View
242
Download
2
Category
Preview:
DESCRIPTION
Corporate Brochure
Citation preview
WRITTEN BY DON CAMPBELL
Demir Export was founded in 1957 and has always been a very active player in the Turkish mining sector. With a number of glowing projects underway we spoke with General Manager Savas Sahin regarding the ongoing projects.
ACTIVELY INVESTING IN
The Future
64 | Endeavour Magazine
The main activities of Demir Export revolve around iron ore
production for domestic integrated steel mills. As a group
they are constantly investing in exploration and development
of new greenfield iron ore mines, as well as improvement of their
processing facilities at their existing operations.
Another business unit is coal. Currently they are providing 6.5
Mtpa coal at Kangal TPP operated by another Turkish private
company. At Turkish Coal Enterprises’ Soma coal fields they are
developing Eynez East UG Coal Mine, which will start commercial
production in 2015. This project is now at an advanced
development stage. The mining method at Eynez East will be
sublevel LTCC (longwall top coal caving) which is a very
unique coal mining method and the operation will be
fully mechanized from top down.
The base metal (copper in
concentrate) is being mined at their
Lahanos mine in northeast Turkey,
this is a small scale UG mine and
alongside that Demir Export are
exploring the possibility of base
metals in northwest Turkey. One
of their targets is Ulutas (Erzurum
province), where they are exploring
for porphyry Cu-Mo deposit. So far,
the exploration results, 17.000 meters
of core drilling completed and ongoing, proved
DEMIR EXPORT
“Demir Export produces 25% of the iron ore production in Turkey, representing 1.5 million tonnes per year,” Mr. Sahin tells us, “Core business is iron ore, but the future will be iron, gold and coal in three main business units including ferrous - iron, energy - coal and base metals - gold, copper and zinc. Construction for production for gold mine is under way.”“We are active in three iron ore zones; Sivas, Kayseri, and Balıkesir. In total, we have seven iron ore mines, from where we are producing almost 1.5 million tonnes every year.” Mr. Sahin reveals.
Endeavour Magazine | 65
to support their efforts to chase a +500 Mton resource with local high
grade intersections.
“In 2013 we have started our first gold mine project, Bakırtepe
in Sivas province,” Mr. Sahin explains, “However, the construction was
halted for permitting issues and we are expecting the construction
will restart in early next year and our target is to pour the first gold
dôre by the end of 2014. Our exploration for gold also continues in
different exploration tenements, in central and western Anatolia.”
Staff“We have 975 people working at our operations and head
office in Ankara,” Mr. Sahin adds, “Including the contractors and
subcontractors, this number reaches up to 1500,”
“We have three layers of training,” he adds, “The first layer is
generic HSE training given to all employees when they first start
working with us. Other HSE training packages are also provided for
the site personnel, such as risk management, incident reporting, etc.
Some blue collar employees also receive technical training as well.
Especially mechanical and electrical people receive specific training
on the equipment they are dealing with.”
The second layer is training for site supervisors. This training
generally revolves around safety issues, such as incident/accident
investigation, risk management, hazard identification and so on. The
third layer of training is for developing managerial skills of managers
and supervisors.
“Leadership training is given to our superintendents and
managers,” he points out, “And moreover, our very technical training
(as required) is provided to our engineers and geologists, such as 3D
software trainings, project management and advanced excel training.
Our most important asset is
our people.”
With this principle, Demir
Export places great importance
on training to address the
development of professional
knowledge and the skills of their
people. In this regard, training
plans are created for all staff
members, and the related training
is conducted within the year and
monitored by the HR department.
CustomersDemir Export’s biggest
customers are domestic
integrated steel mills, namely
Kardemir, Erdemir and Isdemir,
and overseas buyers. The
most important demands of
their customers are consistent
product quality and increasing
production capacity and these
are the important points
that they take care to ensure
customer satisfaction.
“Although it looks like the
resources market is not as
competitive, it is not true for
the iron ore market,” Mr. Sahin
explains, “Domestic iron ore
market is the same. As long as
we honour our contracts from
quality and quantity aspects
we are more successful in
delivering what we committed.
So far, we have a very good and
prospective relationship with
our iron ore customers and
we are caring to continue this
situation.”
DEMIR EXPORT
“Our biggest investment is our people. We have expanded the
exploration and project development teams in our headquarters.. We have also added new positions in our operations to improve and extend on-site planning and project development skills and capabilities.”
Valued PartnersBusiness is all about building
relationships and these form the
foundation upon which future
projects can be based. One such
company is IBS.
“We have been working with
Demir Export for a couple of
years,” says Bruce Field, Head
of Sales at IBS, “I first met Savas
Sahin in Ankara in November
2011 and since then there have
been numerous meetings – at
the mine site in Soma, Turkey,
here in our factory in Germany
and also, in February this year,
in Poland on an underground pit
visit to see one of our machines
in operation.”
Demir Export is in the
process of opening a new
underground coal mine (Eynez
East) in the Soma area, Manisa
District to the north of Izmir in
Turkey (see above). They opted
for roadheaders for the gate
road development as well as for
the main access headings and
completion of the two surface
drifts. After final negotiations
at Bauma in Munich in April
this year they ordered the first
roadheader from IBS together
with an articulating bridge belt
conveyor system, power supply
cable and a package of spare
parts. The machine has an
increased cutting height of 4.5m
to suit their gate road profiles
and was shipped in July and
commissioned in August this
year.
“For the Soma mine,” Bruce continues, “They require at least
two more roadheaders and we are in the middle of technical and
commercial negotiations. We understand that they have plans for
other bigger underground coal mining projects in Turkey and that
the Soma mine is a stepping stone for them to acquire experience
in that field. Obviously we hope that if their experience with us and
our Agents Labris in Soma is good they will come back to us for other
projects in the future.”
2014 And Beyond“The most exciting project for 2014, is our ULUTAS (in Erzurum
province) Cu-Mo project. This project was acquired from Mining
Bureau’s bidding process in 2012 and we rapidly moved to the site
and completed all our geological mapping, initiated geophysical
inspection, and geochemistry to cover the entire potential of the
tenement.”
On top of this, Demir Exports have completed almost 17.000
meters of core drilling and the current situation of the project
is definitely exciting as they continue drilling and development
efforts to target a +500 Mt Cu-Mo porphyry deposit. This project
will be inserted in the project pipeline in 2016 with an aim to start
commercial production in 2018 or earlier and has a potential to be
largest base metal mine in the country in near future.
“Our diverse portfolio is expanding with gold and underground
coal mining,” says Mr. Sahin, “So far, we produce coal from an open pit
mine but now we will use fully mechanized method to produce coal
from underground. Underground coal production is becoming more
widespread in Turkey; therefore Eynez East Underground Coal mine
project is very critical for our company.”
The other exciting development is Bakırtepe Gold Project. Gold
production from Bakırtepe will be the first for Demir Export and it is
believed that it will be the first step to become a gold miner in Turkey.
These developments help Demir Export to consolidate its
position and being an international player. There are many domestic
and overseas opportunities in gold and base metal mining areas also
the historical developments of gold and mechanized underground
coal mining sectors show that new opportunities will come. With help
of new developments, Demir Export will be better positioned for the
upcoming opportunities.
“Our biggest investment is our people. We have expanded the
exploration and project development teams in our headquarters.
We have also added new positions in our operations to improve
and extend on-site planning and project development skills and
capabilities. Beginning from next year, we are thinking about bringing
experienced expats on board on contract basis to assist our local
workforce to develop and maintain international safety standards at
our operations.” Mr. Sahin concludes.
www.littlegatepublishing.com
DEMIR EXPORT
0090 312 415 4500
WWW.DEMIREXPORT.COM
Recommended