Aveng looks offshore for mining opportunities amid SA's rail and power woes, skills shortage

Infrastructure and resources group Aveng says it is eyeing a R65 billion visible pipeline of open pit mining contracting opportunities in Africa. And it is looking to significantly increase the amount of business it does outside of SA as the country battles with rail and electricity dysfunction, as well as a skills shortage.

The group, whose mining services business Moolmans currently does all of its work in SA, mostly manganese, is looking for both geographical and commodity diversity, and is eyeing a 50/50 split between SA and the rest of the continent for the former in coming years.

"We are impacted heavily by load shedding, of the state of our roads and very particularly the state of our railways," CEO Sean Flanagan told News24. "For many of our clients, they are having to pull back on their production over the next six to nine months because they can't get product to market."