Mining expo impresses exhibitors

PATRICIA MAGANU
Staff Writer | Friday August 8, 2008 00:00

 

The main participants were Tati Nickel Mining Company (TNMC), Mupane Gold Mine and African Copper. Forty-five manufacturers and distributors, mostly from South Africa, were also 'on show' to support their clients and present themselves to potential new ones.

The Operations Director of organisers MTE, Abel Nkomo, says that this was the fifth annual expo and that they were impressed with the turnout.'We had 45 exhibitors, some of them are from South Africa,' Nkomo says. 'That's quite a turnout.'MTE has arranged for a similar exhibition in Selibe-Phikwe today (Thursday), mainly for BCL Mine and Lerala Mine. One of the companies that exhibited in Francistown, Favorsea International, was one of several that were participating for the first time.Johannesburg-based Farvosea is a Chinese company that manufactures and supplies tyres. Its main customer in Botswana is Debswana. 'We are here to do business and make friends,' says Favorsea director Barney Bai.

Another company that exhibited is Ryalsan (North) Engineering (RNE), which designs and manufactures pumps. RNE is also based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Its service maintenance technician, William Makgoba, says RNE has representatives in Botswana and that the company has been working with certain local mines for several years.It also supplies Debswana, as well as Tati Nickel Mine. Says Makgoba of the MTE show in which RNE has participated for the past three years: 'It is certainly an important exhibition for the mining industry in both Botswana and South Africa.'

Belinda Mans of SAMCHEM, a company that supplies drilling fluids and chemicals, says even though SAMCHEM was exhibiting here for the first time, it has made a good impression on potential customers.'We will be studying the response over the coming weeks after this exhibition,' says Mans.

Zimbabwe-based mining equipment suppliers NIMR & CHAPMAN (NC) were also 'on show'. NC's Marketing Manager Charity Muthubiwa says her company is one of the main suppliers of Tati Nickel Mine and Mupane Gold Mine.'We manufacture mill liners and other mining equipment,' Muthubiwa says. 'We want to network in order to have more business partners in Botswana than we already have at present.'

Financial institutions were also available 'to support our clients', as a spokesman of Barclays Bank said.

'A lot of people here are our clients,' said an FNB spokesman. 'We are here to do business and to generate new clients.' He said a lot of business transactions would follow the expo.'Some people will be looking for agents and will need financial assistance,' he added.