Introducing AAMEG – Early Days

Bill Turner (Chairman of AAMEG) made a short presentation on AAMEG highlighting the Team Australia approach at the CHOGM’s Minister’s Breakfast on Thursday 27 October, 2011.

HIS NOTES FOLLOW:

Thank you Minister Rudd.

Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen….

Several months ago, I retired as a CEO of a mining company, following 16 years of being active in Africa, and took on the role of Chairman of AAMEG, the Australia-Africa Minerals & Energy Group.

AAMEG is a mining and services industry organisation, which was established last year, at the suggestion of the Australian Government, with the aim of strengthening Australian engagement in mining in Africa.

You have heard from the previous speakers of the substance of the Australian mining industry and the footprint it has on the African continent.

Given this very substantial presence in Africa, there is considerable opportunity for the Australian Govt and the Australian mining industry to work together more closely, and with NGO and academia involvement, have greater impact, particularly in terms of capacity building, and community and social development work.

Recent appointments in AAMEG include one person out of the WA State government and another out of the Federal government in Canberra. These two people have substantial NGO and international experience.

I was asked by Minister Rudd’s office, to say a few words about my background, and why I have taken on this role in AAMEG.

In 1995, I joined a small Australian exploration company called Anvil Mining, which had fewer than 10 employees at the time.  Up until then, I had spent most of my career in emerging and developing countries: in Iran in the late-70s, Indonesia for a large part of the 80s, and the FSU in the early 90s.

Having just completed an MBA research project on how to take a small Australian company overseas, I decided that I would apply what I had learnt, and take Anvil to Africa.

After reviewing opportunities in several sub-Saharan African countries, I was attracted, as most geologists are, by the tremendous resource endowment of a country called Zaire, now known as the DRC. The country had a lot of terrific, undeveloped copper projects.

After more than a year of negotiation, we signed a Mining Convention with the Mobutu Govt at the beginning of 1997.

It was soon after that, that things got interesting.

In May of that year, there was a military coup, which saw Laurent Kabila replace Mobutu as president. Notwithstanding this challenge, we managed to complete a major drilling program that year.

However, the following year marked the beginning of a 3-year civil war involving troops from 6 neighbouring countries, fighting inside the DRC. Then President Kabila was assassinated in 2001, and his son Joseph Kabila became President.  These were obviously very challenging times, and not for the feint-hearted.

In 2002, following an improvement in the political landscape, the Company put its toe in the water and developed its first copper mine in DRC, the Dikulushi Mine.  It produced 12,000 tonnes of copper and 900,000 ounces of silver, in concentrate form, in its first full-year of production in 2003.

Two years later, the plant capacity was expanded by 50%.

However, no sooner had this been completed, when Anvil had a very serious run-in with rebel activity and the DRC military, the effects of which are still being felt.

In 2005 the company built a second small mine; and in 2007, built a third mine, this time a bit bigger and at Kinsevere.

In May this year, an expansion was completed at the Kinsevere Mine at a capital cost of $400 million; a big step from the scale of previous developments. This mine is currently ramping up to an annualised production level of 60,000 tonnes of cathode copper, and this should be achieved before the end of this year.

In parallel with these technical achievements, Anvil has spent more than $23 million on capacity building, and community and social development projects since 2002, and has received international recognition for its efforts on poverty relief and contributions to VPSHR and OECD Guidelines work, as well as for opening the door to opportunity.

Anvil is one of a number of companies from Australia that have shown how it is possible to start small in Africa, and with discipline and determination, to grow into something substantial.

The point I would like to make here is that there are many companies from Australian venturing into Africa, that will not only do good technical work, but will do it with a keen sense of social responsibility. It is simply good business to do so.

AAMEG’s purpose is to provide guidance, based on first-hand experience, to the smaller Australian companies active in Africa, and to encourage partnerships with the Australian Govt, NGOs and academia, in order to enhance capacity and support social development, and economic growth in Africa.

I invite the Ministers of Commonwealth Countries of Africa, present here this morning, to continue to encourage all Australian companies, especially the fledgling Australian companies, such as Anvil was in 1995, to become strong operators. They will contribute to serious economic development, and do this in a manner that is socially responsible.

AAMEG will be there, supporting the Australian Government and the Australian mining and service companies, in these endeavours, in Africa.

 

Thank you.