Murray & Roberts, but as EMS, Genrec, Gillis Mason and RUC.

However, in recent years, Murray & Roberts has acquired much of the intellectual capital necessary to compete in the mining sector. JCI Projects was acquired in 2000 and merged with EMS and Lama to form Murray & Roberts Engineering Solutions. When Genrec was unbundled last year, Murray & Roberts Engineering Solutions acquired its mechanical, electrical, instrumentation business (MEI), thereby releasing considerable potential. RUC was acquired from Gencor as part of Gencor’s unbundling process. Yet many of these operations were not branded Murray & Roberts until recently.

"Now we can go to the market as a single company with a single strategy," says Sean Flanagan, Director of Murray & Roberts, with responsibility for the group’s mining and industrial strategy.

"We have always had the capability – all we have to do now is sensitise the industry to the extent of our capability. This is primarily a matter of communication, both internally and externally,” he says.

Murray & Roberts, in one guise or another, has been involved in most major studies in the southern African minerals and mining sector over the past 10 years.

These include Columbus and Saldanha Steel, Coega Port, Gamsberg, Mossgas and the Hillside, Bayside, Mozal I and II aluminium smelters, as well as numerous studies on the processing of minerals. It has also completed the engineering and design for many major projects and has implemented all aspects of these through to the construction phase.

"Our single strategic approach is to understand the extent of our capability and reorganise ourselves internally to provide a total solution to clients from a single point of contact,” says Sean.

It is, in reality, a frame of mind, because it remains a clustering of skills rather than a dedicated business unit, he says.

Externally, the mining client will in future have a single interface with Murray & Roberts, as opposed to the previous situation where the client may have been in contact with five different Murray & Roberts representatives.

"Our internal reorganisation is enabling information sharing and we are doing more research on how to present Murray & Roberts to the market. We are also leveraging our collective capability by moving resources to where they are most needed."

This unitary approach was unveiled for the first time at the Electra Mining exhibition last year, and also at numerous international conferences and seminars.

Serving the full value chain

The most important resource in developing a new mine today is not mining expertise, but project management expertise. And that is a key driver of the Murray & Roberts mining strategy.

Another driver has been the promulgation of the Mineral and Petroleum Products Act, with its "use it or lose it" provision.

New entrants are arriving in the marketplace to exploit previously dormant reserves, and many lack in-house skills.

Even established mining houses have adopted a strategy of outsourcing all but the most core activities. Most mining companies that are developing new deposits do not have the required in-house resources to fully implement a project from pre-feasibility phase to a fully-fledged operating business.

To optimise the overall capital investment in a project, and to satisfy government requirements, it is often necessary to use local labour and sub-contractors, some of whom may not have the appropriate skills to deliver to the quality and schedule required.

Typically, the work is placed with multiple subcontractors, all managed by the managing contractor and reviewed and accepted by the client.

Murray & Roberts has now developed a simple solution to such complexity. It offers a single point interface for the client, behind which lies the skills and experience of 16 000 personnel who have worked in all areas of project development from conceptual mine and process engineering, through detailed design to management of project-based labour relations issues and construction sites, on international projects valued at up to US$1-billion.

Henry Laas, managing director of Murray & Roberts RUC, explains: "By combining our project management and construction capability with our mining expertise, we have positioned Murray & Roberts as a group providing a comprehensive service across the full value chain in mining. This allows mining companies to get on with what they do best – mineral extraction – and let us do everything else."

Murray & Roberts RUC has historically been the Murray & Roberts division closest to the mining industry, and will remain the shop front of the group. But it was involved only in implementations and had to pass on work, such as pre-feasibility studies, where it lacked the in-house expertise. While this work could be undertaken by Murray & Roberts Engineering Solutions, the marketing approach lacked a seamless interface.

The single strategy is therefore a case of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. "Murray & Roberts RUC and Murray & Roberts Engineering Solutions have complementary skills bases," says Laas.

"The likeliest opportunity for our unitary offering lies in emerging mining houses in South Africa and SADC countries, where entrepreneurial-driven businesses need to satisfy their financiers by demonstrating access to relevant skills and expertise," he says.