UNICORN CAPITAL PARTNERS LIMITED
INVESTMENTS
DRILLING AND BLASTING SERVICES
JEF DRILL AND BLAST
JEF is a specialised drilling and blasting entity offering a complete blasting solution for opencast mine blasting requirements. Clients are offered a comprehensive range of specialised blasting techniques and associated services including blast design, vibration control, hard and soft rock as well as consulting services for drilling and blasting related problems.
JEF has been able to sustain fairly high return on assets over an extended period, in good and bad times. Drilling and blasting in reality, requires fairly little to be a sustainable business delivering attractive returns. The first requirement is long-term contracts with blue chip customers. Long-termin drilling and blasting means about four years, on average, and blue chip customers mean that JEF will get paid on a continuous basis through good and bad times. Secondly, keeping drill rig maintenance up to date which ensures plant availability as well as ensuring an optimal direct drilling costs per meter is maintained. Thirdly, deliver targeted drill metres and quality blasts to keep the customer happy and revenue flowing. If plant utilisation could then be kept at above the eighty percent level, the business is likely to deliver attractive return on assets.
MOBILE CRANE HIRE
Ritchie Crane Hire utilises a large fleet of heavy duty mobile cranes with capacities that range from 25 to 220 tonnes for the provision of craneage services. The company is engaged in crane hire projects in the mining and construction sectors in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo. Ritchie has been the most consistent performer of all the operating companies within the Unicorn portfolio over an extended period. Ritchie has been able to deliver fairly high return on assets by getting the basics right and maintaining standards. Well trained crane operators with impeccable safety records are a prerequisite. The implications of a crane tipping over on a mining site are such that customers are willing to pay more for an impeccable safety record than go for cheaper options and run the risk of a safety incident. A portfolio of blue chip customers also means that you will always get paid as long as you deliver a quality job.
RITCHIE CRANE HIRE
EXPLORATION DRILLING
GEOSEARCH GROUP OF COMPANIES
The Geosearch group of companies offers its clients a comprehensive range of exploration, grade control and geotechnical drilling services to suit even the most demanding conditions. Geosearch operates from well-established operating bases in Kempton Park (South-Africa), Tete (Mozambique) and Francistown (Botswana). Geosearch consist of three standalone operating companies namely Buenti Drilling in South Africa, Myna Projects in Botswana and AguaTerra in Mozambique. Exploration drilling is a late cycle performer and requires stable commodity prices and markets to deliver a fair return on capital. Exploration contracts are generally fairly short dated, three to nine months, while grade control drilling contracts tend to be longer dated.
Due to a historical down turn in the exploration industry and historical low utilization during this period, Geosearch drill rigs and plant and equipment have been written down to low values. The benefit Geosearch has is that its substantial fleet is in fair working condition and on hand to bedeployed on new contracts to take advantage of any upswing in exploration activity. The opportunity for Geosearch therefore lies in winning more tenders and by doing so achieving and sustaining higher utilisation levels in the coming years.
ANTHRACITE MINING
Nkomati Anthracite (Nkomati) produces high grade anthracite
Nkomati mines high grade anthracite, which is in high demand from South Africa’s ferrous metals producers. The producers are dependent upon high grade anthracite with low impurities, such as low volatile matter (<9%), low sulphur (<1.0%) and low phosphorus (<0.03% ) but are struggling to source sufficient quantities domestically due to deteriorating quality from aging mines and lack of new production.
Nkomati’s anthracite has the lowest sulphur impurities (<0.5%) of all anthracite producers in South Africa while its phosphorus levels are on par (<0.03%) with the best producing mines.
The combination of very low sulphur and phosphorous content of Nkomati’s deposit makes it sought after and positions the mine as a key supplier to the local market.
32.7 Million tonnes anthracite resource and 5.2 million tonnes reserve
Our mining right covers an area of nine thousand hectares while our open pit, underground and wash plant footprint cover an area of l ess than four hundred hectares. At the end of July 2019, a two-year exploration drilling programme was concluded . The results were very encouraging, increasing the size of our mine to 32 . 7 million tonnes minable in-situ (MTIS) resource and 5.2 million run-of-mine (ROM) tonnes reserve. L ife-of-mine is in excess of twenty years. Our most recent Competent Persons’ Report (CPR) was published in May 2019.
By the numbers
The open pit is currently achieving production targets of 35 ,000 ROM tonnes per month and the underground mine is still ramp ing -up to 2 0,000 ROM tonnes per month. From April 2020, a new open pit will contribute a further 20,000 ROM tonnes per month. The new wash plant has processing capacity of 3,000 tonnes per day . At steady state Nkomati should deliver 900,000 ROM tonnes per annum producing 550,000 tonnes saleable high-grade anthracite.
NKOMATI ANTHRACITE
UNICORN CAPITAL PARTNERS LIMITED
OTHER INVESTMENTS
SENTULA COAL
Sentula Coal administer the Seriti New Vaal contract which is fully
outsourced to third party operators.