The highly specialised Johannesburg-based business, founded and solely owned by Mr Nils Steward, employs five staff.
Coffey International Limited managing director Roger Olds said that the continued expansion of the Coffey group’s operations in Southern Africa and other key markets was part of the group’s strategy to compete in diverse specialties and geographies.
“Coffey Mining now totals approximately 200 staff across offices in South Africa, Ghana, Senegal and Zambia and sister company Coffey Projects employs 15 from its Johannesburg office,” Roger said.
Coffey Mining chief executive officer Dan O’Toole said this acquisition complemented Coffey Mining’s current service areas.
“The acquisition of NS Consultancy is highly strategic as the company is a world leader in the rheological characterisation of paste, slurry and thickened tailings, pipeline design, mine backfill systems, pipeline stress and transient analysis. Coffey Mining is now one of the few firms in the world able to provide this expertise combined with our other specialist services, and geographical reach. Coffey Mining continues to be unique in its ability to service the minerals industry from feasibility to mine closure,” Dan said.
NS Consultancy specialises in the areas of backfilling, pipeline stress and transient analysis, tailings shotcrete and structural concrete development, as well as plant and pipeline or alternative delivery methods, to the areas of placement or use underground. The company is a leading provider of pipeline design to South African mines.
Backfilling is a method used to fill previously mined excavations to provide localised ground support to enable ongoing mining in the area.
In addition to its engineering expertise, NS Consultancy also operates a unique full scale closed loop pipeline testing facility for the evaluation of solids transportation by pipeline.
Coffey plans to use this intellectual capital to recreate similar facilities in Australia and longer-term to establish Coffey Mining as the world-leading backfill consultancy.
Mr Steward said: “Coffey has successfully grown its business internationally over the last eight years and now has operations in more than 60 countries. I’m confident of using this knowledge and experience to successfully grow the mine backfill discipline within Coffey.”
Coffey Mining recently announced an agreement to acquire a mining consultancy company in Brazil with more than 350 staff. This acquisition increases total mining consulting and field staff numbers to approximately 750.
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About Coffey
Coffey International Limited aspires to improve the lives of world communities by providing physical and social infrastructure solutions to business, government and development assistance agencies.
Coffey has a market capitalisation of over A$400 million. It employs approximately 3,000 people. Coffey has approximately 50 offices in Australia, with permanent offices in the UAE, Indonesia, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, the USA, the Philippines, South Africa, Ghana, Zambia, United Kingdom and New Zealand, and project offices spread throughout the world.
Coffey International Limited is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and is part of the S&P ASX 300 and small companies’ indices.
Visit www.coffey.com for more information.
About NS Consultancy
NS Consultancy was founded in the late 1980s by director Mr Nils Steward. The consultancy specialises in the areas of backfilling, shotcreting and structural concrete, from designing the product, the plant and the pipeline, or alternative delivery methods to the area of placement underground. NS Consultancy is the leading pipeline consultancy in South Africa and employs five staff.
Note to editors
Roger Olds and Dan O’Toole are available for interview. To arrange please contact Josephine Marriage at Mendleson Communication on (+61) (3) 9827 0422, +61 408 366 378, josephine@mendleson.co.au
or Diana Krause, Communications Manager, Coffey International Limited, on (+61) (3) 9473 1405, +61 420 959 942, diana_krause@coffey.com.
