MTE celebrates it’s 30th birthday anniversary in Zambia 2023

By Sharyn Macnamara

Andrew Macnamara of MTE talks to African Mining about the company’s 30th year in business, which coincides with its upcoming expo tour in Zambia in the month of September.

Mining and Technical Exhibitions (MTE) travels to Zambia annually and its trilogy of expos is one of the highlights of the company’s calendar. The travelling exhibition company will host three consecutive shows within a week, starting with the Kalumbila Expo on 18 September, stopping off at Solwezi on 20 September and ending the tour on 22 September in Kitwe. This year will be a particularly special tour as it coincides with the company’s 30th birthday celebration.

Andrew Macnamara, operations director, has been with the company for over 14 years now. When asked what his most memorable experience has been at an MTE tradeshow – auspiciously, top of this list, was an experience in Zambia. “In 2015 the Zambian Minister of Mines and Minerals Development, honourable Christopher Bwalya Yaluma, attended and addressed our MTE Kitwe Expo, which of course bears testament to the reputation and the role we have built as an industry stakeholder. MTE strives to support a modernised and safe mining and industrial sector through our solutions driven tradeshows, where together with our valued suppliers, we showcase new tech and consistently evolving innovation to improve safety and efficiencies in the industry, all year long.”

Over the past 30 years, MTE has made

Over…MTE has most certainly made its mark… in SADC. The company’s customised high impact exhibitions are well known across many industries – mining, power, cement, sugar, port and harbour, and paper and pulp industries – for bringing buyer and supplier together, creating worthwhile networking and the sharing of challenges, solutions and opportunities for all parties in the value chain.

The evolution of MTE

Macnamara reminisces: the company started from very humble beginnings. The late Tony Wightman founded the company in 1993, starting the MTE journey in a land cruiser with a trailer – travelling from rec club to rec club in the mining industry to showcase solutions to the end-user. He would host 10 to 20 suppliers at the local mining rec club, where operations’ management would go for a beer after work. Suppliers would engage with interested mine bosses eager to improve their operations.

Since those early days and after Interact Media Defined (IMD https://interactmedia.co.za/) acquired the company in 2004, MTE has become a force to be reckoned with in southern Africa, with its trademark yellow and orange tents and two 24-ton trucks – Timon and Pumbaa.

The company’s lean team of seven committed individuals now hosts between 24 and 30 shows annually, which range from smaller, intimate expos – usually on site at an operation to large trade expos – visited by multi-disciplinary decision makers, from artisans to top management professionals across a number of industries. Macnamara notes that the secret to the company’s success lies in its relationships with both the multi-industry operations and the suppliers of products and services to the sectors.

The MTE team has grown the business astronomically since 1993, travelling over 300 000km by truck and with more than 1.65 millionkilometres travelled for relationship building visits to operations, hosting over 21 600 suppliers and over 180 000 visitors, and covering content for a cross-section of commodities – platinum, PGMs, gold, diamonds, copper, iron ore, manganese, coal, energy, paper and pulp, sugar and cement – both locally and cross border, including countries like Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Zambia.

The company has smashed some of its own records in its milestone 30th year in business. This year saw over 135 exhibitors showcasing innovation to over 500 visitors at the 2023 MTE Rustenburg 1-day expo; the MTE Kathu trade show hosted 115 exhibitors and just under 500 visitors; while the Northern Cape expo-trilogy – with the company’s first-ever back-to-back shows without the customary day in between – saw 300 exhibitors deliver solutions to just under 1000 visitors.

Macnamara is hoping to see another one of the team’s records smashed when they travel to Zambia this month. “I visited Zambia in July this year to engage with the operations in the areas we will be visiting. Their priorities currently are focused on plant maintenance and efficiencies. Automation and innovations to promote safety on moving parts within the operations were also a recurring theme in discussions.

“The operations in the area look forward to our expo trilogy because they get to liaise with top class local and South African suppliers, who are already briefed upfront on what the operations are looking for in terms of solutions. Also, it takes senior management probably a matter of two to three hours of high impact discussions with supplier experts to address their challenges as the MTE team has sourced relevant suppliers with select solutions to exhibit and showcase innovations,” explains Macnamara.

Macnamara adds, “If you are a supplier of mining and power tech solutions, the draw card for you to join the tour would be of course the fact that only a week and a bit of your schedule would be required to sign up a potential annual contract for solutions you know have been requested upfront. Not to mention the fact that the customer will come to you, as MTE has marketed the event up front consistently, since the publication of its calendar in August last year.” The visit is also a win-win on the cost side of things as the tour involves one visit to the country to have the opportunity to speak to many decision makers, who are interested and looking forward to seeing what is available.

 

Zambian investment climate

The efforts of the ‘New Dawn’ administration in the country to enhance both the investment climate for mining and to seek commitments from the mining sector to contribute to the national economy and to corporate social responsibility have made an impactful difference to doing business in Zambia. The government of Zambia made a commitment in August 2021 – expressed in President Hakainde Hichilema’s inauguration speech – to enhance good governance and strictly uphold the rule of law. “It is a new dawn,” he said. These commitments address the ease of doing business in Zambia, covering areas such as expediting immigration procedures in exchange for commitments for local employment levels, competitive pricing of power transmission and power procurement from independent sources, which in turn was to support renewable energy projects, and measures to ensure the ease of importing and exporting goods.

The government promised that its dealings would be “transparent, consistent, predictable, fair, and based on an intolerance to corruption”- per Hichilema’s speech at the Investing in African Mining Indaba in May 2022. He reiterated there too that the government is committed to delivering on domestic economic empowerment and job creation without resource nationalism, noting this is essential to ensuring the sustainability of investments and a secure social license for operators.

Solwezi – activity bodes well for business

The government’s commitment to improve the predictability of the mining fiscal regime also provided the certainty needed to support large capital investments in Zambia. A case in point, are two landmark investments by First Quantum Minerals involving USD1.25-billion to expand production and extend the life of the Kansanshi Mine and an additional USD100-million investment to bring online the USD250-million new Enterprise Nickel Mine.

Solwezi has seen the fruits of this ‘New Dawn’ in First Quantum’s S3 expansion at the Kansanshi mine and the Enterprise nickel project. Last year, Tristan Pascall, CEO First Quantum said, “The company’s approval of the projects reflects First Quantum’s increased confidence in the investment climate in Zambia… The Kansanshi mine has been a cornerstone asset for First Quantum for 15 years and the S3 Expansion will expand production and extend the mine life for another two decades. The low-cost, high-grade Enterprise nickel project is well placed to supply the rapidly growing electric vehicle battery sector.”

S3 Expansion

The S3 Expansion is expected to transition the current selective high-grade, medium-scale operation to a medium-grade, larger-scale mining operation that will be more appropriate for the higher proportion of primary, lower-grade sulphide ores at depth. As outlined in the NI 43-101 Technical Report filed in September 2020, the S3 Expansion, when fully completed, will comprise of a standalone 25 million tonne per annum processing plant with a new larger mining fleet that will increase Kansanshi’s total annual throughput to 53Mtpa. Once the expansion is completed, copper production from Kansanshi is expected to average approximately 250 thousand tonnes per annum for the remaining life of mine to 2044.

In parallel with the expansion of the mine and processing facilities, the company plans to increase the throughput capacity of the Kansanshi smelter from 1.38 Mtpa to 1.65Mtpa of concentrate. This will enable the smelter to produce over 400Ktpa of copper anode.

The total capital expenditures associated with the S3 Expansion is expected to be USD1.25-billion, which includes USD900-million on the S3 plant and mine fleet and USD350-million for pre-stripping of the South East Dome pit. Approximately USD800-million of this spending was included in the company’s three-year guidance released on January 17, 2022 – with the balance falling beyond the guidance period. First production from the S3 Expansion, at the time, is expected in 2025.

Enterprise Nickel Project

The Enterprise nickel sulphide deposit is located 12km northwest of the Sentinel copper mine. As outlined in the NI 43-101 Technical Report filed in March 2020, proven and probable reserves at Enterprise total 34.7 million tonnes of ore at 0.99% nickel.

The Enterprise nickel project will consist of a single, main open pit and one extension to the southwest. It will utilise the existing 4 Mtpa nickel circuit that was previously built as part of the original Sentinel processing complex. The main workstream to bring the project online will be the pre-strip of waste. The development timeline for Enterprise was expected to be approximately twelve months. At full production, Enterprise is expected to produce an average of 30Ktpa of nickel in high-grade concentrate.

The total capital expenditures associated with the Enterprise nickel project was expected to be approximately USD100-million. Pre-stripping of the Enterprise pit of USD60-million was included in the three-year guidance provided at the time along with USD40- million related to infrastructure and plant commissioning. Expected first nickel production of 5 000 to 10 000 tonnes of nickel in 2023 was included in the company’s three-year guidance. Power for both projects will be supplied predominantly from renewable sources, including the existing hydropower within Zambia, as well as potential wind and solar power projects that are under consideration by third parties.

These two projects give an indication of the development happening in Zambia.

Barrick – a second major player in the country – is also picking up speed in the drive to transform the Lumwana copper mine into a Tier One1 asset with a life extending beyond 2060, and the operation’s strong performance in the past quarter is adding impetus to its continuing production ramp-up.

The company’s president and chief executive, Mark Bristow said the mine’s full potential was only now being revealed. Additional expansion opportunities, identified through an updated geological model, are currently being assessed, while drilling at the Kababisa prospect highlights potential mining flexibility through higher grades. “The Lumwana pre-feasibility study is progressing in line with our plans to transform its long-term copper profile through the delivery of the envisioned super pit,” he noted.

Based on the activity in the country and the positivity in the business arena in Zambia experienced in his most recent trip, Macnamara envisages a very successful tour for MTE and its valued exhibitors – in this its 30th year of business. Watch this space for feedback.

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