Boipelo Mining Contractors, a joint venture in which specialist engineering and construction group Murray & Roberts (M&R) holds a significant stake, has won a R3.2bn contract for the provision of underground mining services at the Arnot coal mine in Mpumalanga.
Boipelo is a joint venture between M&R with a 49% and mining contractor Amandla TM with 51%. The coal-focused BEE mining contractor provides contracting services to the local coal mining industry.
M&R Cementation, which is M&R’s contract mining unit, will be the active partner with Amandla TM on the project.
“The group understands the global implications of climate change and is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and growing its service offerings in the cleaner energy sector,” M&R said on Friday.
“Considering the shortage of electricity in SA and Eskom’s dependence on its fleet of coal-fired power stations to generate electricity to meet baseload demand, the group has decided to limit its coal-mining service offering to the SA mining sector,” it said.
M&R had said in March that it saw its order book achieve a record high of R60.5bn in the six months to December, after it won tenders for large projects in Australia’s energy sector.
The company also clinched near orders of R19.9bn, and CEO Henry Laas said in an interview with Business Day that this meant M&R was well-positioned for a return to profitability in the full financial year to June 2021. Near orders refer to projects that M&R has successfully tendered for but not yet signed contracts for.
M&R has spent the past four years changing its business to focus on engineering and energy.
The company exited SA’s construction industry in 2016. Its local business, which builds wastewater treatment facilities, has struggled tremendously in recent years because of a lack of available projects.
M&R shares gained 0.49% to R10.20 on Friday.
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