Finance & investment - Manhattan Corporation

COVER STORYManhattanCorporationExpands its Business HorizonsManhattan Corporation, formed in 1992, has recentlyexpanded its product offering with a number of excitingand innovative products and services.Manhattan is involved in the supply of equipment,turnkey projects, and operational management ofdiamond and gold mines. It employs inexcess of 1,200 personnel, has representative offices inover 12 countries and has successfully completed over1,100 projects.Manhattan owns and operates gold and diamondmines, and has experienced first-hand the relevanttechnical and operational challenges unique to themining industry. This exposure allows Manhattan todevelop appropriate equipment and engineeringsolutions for its customers and ensure the profitabilityof the customer is enhanced through lowest cost pertonne solutions.Manhattan focuses on selecting the correct capitalequipment that will yield the lowest operational andthe lowest capital cost. Manhattan has recently tripledproduction at its own gold and diamond operations,deepening its technical capacity and allowing thecompany to offer its clients experience based, turnkeysolutions that work.To further enhance Manhattan’s product offerings and toensure optimal cost per tonne is achieved, Manhattan hasextended its product range to include new equipment thatmeets its quality and cost formula criteria.This first-hand exposure to the industry places Manhattanahead of its peers, where focus is typically on theequipment supply side alone.10 MINING REVIEW AFRICA MAY 2008

COVER STORYManhattan’s head office, based on the East Rand ofJohannesburg, is currently finalising its most recentexpansion of its manufacturing, engineering and officeinfrastructure. Manufacturing and corporate office capacityis being tripled to cope with increasing demand forManhattan’s products and services.Personnel are being recruited to meet future demand andan additional 600 people are targeted for employmentover the next few months.New Product LinesIn addition to the infrastructure investment beingundertaken at its East Rand facility, Manhattan hasrecently added to its offering, exclusive equipmentagencies for the following product lines:• New grinding mills – sizes range up to 6,000 kW withlead times of 12 – 18 months with ISO9000 qualityaccreditation.• New gearboxes, couplings and fasteners based onGerman technology.• New mobile screening plants. These units aredesigned to screen from 15 tph to 600 tph.• Mobile impact crushers: these are track-mountedplants which can process up to 600 tph with a10:1 reduction ratio.• Transformers: latest technology transformers withISO9000 manufacturing accreditation.All products offer technical excellence in design, sparesand technical support with full warranties.The mobile screening plants and impact crushers aredeveloped from a company that has been manufacturingand developing equipment since 1960. Best practicemechanical and electrical design form part of the productsdevelopment strategy, which includes innovations suchas ASTM800 grade steel, patented soft-start screentechnology and remote control machine operation whichresult in a highly efficient and reliable machine.The new product offerings add to Manhattan’s newdiesel generator plants (up to 25 MVA), already beingsuccessfully supplied to both the mining and heavyindustry sectors.New FrontiersManhattan recently appointed a representative office forthe Eastern European, Russian and Middle East markets.The headquarters is based in Turkey, which offerscentralised access to target regions.Manhattan is finalising supply discussions for SAG andball mills up to the 3 MW range with project values ofapproximately R200 million. This is a strong vote ofconfidence in Manhattan’s new product offerings, and itanticipates future aggressive growth in the grinding millmarket.Manhattan also facilitates funding for its clients to procuregeneral processing plant, power generation and screeningunits with its in-house expertise should its clients sorequire.The 2007/2008 year has been a hugely successful yearfor the group which has achieved an uninterrupted 16 yeartrack record of revenue growth. In April 2008, ManhattanCorporation was voted as one of South Africa’s Top 500Companies by TOPCO Media 2008. The publicationmeasures thousands of companies in South Africa ona performance-based score card including public andprivate companies. Manhattan was confirmed to be one ofthe top five industry leaders in the mining service sector.The group plans to achieve continued growth and successfor the 2008/2009 year. MRAMAY 2008 MINING REVIEW AFRICA 11