SA Businesspeople Hopeful Trade Leads Will Develop into Concrete Deals |
| The South African businesspeople who participated in the three-day Africa Down Under International Mining Conference and Exhibition that ended in Perth, Australia yesterday are optimistic that the trade leads that they secured there will generate into concrete deals. The companies’ participation was part of the Outward Selling Mission (OSM) to Australia that was organised and funded by the Department of Trade and Industry (the dti)
The businesspeople pointed out that they were returning with an impressive amount of promising trade leads, credible contacts and valuable information that they will have to sift through and follow up on in order to pursue potentially tangible deals. The Director of Business Development at the North West-based Beake Africa, Mr Kealeboga Seleka points out that he managed to have good meetings with all the companies that he had planned to have discussions with during the mission. “I saw all the companies that I had planned to meet on this trip. I particularly had fruitful discussions with an Australian company that is setting up mining operations in the Northern Cape. We explored the feasibility of us providing them with steel and have agreed to meet for formal discussions next week. Hopefully something tangible will come out of those follow-up negotiations,” says Seleka. The Director of AZMET Technology & Projects, Mr Ruan Kukard, says he managed to hold positive meetings with representatives of ministries of mines from seventeen African countries, particularly to market his company’s new cyanide removal technology. “The meetings provided me with a good overview of resources, projects and developments in various African countries. The exposure that you get in his kind of an event and the contacts that I have made are very valuable. We already have projects that we are currently executing in Ethiopia and Sudan and the meetings went a long way in solidifying our relationships with mining officials from those countries. We have been impressed by the interest that our cyanide removal technology generated among many companies here,” adds Kukard. The Chief Executive Officer of the Steel Tube Export Association of South Africa, Mr Keitumetse Moumakoe says the amount of information he gathered at ADU in regards to mining projects planned or taking place in many African countries was overwhelming to say the least. “We were able to understand what is going on in the continent in regards to mining projects, and the information will assist us sift through the projects and identify those that our members can be able to take advantage of and participate in. We also managed to engage with many CEOs of mining companies and senior government officials,” says Moumakoe. The Managing Director of Broederstroom-based Nxco Mining Technologies, Mr Johan Groenewald was also impressed with the calibre of the officials and the quality of meetings he managed to have during the three days. “We managed to meet with quite an impressive number of senior representatives from mining companies and this helped us a lot in making them understand our product better. We managed to successfully introduce our sensitive rock breaking solutions to many of them. An Australian company operating mines in Lesotho and Angola has shown interest in our products and has invited us to conduct tests in Lesotho. There are also numerous leads that we will be following up on soon,” says Groenewald. Caption: South African delegates Mr Kealeboga Seleka and Ms Palesa Naka with the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mr Gwede Mantashe after his address at the African Down Under International Conference and Exhibition in Perth, Australia Enquiries: |
Share this:
