of that money is spent purely on rent. As far as we know, there is no processing of OTR tyres being done in a sustainable way.
What sort of emissions are we talking about when tyres are recycled?
The plant was designed, assembled, and wet tested in Europe so the emissions are all within European standards.
The test plant was located and trialled within a few hundred metres of residential estates. There was no smoke and no smell, and no evidence of any negative environmental impact.