Endeavour Magazine December 2021

DECEMBER 2021 www.littlegatepublishing.com

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Editor’s Note

T

here were a few articles this week that I wanted to draw particular attention to, because they reflected an important shift that is happening in some areas, and yet needs desperately to happen in others.

The first is Kapi Limited, a company that is actively fighting to protect the people of Kenya from harmful chemicals that are being dropped on populated areas in response to the current locust outbreak.

These chemicals have been sanctioned by both the Kenyan government and representatives of UN-body the Food and Agriculture Organization, despite findings that link them to brain damage and other risks, to the point that they’re banned in the US and Europe. The radio silence on this issue, and the continued use of these chemicals despite the hazards they carry and the existence of safe alternatives, is as baffling as it is frustrating. The article explores the ins and outs of these chemicals verses the safe alternative that Kapi produces, as well as unpacking some of the behind-the-scenes drama in waiting for the FAO to review the evidence of the harm its current options are causing.

The second company I want to highlight is Riskope, a risk management company passionate about safe practice now, rather than avoidable accident later. Speaking with Riskope, it was heartening to hear how many companies in the heavy industries are making a conscious move to be safer in their practices. Similarly, it was incredible to speak with Sun Metals in Australia, a zinc refinery that is striving towards 100% renewable energy usage by 2040, and thus, the production of ‘Green Zinc’.

Speaking with these companies illustrates that the myth of the uncaring corporation isn’t as true as it seems, and in fact, the private sector is a source of a great deal of good (sometimes even picking up the ball where the Powers That Be drop it). They’re trends that will hopefully continue to grow for a long time before they lose momentum, with a greener planet and safer, happier people on the other side.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps, but writing soon after Thanksgiving and looking forwards at the Christmas season, can you blame me?

by Alice Instone-Brewer

Endeavour Magazine | 3

KAPI LTD

Features 13

Sun Metals

21

Kapi Ltd

Green Zinc A clean, Kenyan solution

33 Riskope

Calculated risk

40

DHL Ghana

45

SSEM Mthembu Medical

Serigne Ndanck Mbaye Supplying support

57 Makro

A bit of everything

65 Nyrstar

Zinc about it

71 E.ON

Renewing renewables

77

Ethiopian Airlines

85

SSR Mining

RISKOPE 4 | Endeavour Magazine

75 years young

Digging into digital

MAKRO

Articles

Business Headlines

From The Horse’s Mouth

Amazing World

6 Asia 7 Africa 8 Americas 10 Middle East 11 Europe

28

52

The love of a horse

The Nightmares during Christmas

NYRSTAR Endeavour Magazine | 5

Business Headlines

Asia Sikhs being targeted by fake social media profiles A network of fake social media profiles of people claiming to be Sikhs has been exposed. The profiles have been used to promoting divisive narratives online. The influence operation used accounts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to promote Hindu nationalism and pro-Indian government narratives. 80 such fake accounts have been suspended thus far.

The fake profiles used Sikh names and claimed to be “Real Sikhs”. They used the hashtags #RealSikh to endorse, and #FakeSikh to discredit, different political viewpoints.

The report, from non-profit organisation the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), found many of the accounts in the network used the same fake profiles across several platforms. These accounts shared the same names, profile pictures and cover photos, and published identical posts.

A recent farmers’ protest in India and the decades-old Khalistan independence movement were the two discussion topics most frequently targeted by the network. The accounts sought to label any notion of Sikh independence as extremist, and delegitimise the farmers’ protests, claiming they had been hijacked by “Khalistani terrorists”.

The accounts had thousands of followers, and posts from the network have been liked and retweeted by real influencers and quoted on news sites.

North Korea fugitive captured after 40-day manhunt A North Korean man has been re-captured after evading the police for 40 days, following escape from a Chinese prison.

The 39-year-old man, known by his Chinese name Zhu Xianjian, was sentenced to prison in the city of Jilin after fleeing to China from North Korea in 2013.

Authorities set the reward for information leading to his capture at 700,000 yuan ($109,000).

Footage released by state-run Beijing News showed Zhu on the night of 19 October climbing a prison shed and scaling its rooftop, before vaulting over the nearest electric fence to freedom.

Zhu had been imprisoned on charges of illegal entry into China, larceny, and robbery after escaping from reclusive North Korea. He had served nine of his eleven years of his prison term, after which he was set to be deported back to North Korea.

6 | Endeavour Magazine

China forcibly repatriates North Koreans despite being party to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees, which obliges signatories not to return refugees if it may put them at risk of persecution or torture.

China sees defectors as illegal migrants rather than refugees, which allows them to be dealt with with as criminals.

In 2014, the UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights said North Korea was responsible for “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations” and “crimes against humanity”.

Singapore and Malaysia want ‘more open borders’ despite Omicron variant Singapore and Malaysia want “more open borders” even if the new Omicron coronavirus variant disrupts plans to expand the vaccinated travel lane between both countries, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Nov 29.

Mr. Lee and Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob gave speeches at the Istana on the first day of the land and air travel land between Singapore and Malaysia. Mr. Lee said the aim is to expand the land VTL to include general travelers from the middle of December, taking into account the public health situation. Currently, travelers must be citizens, permanent residents or long-term pass holders of the country they are entering.

Mr. Ismail Sabri said that proposed plans included expanding the land VTL to include bus services on the Tuas Second Link, trains operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu, and eventually personal vehicles such as cars and motorcycles. The leaders also discussed launching a sea VTL and expanding the air VTL to include destinations such as Penang, Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.

“Of course, all this is COVID-19 permitting, because we are all watching anxiously the new Omicron variant, to see how it will behave,” Mr. Lee said. “But even if Omicron disrupts these plans, our goal will still be to have more open borders between Singapore and Malaysia.”

Africa Congolese Covid variant under observation in Europe The Congolese variant, known by the scientific name B1 640, was first detected in a family in France after returning from a trip to the Republic of Congo.

“It is a variant of SARS cov2 responsible for Covid-19 that was described in our laboratory at the end of August 2021, and it is a variant that was then detected in other countries” said Francine Ntoumi, President of the Congolese Foundation for Medical Research.

So far eight cases have been detected in the Republic of Congo, and 24 other cases in the rest of the world. It has been placed under surveillance throughout Europe.

“The diagnostic tests currently used can detect the spike protein, one of the most important proteins that allows entry into the human cell. Indeed, the mutations in this region are very important, but to date, diagnostic tests by PCR or anti-gene tests seem to be able to detect this virus, but it is certain that scientists must continue to work in order to understand whether it escapes certain diagnostic tests or not.”

For the time being, the WHO is not concerned about the virulence of the Congolese variant, but it is advising that caution is needed because it could reduce the effectiveness of vaccines in Congo.

Angola to invest US$445.5 million in new logistics hubs The Angolan government plans to invest over US$445.5 million to build 21 logistics centres, by 2038, in order to minimise the challenges of goods transport, which is still heavily dependent on road transport.

The information was published by the Minister for Transport, Ricardo de Abreu, at the launch of

the international public tender for the concession, construction, operation and commercial management of the Soyo and Luvo Logistics Platforms, in Zaire. Abreu said that all the platforms to be built by 2038 will have different characteristics that will complement each other. He described the move as significant as a step away from economic dependance on oil.

According to the minister, the network of logistics platforms will be an important element in the plan to diversify the national economy, and depending on the province where they are installed, they will facilitate the storage, conservation and flow of production from productive, rural and fishing areas, as well as from agri-industrial hubs.

Angola is ranked 162 out of 163 countries in the World Bank’s Logistics Index, the minister said.

By 2022, Angola plans to put into operation six logistics platforms, which are expected to boost the economic potential of its regions and respond to the growing demand for goods and services by citizens and companies.

Terrorist attacks in Kampala, Uganda On November 23rd, two explosions went off in Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Six people died as a result.

Police described the explosions as a coordinated attack by extremists opposed to the government.

Police reports say three suicide bombers also died in the blasts.

Security analyst Grace Matsiko believes the country could be headed for tougher times as the terrorists are changing faces and tactics.

“We are seeing a pattern of homegrown suicide bombers, who are known by the local communities, who have got families within, carrying out these acts. And these are, the age group it’s almost like there running around the youths... so it is a big concern that actually now for the first time Uganda has got a much bigger threat than ever before.”

The explosions caused chaos in Kampala as terrified residents fled the city’s center.

24 hours after the incident, economic activities were returning to normal, but areas close to the parliament house remained under strict security as forensic experts comb for clues and evidence.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the blasts, according to SITE, which tracks the online activities of extremist organizations.

Endeavour Magazine | 7

Americas Epstein ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell faces sex trafficking trial Ghislaine Maxwell is due to go on trial in New York City on sex trafficking and other charges.

She is charged with assisting Jeffrey Epstein in abusing underage girls. Epstein died in prison in 2019 before he could face trial.

Maxwell, 59, was arrested last year, and has been awaiting the high-profile six-week trial. She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her.

US prosecutors allege that Maxwell “played a critical role in the grooming and abuse” of minors.

Four charges relate to the years 1994-97 when she was, according to an indictment, among Epstein’s closest associates and also in an “intimate relationship” with him.

Two other charges - of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor - came in an amended indictment and relate to the period 2001 and 2004.

Sarah Ransome, one of Epstein’s alleged victims, has claimed that Ms Maxwell worked closely with him.

She said: “Ghislaine controlled the girls. She was like the madam. She was like the nuts and bolts of the operation.”

Venezuela’s Maduro calls EU election observers ‘spies’ Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has dismissed members of a European Union electoral observation mission sent to observe last week’s regional polls, calling them “spies”.

The condemnation from Maduro came after the observers said the polls, in which opposition candidates participated for the first time in four 8 | Endeavour Magazine

years, were generally better conducted than previous years.

However, they raised concerns over bans on candidates for administrative reasons, delays in opening voting centres and “extended use of state resources in the campaign”.

Maduro, whose governing Socialist Party largely swept the gubernatorial and mayoral elections, said the EU observers sought to “stain the electoral process and they couldn’t”.

“A delegation of spies – they weren’t observers – wandered freely around the country, spying on the country’s social, economic and political life,” Maduro said during a broadcast on state television, adding that the elections were “impeccable, beautiful”.

Peru opposition moves to impeach President Pedro Castillo Opposition legislators in Peru’s Congress have presented a motion to impeach President Pedro Castillo.

The motion, which was supported by the party of narrowly defeated right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, cited “moral inability” to govern. It has the signatures of 28 legislators.

It will need 52 votes from the 130-seat body to begin impeachment proceedings. A vote is not yet scheduled. A final vote to remove Castillo would eventually require 87 votes.

Castillo, who was elected president in July, dismissed the move.

“I am not worried about the political noise because the people have chosen me, not the mafias or the corrupt,” he said during a speech in the Andean region of Jauja, without specifically naming the impeachment effort. “I’m calm.”

Castillo has seen his support wane in recent months, even from his left-wing Free Peru party, amid a series of protests in communities that say they have not seen the economic benefits of the country’s recent development and mining booms.

Several scandals have also plagued Castillo’s key ministers and advisers. An anti-corruption prosecutor’s office recently launched an investigation into a key presidential adviser, Bruno Pacheco, and found $20,000 in the toilet of his government office in a raid. Pacheco, who denies wrongdoing, resigned.

Still, hundreds of Castillo supporters marched outside Congress in Lima to protest against the impeachment effort.

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Middle East Hundreds in Jordan protest against water-energy deal with Israel Hundreds in Jordan gathered in capital to protest a water-for-energy agreement between Jordan and Israel.

The agreement, if implemented, would be one of the largest cooperation projects since the countries signed a peace deal 27 years ago.

Under the deal, Jordan would receive 200 million cubic metres (7.06 billion cubic feet) of desalinated water from Israel in return for 600 megawatts of electricity generated from a UAE-funded solar energy plant in Jordan.

The agreement intends to address Jordan’s dire need for water and Israel’s goal to expand its renewable energy. Israel has drastically increased its capacity for water desalination and Jordan has vast desert areas suitable for solar energy farms.

Jordanians at the protest rejected the agreement, saying it moved towards normalising ties with Israel while it continues to occupy the Palestinian territories. Opponents also warned that the deal would force Jordan to be dependent on its neighbour.

The project’s declaration of intent was signed on November 22nd in Dubai by Jordan’s water minister, Israel’s energy minister, and the United Arab Emirate’s climate change minister, in the presence of US Climate Envoy John Kerry.

Lebanon wakes up to countrywide roadblocks Protesters across Lebanon blocked roads with burning tyres after the currency hit a historic low and the government failed to convene.

Protesters across Beirut, Tripoli, Saida, and other cities closed highways and intersections on with their vehicles and set tyres and rubbish dumpsters on fire.

They called on the government to control the plunging Lebanese pound, which for the past week in late November had hovered at about 25,000 to the US dollar. The pound has lost about 90 percent of its value in about two years.

The Lebanese army was able to clear some closed intersections and thoroughfares. However, in Sports City just south of Beirut, protesters doused the highway with petrol so cars could not drive through, even if the army cleared the roadblock.

10 | Endeavour Magazine

Anonymous calls to protest from across the country circulated on WhatsApp and other messaging apps over the weekend. Some political opposition groups claim that the demonstrations were organised by some of Lebanon’s sectarian parties.

Turkish lira crisis hits Idlib in Syria The value of the Turkish lira to the US dollar earlier this week crashed to a record low, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended sharp interest rate cuts. Over the past year, the Turkish currency lost about 40 percent of its value, and inflation is approaching 20 percent.

Turkey’s fiscal crisis has spilled over into opposition-held Idlib in neighbouring Syria, which adopted the Turkish currency more than a year ago.

Some 4.4 million people live in Idlib, and about half of them are displaced.

Much of the food and other essentials in Idlib are imported, and the economy relies heavily on international aid for subsistence. Fuel and wheat costs have risen internationally in the area, which, in its current situation, is hitting Idlib hard. Local bakers have expressed fears that they will need to produce bread at a loss in order to keep it affordable for others.

Many people are borrowing money to buy groceries or asking shop owners if they could pay them back later, which can lead to a bigger longterm loss for shop keepers as the lira continues to decline.

Europe Sweden’s first female PM returns after forced resignation Sweden’s first female prime minister has been reappointed a week after after political turmoil forced her to resign within hours of taking the post.

MPs backed Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson by a narrow margin in a new vote on November 29th.

She will attempt to lead a one-party government until an election in September next year.

She stood down as prime minister after her coalition collapsed. Just hours earlier, Ms Andersson had been elected as Sweden’s first female prime minister by a single vote in parliament.

The new PM’s plan for forming a new coalition government with the Green Party was thrown into disarray when her budget proposal failed to pass.

Instead, parliament voted for a budget drawn up by a group of opposition parties, including the farright Sweden Democrats.

The Green Party said it would not accept a budget drafted by the far-right and walked away from the government, leading to its demise.

By convention, the prime minister in Sweden is expected to resign if a coalition party leaves government.

France wants talks with UK about migrant deaths in English Channel

Gérald Darmanin made the comments at a meeting of European officials following the deaths of 27 people who drowned in the English Channel this week as they tried to cross from France to the UK. The UK’s invitation to the meeting was halted in a diplomatic row with France.

The UK’s absence came after Emmanuel Macron reacted angrily to Boris Johnson’s public call for France to take back migrants who reach the UK. The French president accused the UK prime minister of showing a lack of seriousness by publishing the letter on Twitter.

Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany and the European Commission attended the talks in Calais, which Mr Macron set up to deal with the recent surge in migrant crossings of the Channel.

The sinking of an inflatable boat last Wednesday marked the biggest loss of life by drowning in the Channel in many years, with 17 men, seven women - one of whom was pregnant - and three children dying.

Many of the victims came from Iraqi Kurdistan.

UK and Israel pledge to stop Iran gaining nuclear weapons Israeli FM Yair Lapid visited London and Paris to discuss Iran, as talks on the 2015 nuclear deal restart in Vienna. Lapid arrived in London on November 28th for a two-day trip to the UK and France, a day before talks on Iran’s nuclear programme restart in Vienna.

The United Kingdom and Israel will “work night and day” in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power, the foreign ministers of the two countries wrote in a joint article.

Lapid met his British counterpart Truss to sign a series of agreements, including a 10-year agreement to work closely on areas such as cybersecurity, technology, trade and defense.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Saeed Khatibzadeh, reacted to the joint article by saying it casted doubt on Western intentions heading into the Vienna talks to salvage the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the nuclear deal is formally known.

Diplomats say time is running out to resurrect the pact, which then-US President Donald Trump abandoned in 2018, angering Iran and dismaying the other powers involved – the UK, China, France, Germany and Russia.

France’s interior minister has said he wants to work with the UK on migration, but that talks need to be serious.

Endeavour Magazine | 11

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

GREEN ZINC Sun Metals chevron-square-right www.sunmetals.com.au phone-square +61 7 4726 6600

Sun Metals

F

Zinc is one of those metals that keeps the world turning.

It is used to galvanise other metals, such as iron and steel, and as an alloying metal to make bronze and brass. Without zinc, many of our other, core metals take a hit, making it a silent hero – and one that’s in high demand.

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or multiple reasons, the average price of zinc was recently the highest it has been in 10 years, and it still extremely high, which makes it a perfect time to speak with Sun Metals Corporation: not only has this Australia-based company undertaken an expansion that will place it amongst the largest-scale zinc refineries in the world, but it is taking on an even more daring venture by attempting to turn its production 100% green by 2040. We spoke with Michael Choi, company CFO, to learn more.

Sun Metals describes itself as one of the most technologically advanced zinc refineries in the world, producing Special High Grade Zinc metal, Zinc Alloy metal and by-products of Sulphuric Acid. The subsidiary of South Korean company Korea Zinc Co. Ltd, Sun Metals operates in Townsville, Queensland in Australia, from which sells its many zinc and other by-products both locally and internationally. This international reach goes both ways: the company also imports zinc concentrates from many countries, including Europe, USA, South America and, unsurprisingly, Australia.

This level of export and, even more crucially, import caused Sun Metals to encounter challenges during the pandemic period, as many mines had the risk of closing their operations temporarily, and shipments from overseas also became much harder and slower to receive.

“Korea Zinc and Sun Metals as a group, we get zinc concentrates from all over the world and the potential risk of closure of major mines was rising during Covid. We were able to manage it well.”

Sun Metals shares supplies with its parentcompany, Korea Zinc, so with cooperation between the two, the impact was carefully mitigated.

However, the cost of international freight shipping rose greatly to reflect global challenges and sourcing skilled labour was challenging due to border closures. This threat and uncertainty could have had a terrible impact on Sun Metals, as the company had recently undertaken a daring expansion project: however, the knock-on effect of the issues in zinc production led to an extremely profitable result for an end-on-the-process company like a refinery: the price of zinc was doing what gold and so many other natural resources do during a global crisis - it was shooting up.

Green Zinc

“The zinc price has reached its peak,” Michael Choi told us. “It’s a high price that’s sitting around $3300 per ton. Zinc, copper, all the basic commodities are doing well at the moment.” We asked Michael for specifics on why the metal is doing so well, and as well as the ‘safe haven’ effect seen in natural resources during uncertain times, there were other factors also at play.

“30% of the cost of zinc smelting comes from electricity. Due to the electricity shortage in Europe, the cost of electricity has gone up, which also meant that few of the big smelters in Europe reduced their production by 50% or has decided to close until the electricity price is stabilised. Also, major Chinese smelters received orders from provincial governments to lower their power consumption due to energy shortage.”

Due to a combination of Covid slowing mining operation and raising shipping costs, and a hike in electricity costs further slowing production and

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Sun Metals

raising expenses, zinc ended up in short supply – which meant its value soared. For Sun Metals, the timing couldn’t be better: “The zinc market is incredibly strong and we are benefitting from it. In our refinery, we have this big expansion project going on: we were originally producing 230,000 tons of zinc metal, and now we are targeting to go for 300,000 tons, so that will rank us at around 6th or 7th in the world.” The expansion is set to be completed by the end of 2021, which means it’s almost there. By the end, it is estimated that it will have cost an investment of A$455m (that’s over US$328m). The refinery’s projected increase in production will largely be due to a new technology that is being implemented in this expansion: one that was developed and pioneered by Korea Zinc in 2017.

However, this expansion was still challenged by the effects of COVID 19 in other ways, in the physical process of the construction. “As international travel ceased and borders were closed, there was a significant impact on our resource and equipment plans for the expansion project. We needed labour sourced from other states in Australia, but due to states border closure, we had some trouble.

16 | Endeavour Magazine

Additionally, as the second company in the world to introduce this new technology, we had planned to rely on the knowledge and expertise of our parent company. The inability to send our operators to South Korea or bring their employees to our refinery in Townsville to share knowledge meant we had to develop a completely different training program.”

“We believe we rose to the challenge, and at the end of 2020, we were honoured that Sun Metals was recognised by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) as a strategic investor committed to the Australian economy despite COVID-19 disruptions and uncertainty.”

This recognition proves the company must have been doing something right, and successfully undertaking an ambitious expansion during a time when so many companies slowed and scaled down certainly deserves some applause! And yet, all of this is not even the most ambitious part of Sun Metals’ projects and future plans: for that, we must look to their plans for ‘green zinc’.

“As the first refinery in the world to join RE100, an initiative bringing together the world’s most influential businesses committed

With over 50 year’s combined experience in the industry, and a fully equipped manual workshop specialising in CNC machining and fabrication, we have the resources and expertise to handle the most complex projects. Combined with our onsite capabilities and supervision, we work to ensure our clients reach their required targets and deadlines.

We have had a strong working relationship with Sun Metals for over the last 10 years and are looking forward to continuing this support for future endeavours.

Address: Unit 1 / 16 Reardon Street, Currajong QLD 4812 Phone: (07) 4775 2300 E-mail: info@aoengineering.com.au

Sun Metals

to 100% renewable electricity by 2040, we are also aiming to become the first refinery in the world to produce green zinc. By use of the term ‘green zinc’, we mean made entirely from renewable electricity.”

By this, the company is referring to the sources of its electricity: some heavy industrial processes will still use non-renewable electricity, but the aim is to move 100% of its electrical power over to green sources, and to power as much in this way as is possible. “We have made a commitment to power our entire operations with 100% renewable electricity by 2040, with an interim target of 80% by 2030. To facilitate this, in early 2021, our sister company Ark Energy Corporation was established

by Korea Zinc to decarbonise the energy supply of the group, starting with Sun Metals.”

As Michael explained, electricity accounts for 30% of the cost for refinery operation, and in the beginning, Sun Metal’s aim was motivated from a financial standpoint, but this then evolved in a vision for a sustainable future. “Along with being the first refinery in the world to join RE100, SMC’s track record in sustainability is strong – this includes

building the largest (125MWac) integrated industrial use solar plant in Australia and, in conjunction with sister company Ark Energy Corporation, SMC is investing in green hydrogen.” This sister company was founded in order to decarbonize the Korea Zinc group of companies and to invest and develop in renewable projects.”

The first investment was a solar farm, which the company built in 2018, and from there, their attention then turned to hydrogen. Feasibility studies began the same year, and with financial support from the Australian government to make the development viable, the company decided to build a hydrogen hub in North Queensland, starting from a pilot plant in Townsville named SunHQ. Supplying Korea Zinc and Sun Metals as its first priority, the hub will also, in time, expand to be able to export supply elsewhere – or, this is Sun Metals’ plan. First, this will be distributed domestically in North Queensland, and after this, further exports will head to NorthEast Asia.

On top of these projects, Sun Metals is also investing in a wind farm. Between all of these, 86% of the company’s energy has already been covered by green sources, so Michael is confident that they can

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Green Zinc

fill the 14% gap before 2040 – probably, he predicts, through investment in new battery technology.

“It started from trying to manage the cost of electricity, and then we started thinking about sustainability. Everyone talks about ESG these days (Environmental, Social, and Governance), and people realise how important that is. The change or the boom hasn’t really happened in smelting companies yet: we are the first smelter to join RE 100.” Whilst the claim of ‘green zinc’ doesn’t have heavy industries clamoring to favour Sun Metals’ zinc yet, Michael predicts that attitudes will shift, as they are already doing so in other industries. The ‘dirtier’ industries may be slower to move in this direction, but as seen by companies some major companies selling off their coal assets, or the mines we saw last month working with Adria Power, the move has already begun, and Sun Metals will be there to meet the industry when it gets there.

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Endeavour Magazine | 19

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

A CLEAN, KENYAN SOLUTION Kapi Ltd chevron-square-right flowerbrand.co.ke phone-square +254 726 114 140

Kapi Ltd

Since 2019, Kenya and other parts of East Africa have been facing the worst locust outbreak in 70 years.

Thankfully, Kenya is long-established as the producer of a near-miracle plant that, when processed correctly into an insecticide, is capable of a 96-100% success rate in killing desert locusts. If that wasn’t enough, the plant leaves zero residue behind it 24 hours after application, and whilst it’s deadly to insects, it isn’t harmful to people or other animals.

Yet, whilst farmers are privately using this solution where they can, it is yet to be implemented or even acknowledged by the government.

We spoke with Ian Shaw, Managing Director of this natural pesticide’s producer, Kapi Limited, to get to the bottom of why.

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I

n 2018, Middle Eastern cyclones caused a downpour of rain in the deserts of Yemen and the Arabian Peninsula – both breeding grounds for locusts. This water helped the wildlife in these deserts to flourish, and in late 2019, locust swarms hit East Africa in staggering numbers; they had made their way the short distance across the sea from Yemen where they hit Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. For most farmers in the area, these swarms were in numbers that had never happened before in their lifetimes.

Meanwhile, Kapi Limited has been in operation in Kenya since 1964. In 2008, it was purchased by Ian Shaw, after he was wowed by the incredible potential of its products. Kapi Limited produces insecticides: it began with mosquito coils and soon expanded outward into other mosquito products, but has since grown further to cover safe pesticides for crops and even anti flea and tick shampoo for dogs. Almost all of its products use the same plant as their foundation: pyrethrum. We asked Ian what made this plant so effective and, for him, so important to implement: “There’s a whole bunch of benefits. Number one: it’s natural. A pyrethrum flower is a type of chrysanthemum that’s grown in the highlands on Kenya. It’s fantastic for farmers here: it’s a great cash crop. They grow the flowers, dry them, and they are then milled and processed. We purchase something called Pale Refined Extract, which is a 50% pyrethrum concentrate.

“Number two: it leaves zero residue. After 24 hours, pyrethrum extract disappears – it’s destroyed by sunlight. Literally, you can spray pyrethrum on an apple at 8 in the morning and you can eat the apple by 4 in the afternoon. It’s unreal. If you compare that with the chemicals that are widely used, they leave a residue for up to six months.” This difference has a massive impact on the environment, as well as on the safety of crops when it comes to consumption, as does point three: “Number three: it’s got very low mammalian toxicity.” This means that pyrethrum has very little impact on human health, making it a safe option for protecting homes against mosquitos, as well as – hypothetically – spraying farming towns and villages to protect against the current locust crisis.

Finally, number four: not only is it safe for use, but, it’s effective. Natural products carry the stigma or association of being weaker or less effective, but amazingly, this isn’t so with Kapi’s pyrethrum

A clean, Kenyan solution

products. Ian explained why: “It’s got an incredibly wide spectrum of kill activity. It kills virtually all insects, which is brilliant for a farmer. You can spray one natural product onto your crop instead of four or five different chemicals. There are also no recorded incidents on insect resistance to pyrethrum. The flower basically has six different kill actions: it’s a bit like being in the ring with a boxer and you don’t know where the next punch is going to come from. You can’t develop a resistance. Meanwhile, pyrethroids, which are chemical attempts to copy pyrethrum, only mimic one of the kill actions, which means insects develop a very quick resistance to that chemical.”

This is why Kapi’s insecticide, and specifically its main agricultural product Flower DS 4EC, has a 96100% kill efficiency rate on Desert Locusts, as tested by the University of Nairobi, as well as a very high kill efficiency against most other agricultural pests.

“It’s absolutely, totally amazing.”

Ian is a passionate advocate of this plant, and you can see why. It was this passion that led him to purchase Kapi in the first place, when success for

its own sake ceased to satisfy and he grew restless to make a difference in the world:

“It was a mid-life crisis. We used to own restaurants in the middle of London. We had connections to Kenya; I was born in Kenya and my wife was born in Tanzania. In 1999, for our honeymoon, we spent a wacky year living out of a Land Rover, traveling from South Africa to Kenya.”

The one-year honeymoon turned into a second year in Kenya, and it was only when Ian’s wife became pregnant that they headed back to the UK, but Kenya was still on his mind. “I said to her, ‘Look, I would really love to go back and do something proper in Kenya.’”

In 2005 the couple decided to push themselves towards this dream by buying a house there and travelling out to it for a school term – now with sons in tow. “It was during that year that I discovered Kapi. It was run badly, but it had great products, and I discovered pyrethrum and thought, ‘My god, this is

Endeavour Magazine | 23

Kapi Ltd

an unbelievable molecule that no one knows about.’

So, I bought the company, we never went back to England, and the boys never went back to their little village school.”

In terms of sales, Kapi’s miracle insecticide is widely consumed. Almost every Kenyan farm opts to use it, because it leaves their crops clean and viable for export. As for Kapi’s own exports, Ian predicts that demand will soon outstrip supply, which means expansion is on the cards. “We’ve got huge demand globally: the developed countries have really woken up to pyrethrum. In our pesticide circles, it’s called the ‘21st Century pesticide.’”

Kapi are currently in talks with 15 countries who are eager to join the ranks of those who use pyrethrum. This process takes a couple of years, as the insecticide must be registered as a poison and go through the due checks in each country, but this means that every year, a new market completes this process and is added to Kapi’s exports list. Ian is excited that soon, Kapi will need to look to new pyrethrum farms, which he says is a more profitable crop for local farmers than many others: “At the moment, they’re growing staples like potatoes, and when their crop is ready, so is everyone else’s, so the price collapses. They’re really keen to get back to farming pyrethrum.”

However, despite business being fantastic, Ian is on a mission with Kapi, the same passion that drove him to buy the company now driving him on this frontier. For, as we’ve mentioned, whilst everyone else seems to have embraced pyrethrum, the Kenyan government has not – which, in a time of disastrous locust swarms, is a big problem.

At present, whilst many farmers choose to use Kapi’s pyrethrum products on their crops – particularly if they are for export – other insecticides in circulation are hazardous in a number of ways.

Unfortunately, these are the ones favoured by the government in response to the locust emergency.

“The chemicals that are being sprayed are all banned in Europe. If you look at one, chlorpyriphos, it was banned all throughout America in August of this year because they have found clear evidence that it causes brain disfunction in children. You’re talking about really heavy-duty chemicals, and they’re spraying them from airplanes over crops, villages, even townships in some cases. It’s really shocking.”

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It is not only the Kenyan government who has been slow to acknowledge pyrethrum, or in fact to acknowledge the hazards of the chemicals currently used: representatives of the Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO) stationed in the country have also been slow to respond, to Ian’s frustration – especially as the FAO is a United Nations body.

“When the locusts were really bad, farmers with locusts on their plot were not calling the FAO to report because they didn’t want the chemicals sprayed on their crops. They chose to lose 25-30% of their export crop to locusts rather than losing 100% of it to a chemical with bad residue. All of the chemicals used by the FAO have chemicals that, if found going into Europe or the US, would have the container declined and sent back or destroyed.”

“We’re not political, and we’re not trying to say ‘Look, change the world over night’, but we’re trying to say ‘Look, for the 5%-10% of your spraying where you are over homesteads or villages, or agricultural crops or cattle, use a natural product that you know is safe.”

A clean, Kenyan solution

There are two potential drawbacks to pyrethrum: firstly, it costs 1.5x more than most chemical insecticides, and its high effectiveness rate means that as well as taking out the ‘problem’ insects, it also kills bees. However, Ian put both of these concerns into perspective: “It’s about one and a half times the price of the chemicals, but if you’re looking at a helicopter for $2500 an hour [hired to locate the locust swarms) and $3,500 a day for a plane (to spray the insecticide], then actually, the insecticide is not the key cost.” When the trade-out is a country either losing a portion of its crops or jeopardizing the validity and sale of its exports, this cost would also be something that one might expect the government to see the value in absorbing. The main sticking point for the FAO, Ian explained, is the bees, but even this isn’t what it seems when examined beyond an easy soundbite: “The simple answer is, pyrethrum does kill bees.

However, and it’s a massive ‘however’, pyrethrum only kills bees for 24 hours. Virtually every single chemical used in agriculture also kills bees. If you compare it to malathion, say – that’s one of the safest for bees – then you need more malathion than

pyrethrum to kill a bee, so technically, pyrethrum has a higher kill rate. However, malathion leaves residue for a minimum of 14 days – it keeps killing bees for 13 days longer than pyrethrum. If you then look at something like deltamethrin, which is one of the world’s biggest pyrethroids used in agriculture, it 1100x more potent to bees than pyrethrum, because it carries on killing bees for three months.”

Skeptics may argue that statistics and figures can be spun all manner of ways, but what can’t be spun so easily are clear results: Ian told us about a commercial farm, Vitaplant, that the company has recently produced a video about, where its bee population went from dwindling to prosperous after the switch to using Kapi products was made. “Since they’ve begun to use our products, the recovery of their bee population has been huge. The owner said that when he took over the farm there were virtually no bees, and all of his neighboring farmers were complaining about his farm’s effect on the bee population. He moved to our products, the bees returned, and it’s now their population is so healthy that the farm has its own bee hives!”

Like all products of this nature, Kapi’s insecticides need to be used responsibly, but if this

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Kapi Ltd

is done, the risk to bees is even more contained: “We advise all farmers to spray Flower DS 4 EC late in the afternoon/early evening so that the sunlight doesn’t degrade the pyrethrum too quickly, giving it a kill effect through the night and the following morning. It is also because at night, the bees are not out pollinating.” By the time the bees emerge and come into contact with the product, it is far weaker, and by the end of the day, it is completely gone.

Given this, it’s no wonder that Ian is frustrated.

However, he’s hoping that the time is coming when the FAO will reconsider the current anti-locust strategies: “The FAO say they take advice from their locust pesticide referee group. Now, this group last met in 2014. They were scheduled to meet in 2020, but they then postponed because of Covid. They then set up their meeting for July for 2021, but postponed again because it conflicted with holidays.” Why this locust pesticide group hasn’t made a more urgent effort to meet, either socially distanced or online, in response to the biggest locust problem in 70 years is unclear. However, the group are apparently now (finally) reviewing data, and Ian hopes that in the

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26 | Endeavour Magazine

light of current data they will be able to update their advice to the FAO. In the meantime, whilst this group has been failing to meet and harmful chemicals have continued to be sprayed on towns and villages, others have been at work: “In the time that we’ve been dealing with the FAO, we’ve offered them unlimited samples of our product so they can conduct their own trials to prove that it works. We have not had a single communication back from them. MP Gladys Shollei actually walked in the FAO offices and gave them a letter advising that they could not spray harmful chemicals aerially and inviting them to look at pyrethrum. That was three weeks ago [from the time of interview], from a member of the Kenyan government, and the FAO have not yet responded to it.”

As mentioned earlier, Kapi’s actual sales are booming, but Ian’s concern over this issue is because of people, not profit. “The people in Kenya make your heart burn. To run a business where you can make such a profound effect on people’s lives is a reason for getting out of bed each day. It’s just so heartwarming. And pyrethrum is a Kenyan solution to a Kenyan problem.” Not only is the crop Kenyan, but so is Kapi: apart from Ian, every member of staff is black Kenyan, and fantastically, 80% of the workforce is female, including management. Both things are important to Ian, who wants this company to be of Kenya and for Kenya, just like pyrethrum itself. Here’s hoping that the government takes notice of this product soon, so farmers are no longing choosing between losing their crops to locusts or the locust solution, and children are no longer at risk from what the bodies put in place to protect them have deemed safe to drop from the skies.

From The Horse’s Mouth

THE LOVE OF A HORSE Written by Sylvia Loch www.sylvialoch.com www.classicalriding.co.uk www.classicalseat.co.uk

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I

t would be hard to count up the number of times I have read, heard or been told that horses, by nature, communicate in a very different way from normal domestic pets. In the stable or in ridden work, they may obediently do what we ask of them - but are they capable of loving their owner?

Although physically affectionate, often rubbing their faces against their rider’s chest or arm, horses tend not to meet your eyes in the way of a dog. Many may not automatically come to you at call. Generally, there has to be a food reward in place - a kind word, a stroke or caress is not always sufficient. Often, the most important part of their day is spending time with another creature that communicates and cares for them. This can never be underrated.

Back in the 1990s, an American horse trainer called Monty Roberts descended on the European horse scene to give international seminars and presentations on the subject of ‘bonding’. Large audiences flocked to his demonstrations all

over the UK and he was much admired. Monty’s methods involved the very opposite of what most equestriennes do with their horse – i.e. calling the horse to come to them. Yet, this in Monty’s opinion was not the way to go about things.

Instead, and with horses that did not wish to be caught, Roberts showed how first we must ‘send the horse away’. He demonstrated this in a large arena where riderless horses without tack moved about at liberty. He would then work with one at a time.

Each horse could either choose to approach this human in the middle, or they could ignore him. He then explained that with horses that were hard to catch, one must first reject them by chasing them away. This was done repeatedly, until every horse that had previously avoided being caught became submissive. Monty called the process ‘join up’.

It was fascinating to watch. The entire process with each individual could vary from 5 minutes to 15 - or even longer - but it made

the viewing compelling. With his excellent PR, Roberts became such a hit, he was even requested to give a display before the Queen at the Royal Mews.

While the Roberts’ method of ‘sending the horse away’ certainly worked, the process itself did not reveal any sign of reward or love. I could not help but feel uncomfortable seeing horses chased away - time and time again - when all my dealings with horses have been based on their coming together in a natural way.

It may take several years for a horse to totally trust its owner and want to be with him or her, rather than with its own kind. The horse is a herd animal and out in the field in the company of others, they feel safe. If startled, two or three or more animals will act or move swiftly as one. In this way they form a bond even when flight is the natural option.

Affection from a horse is more likely to develop when they feel ‘safe’ in their daily programme.

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The early morning greeting - generally with breakfast - is much looked forward to and generally, it is the same at night. While some horses do not see their owners at all between 6pm and 6 or 7am, others may be visited in the late evening with a goodnight treat.

Music gently played on the radio can help, but more important for any horse is companionship.

Ideally, horses should be turned out in the day with other horses and brought in at night with a companion in a nearby box. If the horse lives on his own, the whole dynamic changes. Horses can become incredibly lonely if left in a field far from other horses or humans.

Being left in a stable for hours on end while an owner is at work is just as bad. Unfortunately, many horses live this type of life and may suffer extreme loneliness and anxiety, especially in their box – which generally measure around 12 x 12 ft as standard.

The top half of the stable door will allow them to look out to see all that is going on in the yard and around. Even better, is a box where the occupant can touch the nose of the horse next door, or if

30 | Endeavour Magazine

not touch – at least see him. Horses are very social creatures as is seen in paddocks where there are several horses together and a lot of mutual grooming and indeed play goes on.

Ideally, a lone horse in a field should be visited at least two to three times a day and being brought in at night is important whenever possible. The best we humans can do is visit them rather more often than just at feeding time. More helpful is to find a field companion, which need not necessarily be another equine: a sheep or goat can often fill the gap.

In the case of one horse living on their own, there is no herd instinct to control his movements, but he will still require the security of knowing that his handler or owner is safe. This is best displayed in routine. The owner comes into the stable at a certain time of day. The horse is fed at a certain time, turned out at a certain time, groomed at a certain time and finally tacked up with saddle and bridle to ride out. If the pattern is changed, he will

not object – but the feed routine should always remain constant.

One of the best ways to combat boredom and loneliness is for the horse is to be ridden regularly.

A well-run riding school should match the right rider to the right horse in terms of experience, weight and size, and the chance to hack out in lovely countryside should benefit both horse and human.

In the case of one owner riding his or her own horse, it all depends on the rider’s fitness, weight and capability: some riders really dote on their horse, but an understanding of their requirements is as important as love.

How different is this from the life of a dog, where more often than not, the dog has the companionship of his owner up to 12 or more hours a day? This leads to love, generally on both sides, but how many horses love their owners?

Often, not enough - but through knowledge and understanding, we can make it better and better.

For more of Sylvia’s horse-related wisdom, from riding to dressage and much more, you can browse and purchase her books at www.sylvialoch.com www.classicalriding.co.uk www.classicalseat.co.uk

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Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

CALCULATED RISK Riskope chevron-square-right www.riskope.com phone-square +1 604 341 4485

Riskope

Expansions, mergers, construction projects: any sizable investment or move for a company involves, by definition, sizable risks. Could the investment be lost? Could something go wrong, and how? What areas must one mitigate in order to protect the venture, the workers involved and the wider world while creating and preserving value? In days gone by, people consulted soothsayers and fortune tellers before taking on risk: these days, risk management has been turned into a science, and Oboni Riskope Associates Inc. (Riskope) has built upon that science to create a leading system that, it feels, outstrips the common - approaches and methods used by many of its rivals.

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W

e’ve come a long way from turning to the stars for answers on future events. Now, teams of researchers risk engineers and data scientists, aided by the right software, can perform predictive evaluations of the risks of any venture, major or small, thus allowing companies to focus in on the right areas and perform tactical and strategic planning accordingly. It’s a process that not only helps a company to protect its reputation and assets, but also its people and the public who may be affected by their operations. Riskope is one such company – its customers range from its origins in mining right through to insurance and even the armed forces. Amongst these companies and groups are impressive clients such as Fortune 500 names, government agencies and international institutions.

We spoke with Dr Franco Oboni, company founder and president, to learn more about what Riskope does: “At Riskope, we identify, quantify and prioritize enterprise risks (ERM) related to life, property, income or reputation. This includes a comprehensive review of natural and human hazards and threats, both internal and external to the organization. This helps executives and boards to make informed decisions that preserve enterprise value.”

Whilst the company serves customers worldwide, it does so from its HQ in Vancouver, Canada and another hub in Turin, Italy. From these two locations, much of the work is done remotely, using resources such as publicly available satellite observation, digitised archival data and other publicly available resources, major or minor, to learn as much as they can before their first need to travel. This examination of every piece of information they can access allows Riskope to know its case study in depth and do much of its work long before setting foot on site, which has led to a dramatic rise in business for the company over the pandemic period in particular.

So, how does Riskope do what it does? We asked Franco to talk us through it: “Our services are based on a ‘universal evaluation platform’ called ORE (Optimum Risk Estimates). The pun is intended, because ORE was originally developed specifically for the mining industry. It is our flagship methodology that, now, we apply to every single industry we touch, from forestry to mining to transportation. We have even done risk assessments for the armed forces in a country in Europe using ORE. The principles of risk are the same, whatever you do: if you make a

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Riskope

jam in your kitchen, you can do a risk assessment of your jam production using ORE, and if you have a nuclear power plant that you’re refurbishing – such as a $15 billion project we worked on a few years ago – you can apply ORE to that too.”

ORE is a methodology that Riskope developed itself. “We are at the forefront of the development, because people are still using ‘good old methodologies’ that we know don’t work. They’re insufficient in today’s social environment.” As the company thought out and created its methodology,

36 | Endeavour Magazine

it was continually expanded and pushed as it encountered new challenges and requirements from clients: “Once in a while, a client comes out and says ‘Hey guys, can you do this?’, and that’s how we evolve. It’s because most of the work we’re doing has never been done before, and that suits us. It’s fascinating.” The method has been some 20 years in the making, though it largely solidified into what it is today after the first ten.

But what exactly does Riskope do, and how does it do it? The concept of probability and prediction

Calculated risk

feels like a dark art, but Franco says it’s all down the data. “We apply strict grey matter to what is proposed to us, and we are not ‘one number’ people - we always express our results in ranges. The more uncertainties there are, the wider the range will be.

The accuracy of the predictions has been tested a number of times, but this isn’t to say that we’re infallible – the very fact that we get to express our results in probabilities means that there is a probability it will go a different way. The point is to define the relative risks within a portfolio, and to be able to advice your clients accordingly.”

“For example, we may be asked to size up strategic stocks in such a way that if there is a catastrophe anywhere, the company will be able to react in a reasonable way without being stuck or mobilising too much capital. We have done that for suppliers, mining companies and other natural resources.

In another area, we have had a few Fortune 500 companies asking us to perform risk assessments on mergers and acquisitions - sometimes even unbeknownst of the future acquired!”

“So, how do we do that? We tap into whatever publicly available information there is. In the case of natural resources and construction, we also use publicly available satellite observation. It’s a very broad approach that we have, because contrary to what many people do, we have 360 degrees view on risk. We really bring everything together convergently on the same platform, so the client knows what their reputational risks may be, what their crisis potential may be, what the potential for public upheaval is ahead of what the client may do

and so forth. We believe that if you use grey matter and good methodology, you can do a lot, and we do a lot. Before the Lehman Brother crash occurred, we were asked, “How long will the financial crisis last, how deep will it go?” We ended up publishing our predictions, and it was kind of mesmerising how correct they were.”

Gathering the data is the real legwork of what Riskope does. In the case of yet-to-be-announced mergers and other hush-hush topics, this challenge becomes especially hard, as it must be done without the investigation drawing any attention to itself. Similarly, Riskope is sometimes called in to assess risk after an incident has happened, which can make information difficult to access for a wide range of reasons.

“Risk assessment after major accidents is something I don’t like to do, because I think we should do our work before the accidents occur.

Additionally, doing so within the framework of litigation is a very difficult and challenging situation, because they limit what we can talk about to anybody.” Another complex and hush-hush job was, of course, the one Riskope took on for one of the European Armed Forces – a several-year-long study into the risks of cyber impact.

Whatever area the company is hired to look into, the biggest challenge, Franco told us, is in gathering all the data, because what Riskope needs for its ‘360 view’ always goes further than the client predicts and gathers. “Generally, there are huge gaps in the data. It doesn’t matter the industry – the gaps in the information are incredibly deep and wide.” Where

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Riskope

the gaps are, the overlooked risks are most likely to be, which makes plugging these gaps all the more essential.

“When you look at what some companies do around the world, they seem to pursue projects wearing blindfolds. They become numb to what is around them. In many cases, our action comes long before the risk needs to be evaluated. We say simply, ‘Look, the situation is such that if this event or that event would happen, the court of the people would kill you.’

It’s a court where there’s no appeal.”

Then again, this attitude has changed significantly in recent years, and Franco has witnessed it. Where once there was willing ignorance, companies are increasingly conscious of their responsibilities to their workers and the people and environment around them, as well as conscious about their public reputation. This change has been notable in the mining industry, which has started taking an active interest in the impact of its operations and its responsibilities to those under its care. “Our business has been doubling year over year from

38 | Endeavour Magazine

the mining industry for the past few years - it’s booming.” Say what you like about social media, but in some regards, it sounds as though it is literally saving lives: “I’m confident that things are changing. With the internet and social media, the mining industry has realised that the environment, social and governance (ESG) are becoming absolutely necessary, and they cannot afford to have big accidents any more. To have an accident, now, is truly a corporate catastrophe. So, there are several reasons compelling mining companies to better their practices and get a grip on what they’re doing.”

One area that’s particularly close to Franco’s heart is the quality of dams built by mining companies and other such heavy industries: “Due to a number of vividly discussed cases of dam failures around the world in the last five years, there has been a new standard that has come up. It’s called the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, mainly promoted by the International Council of Mining and Metal, aiming at raising the quality of new and existing tailings storage facilities and transparency.

The Standard is extremely important, and although I have criticised it in writing numerous times, because

Calculated risk

it has some significant gaps that should be filled, the effort has been extremely valid and I’m glad it happened.”

As a result of these changes, the dam projects that Riskope are called to assess are looking better and better; the only issue is, the old dams still exist, even if they are out of commission, and realistically, a company cannot afford to repair and update every one it its portfolio.

“That’s when making comparative risk assessments is absolutely vital. You want to allot mitigative investments where you might optimize the benefit, not only for the mining company but for the public and in general.”

It is reducing risk, not simply calculating and profiting from it, that is at the core of what motivates Franco. This has been the case since before he founded Riskope: his career began as a structural and geotechnical engineer in the Alps, Switzerland – an area with common and dangerous landslides.

In those times, no real work had been done into

evaluating the probability of such landslides in a risk management capacity, and so, when he had the chance to do a PhD, this is what he looked into. Today, many steps in his career later, it is still safe practices and protection from danger that motivates him. As well as using Riskope’s knowledge to run his business, Franco has co-authored a series of books on risk management in different industries, and contributes teaching to MBAs so that those studying business can learn not only how to run businesses, but how to do so safely.

“It’s very important for us. We put a great value in the fact that what we are doing, in the end, should help not only our clients but society in general. It’s very important for us to do some good around us.” If all companies could say the same, we’d operate in a safer world.

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www.dhl.com

DHL Ghana An interview with Serigne Ndanck Mbaye, West Africa CEO

Q: We’re pretty sure everyone has heard of DHL, but just in case, in your own words; how would you describe the company, and particularly DHL Ghana?

A: We are a multinational company that provides logistics in all the elements of the international supply chain. We enable global trade while we are highly active in our local markets operating through our stations to be closer to our customers. We think global but act local!

DHL Global Forwarding belongs to the Deutsche Post DHL group, the global leader in logistics.

Deutsche Post DHL Group is home to two strong brands: Deutsche Post, Europe’s leading postal service provider, and DHL, which offers a comprehensive range of international express, freight, and supply chain management services, as well as e-commerce logistics solutions. Deutsche Post DHL Group employs over 570,000 people in 220plus countries and territories worldwide.

In Ghana, we have two separate entities: DHL Express and DHL Global Forwarding. DHL Global Forwarding specialises in freight forwarding, 40 | Endeavour Magazine

providing air, ocean, road and warehousing, industrial projects, customs, and value-added services. The Global Forwarding Division was established in 2008 as an autonomous entity in Ghana and the major African countries.

We are present at all stages of the international supply chain, including contract logistics and administrative formalities for all the transport modes.

We also have expertise in various sectors. For example, in mining, DHL Global Forwarding provides an end-to-end supply chain for machines, spare parts, or equipment that require integrated solutions from multiple vendors (buyers consolidations) into Ghana or other destination countries. Our solutions are driven by speed and efficiency and may require additional transport and even multimodal solutions.

DHL Global Forwarding is not only about the physical movements of goods. We have tailored technology that gives real-time visibility and control to our customers on their cargo, allowing them to better plan their logistics.

Serigne Ndanck Mbaye, West Africa CEO

Q: What is the current state of the logistics industry – especially after the events of the pandemic over the last two years?

A: We do have competition, which is great because it keeps us at the forefront of innovation.

During the pandemic, imposing restrictions on border crossings, physical distancing, belly capacity shortage in air freight and equipment imbalance in the ocean has indeed been challenging for the logistics industry. That’s when innovation becomes critical, to turn such threats into opportunities. DHL Global Forwarding in Ghana has innovated in many ways. Our top priority was keeping our people safe, which meant adhering to the Covid protocol and activating our BCP (Business Contingency Plan) to work from home. Other related challenges were virtually managing a network of people working from home and pushing our digitization agenda further.

We were fortunate to have rolled out in 2019 our new Transport Management System (CW1), which was able to digitize our processes and integrate different collaborative platforms, enabling us to work from home but still perform for our customers.

It was great as far as our internal processes were concerned; however, to interact with our customers, we also needed a state-of-the-art frontline tool: myDHLi (my DHL Interactive) was promoted for our customers, allowing them to book their shipments from the comfort of their homes, customise and automate their reporting, and have complete visibility and control over their shipments.

Another equation was our suppliers. Although we do e-bookings for road freight with air and ocean carriers, we have been manually engaging transporters. Saloodo!, our digital freight platform that allows transporters to find cargo and avoid empty runs. was deployed in the middle of the pandemic.

The pandemic has also created air capacity issues - especially the belly capacity, which went down to over 80%. There was a high demand surging with the current equipment shortage in ocean freight. We created Ubuntu to keep serving African countries last year, with additional freighters to close demand and supply gaps. Now that belly capacity is improving, we optimize its usage Endeavour Magazine | 41

and carefully track trends to react with specific solutions, as we did last year.

Q: Did you face any challenges as you adapted to this new way of doing business?

A: Managing virtual teams was new to us, but we were already confident that the “command and control” management approach was outdated for many years; we trusted our people. We managed their performance, and it worked well.

Q: Have any positive changes come out of this unusual time that you’re glad you’ll be keeping?

A: Yes, we are much more effective by not always visiting our customers, partners, colleagues physically. The online tools have evolved with the pandemic and can provide a near-reality feel with such interactions.

Q: How many people work for your company?

What’s the company’s approach to looking after your team?

A: DPDHL has over 550,000 employees worldwide.

Our approach is to attract talents, develop and retain them. Our hiring procedures are highly

42 | Endeavour Magazine

transparent and prioritise internal promotions as much as possible. We have a comprehensive training plan: some on the job, some through challenging assignments, some formal training via our e-learning portal, and other formal training internally and externally as part of change management or succession planning.

We aim to be the employer of choice, so we listen to the voice of our employees via our “Happy or Not” devices, via other surveys like NPS (Net Promotor Score) and, most importantly, via our EOS (Employee Opinion Survey). KPIs like employee engagement are critical to us and we develop action plans constantly to keep improving motivation.

Q: Have you recently built or invested in any new facilities?

A: DHL Global Forwarding keeps on investing despite the pandemic. We have committed to an operating base at West Park Ghana, one of the biggest industrial parks in West Africa. We have just moved into our new location in Takoradi and set up our new station in Kumasi just a few months ago.

Q: Have you expanded into any neighbouring regions?

A: Two years ago, we increased our footprint in the sub-region, segregating the forwarding and express activities and creating DHL Global Forwarding in Burkina Faso.

Q: Have you announced any new products or service offerings lately?

A: The IoT (Internet of Things) is being piloted in Ghana; an extremely innovative solution for our customers.

Q: Are you involved in any CSR projects or causes at the moment?

A: Yes! To name a few: 1. Operation Smile – DHL Global Forwarding Ghana is working with non-profit medical organisation, Operation Smile, to provide better access to safe surgical care for those with cleft lip and cleft palate. We provide free logistics solutions to transport Operation Smile’s mobile surgical units across the country 2. Go Green – DHL Global Forwarding Ghana has been working together with a national NGO, Go Green, which promotes green economy through creation of green jobs that drive economic and social development that is also environmentally sustainable. Through this partnership, we have plants hundreds of trees, and are aiming to hit or surpass 1000 by the end of 2021.

3. Go Teach – Through Go Teach, Deutsche Post DHL Group’s program, we support children and young people who find themselves in need as a result of poverty, loss of family or being forced to flee their country. We provide boot camps for youth and young adults from SOS Village Ghana to help them acquire the essential skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in their quest for stable employment. The last event was held in September 2021.

4. GBB – We also provide domestic logistics support to GBB (Ghana by Bike), which donated 70 bicycles to pupils in remote villages earlier this year to support their commuting to school.

A: We are proud of many existing programs such as GoHelp, GoTeach and GoGreen, and continuously drive a responsible business plan and practices. With our 2050 zero-emission target and the release of Strategy 2025, we fully incorporated sustainability into our group strategy. We have already decarbonized our LCL business at no extra cost for our customers by using biofuel.

Q: What are DHL Ghana’s objectives and goals over the near future?

A: Our purpose is “Connecting People and Improving lives” in the current health crisis; our objective is to bring it to life and be bold about it.

The safety of our employees has been paramount to delivering our service promise to our customers; this is still our primary focus.

Q: Let’s talk about you! How long have you held your current position in this company?

A: I’ve been the West Africa CEO since 2018.

Q: How did you come to be in that position?

A: I started my career as a biologist engineer at the Pasteur Institute, an internationally renowned centre for biomedical research in Senegal. I also hold an Engineering degree in Transport and Logistics. Some 17 years ago, I decided to join DHL in Senegal as a Gateway Manager, then moved to Angola through various positions within operations before I came back to Senegal as Area Operations Manager, then Country Manager for DHL Global Forwarding, from which I’ve been promoted to my current position.

Q: What do you feel is the key to effective leadership?

A: To be respectful without compromising on results! It’s about setting clear priorities and supporting the team to stay focused and achieve results.

Q: Do you adhere to a particular philosophy or strategy to achieve success?

A: Success shouldn’t be the ultimate goal; doing things right, being genuine, and ‘Always going above and beyond’ are things I can relate to!

Q: As the world strives to become greener, have you made any improvements to sustainable your business practices?

Endeavour Magazine | 43

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

SUPPLYING SUPPORT SSEM Mthembu Medical chevron-square-right www.ssemmthembu.co.za phone-square (011) 430-7000

SSEM Mthembu Medical

The past two years have brought their trials across industries, as well as in our lives, but few sectors were hit like the medical industry. We spoke with Zelda van Staden, National Sales Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa Blood Division of SSEM Mthembu Medical (Pty) Ltd; one of the top distributors of medical equipment across Southern Africa. SSEM stands apart for two reasons – the way the company is structured, and the incredible passion that seems to run through the veins of its culture and employees. We spoke with Zelda about the work that the company does to save lives, both in the context of Covid and across medicine’s wider demands and how the company and its teams have coped under the incredible added pressure of juggling these needs with a pandemic response.

T

hroughout Southern Africa, SSEM Mthembu Medical is a top distributor when it comes to electro-medical devices and medical consumables. Short for Specialised Systems Electro Medical, SSEM was founded in 1987. At the time, the business was focused primarily on the electrophysiology and respiratory markets, the latter of which has been highly relevant of late. Since then, SSEM has since expanded into 14 divisions and six self-sufficient national branches, located in Johannesburg (Head Office), Cape Town, Durban, Gqeberha, East London & Bloemfontein.

Its full range of products is extremely vast, ranging across medical disciplines such as blood management, neurology, ventilation, MRI, radiology and surgical equipment, to name less than half of the categories covered by these many departments.

Whilst all of these branches are based in South Africa, the company supplies equipment throughout the whole of Southern Africa. Within this market, the company caters to four types of clients: hospitals (whether government-run, academic or private), blood transfusion services, the homecare sector and independent medical practitioners.

We asked Zelda what she thought set SSEM apart from its rivals, and her answer came right back to what we see as the real brilliance of SSEM: “SSEM has a unique business strategy, where every division is run as a separate business within the company.

Each division is managed by highly qualified Product Managers who have a passion for the business and their product range.”

This structure allows SSEM to cover an extremely broad spectrum of needs without watering down expertise. For Zelda, her passion lay in the blood department:

“I started as a Critical Care Representative in 2011, working mostly in Theatre, which I absolutely loved. I was entrusted to take on another division (the Blood Division) in 2013. I worked in both divisions for a year. This was very taxing on me, and I had to choose which division I would like to continue with. I chose Blood Division as I get to save lives on a daily basis.” Sticking on her chosen path, Zelda was appointed as National Product Manager for Blood Division in 2019 and National Sales Manager Africa in 2020.

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Supplying support

We asked Zelda whether she had any stand-out examples of the difference she has seen the Blood Division’s equipment making in the lives of others, and her response was as immediate as it was heartfelt: “So many. My absolute favourite example is when we treat Alcohol Foetal Syndrome: they’ll take blood out of the baby’s umbilical cord, a couple of millilitres at a time, and the blood will be almost black. Then, they’ll put healthy blood into the umbilical cord, and they continue this process until the blood they extract on the one side is bright red. It’s amazing to watch, and it’s that baby’s best chance in life. They would usually suffer from brain damage because there’s not enough oxygen in their blood, and just to watch that whole process is incredible.”

SSEM’s method of structuring itself means that each division is able to live and breathe the area they work in, acutely aware of the good that they do and the needs of the countries and people around them. “We’ve got non-executive directors who recently attended our three-day strategy meeting and at the end of those three days, one of them,

was in tears: she said she couldn’t believe the absolute passion every Divisional manager has for their products and division. It’s true passion that’s driving the company; it’s absolutely what makes us work.”

This sort of passion is exactly the motivation needed when facing a period such as the past two years – and for SSEM, the work is far from over. The company has distributed ventilators for many years, as well as producing ventilator filters in-house. In response to Covid-19, the company turned its small in-house manufacturing operation towards other consumables, such as swabs for Covid tests and, for a time, face masks. For the Blood Division, the period has been particularly critical because of the vaccine rollout: the same refrigeration technology used to store and transport blood can be used for vaccines, and it was this front line that Zelda’s division has been operating on.

“It’s going well. We supply WHO pre-approved vaccine carriers as well as vaccine fridges.

South Africa has always been good for vaccine

Endeavour Magazine | 47

SSEM Mthembu Medical fridges, but not the vaccine carriers that much, because we never had mobile vaccine sites before. You would go to the pharmacy, which had a vaccine fridge and the freezer, and you would get vaccinated there. Now, with this massive vaccine rollout, we’re using sites like coffee shops that closed down during Covid – empty premises. So, that’s where we had to supply our WHO approved vaccine products.”

Like the rest of the world, Africa was left guessing when it came to the emergence of Covid: at the beginning, no one knew the details of the virus, how it worked or how to respond. In fact, as Zelda explained it to us, the African continent had an even stranger time than a lot of us: “We were one of the last countries that Covid hit.

It happened all around us, and we couldn’t believe that Africa had no cases at all. So, we’re thinking; ‘Now what? Should we prepare for it? Is it not going to come here?’ We thought that maybe it was because it was too hot here, or because of our TB vaccination, which everyone here has as babies.

We had a lot of speculation. Then, eventually, cases appeared in Botswana.”

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We asked how SSEM prepared for what was to come, in such an uncertain period: “We have been proactive in our markets. We have our strategic meetings. We brainstorm. We have a lot of highly intelligent people in the room, and we take everybody’s input into account. But it’s a guessing game – nothing’s set in stone. For example, we thought our death rates would extremely high because of the amount of HIV cases in Africa and South Africa and these patients are they already immunocompromised. However, it turns out that the antiretroviral treatment (ART’s) actually help to protect against the virus to a certain degree.”

The biggest thing SSEM could do in response was to make sure that, whilst responding to the calls of Covid, it didn’t let this period as any other. “We do crisis management because we are currently in a worldwide crisis. But we didn’t drop the one ball to juggle the other one. As a company, we committed ourselves to giving our full support to our current market to ensure every medical need during these times will be met. We are proud to say that we maintained smooth product supply in a high demand period, regardless of the many obstacles during this period.

Supplying support Phenomenally enough, we are even still on track with our 5-year plan.”

Some of the biggest challenges that SSEM faced were in shipping: delays on and off throughout the pandemic meant that 4-week lead times for products to arrive became more like 15 weeks. In order to remain a reliable distributor, SSEM responded to this by ordering 5 to 6 months’ worth of stock, keeping its usual buffer in their normal warehouses whilst keeping the surplus in extra warehouse space that they leased. The extra stock holding, and leased space was an additional investment, but the result avoided not only a loss of business and reputation for them, but it also avoided crisis for the medical practises that rely on them to deliver.

As for Zelda’s division, South Africa faces an ongoing shortage in blood donations, with less than 1% of the country habitually giving blood. This means that when it comes to collecting, distributing and using this precious medical resource, it is important that every stage is well supplied for and carried out with care, and this is where Zelda’s area of SSEM can help. “SSEM is able to supply blood products for any need in modern blood transfusion practice.

We have the expertise to assist blood banks with all their blood bag and equipment requirements, and

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SSEM Mthembu Medical

as well as consumables, we supply blood processing devices, platelet Incubators and agitators, blood collection devices and various instruments used to seal and strip blood tubing.”

SSEM’s blood division’s total presence extends to South Africa, Angola, Rwanda, Swaziland, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Seychelles, St Helena Island and Tanzania, including the supply of blood bags and other products to the National Blood Services and in each country. As such, it is the region’s trusted contact for many leading medical brands. As Zelda told us:

“SSEM is the appointed distributor for JMS Singapore, Conroy Sweden, Vacucare & Qualimed India for ranges such as blood bags, blood banking equipment, blood sealers and blood management machines, which are of superior quality and have a long and laudable reputation in Sub Sahara Africa. We currently have 1/3 of the blood bag supply to SANBS and supply various blood collection tubes nationally.” (SANBS has a risk policy that requires them to have more than one

50 | Endeavour Magazine

supplier for critical items, meaning that no one company can exclusively supply them products.)

“During the hard lockdown in South Africa, blood donations and usage dropped significantly because there were no elective surgeries and little to no road accidents. However, collections and usage started increasing towards August 2020 and have now completely normalised.”

With blood collection and use back to normal rates, the vaccine rollout in full swing and Covid still in effect, SSEM’s Blood Division, like its other divisions, has too much work to do for rest. As the work requires trained-up, technical knowledge, Zelda explained that they cannot simply bring in casual workers to boost their numbers during this time, and sourcing and training staff that they would then need to let go after Covid isn’t fair or feasible.

Therefore, the team of 220 staff that exists has been working extremely hard. As Zelda told us, that passion has driven them forwards, but even passion can burn out if people don’t receive the right support. Knowing this, SSEM has taken good care of its staff, providing regular, in-depth counselling and

Supplying support

coaching sessions to allow people to touch base, share their experiences, receive help and know that they aren’t alone.

“It was phenomenally helpful. We’d have 5 or 6 people in a meeting, all online, and for an hour and a half, we’d have a coaching session.

Some meetings, I’d just cry for the full hour and a half because I felt so exhausted, but hearing that the other managers were going through the exact same thing made me feel better about it. Just to have someone listen, and say ‘I hear you.’”

equipment it needed, the team at SSEM’s blood division has made sure to look after each other.

“As a company, we have grown together and the support between employees is heart-warming. We really stand together as a family.” From that strong position, the team is then ready to help others, whether through visits to labs to maintain their tech and advise in their operations, or simply through the reliable delivery of their essential stock. SSEM’s staff have been rushed off their feet, but it’s work that contributes to saving lives. “It’s exhausting, but I wouldn’t change it for anything else in the world.”

“I have been privileged to be with SSEM Mthembu Medical for 10 years. I get up in the morning and I think “I’ve got to work. I’ve got a job, and I love what I’m doing”. When you have that passion for your job, it honestly never feels like I’m working, although I’m tired and I work hard. It just feels like I’m living my passion. You get to do what you love every day.

If you look after yourself, you are then in a healthy position to look after others. Whilst making sure that they supported their customers and kept Southern Africa reliably supplied with the medical

Endeavour Magazine | 51

Amazing World

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

THE NIGHTMARES DURING CHRISTMAS

W

e’ve all heard of Krampus, the Germanic demon-like creature from AustroBavarian Alpine folklore, but what not everyone knows is that this famous goat-man doesn’t operate alone; the world over, differing myths put various twists on Santa Claus rewarding good children at Christmas...and they also put their own spins on the ‘baddies’ who stalk the night during Advent in search of the ones who’ve been bad.

Where in the Christmas story does any of this come from? It doesn’t, really; for the most part, these figures – good and bad – date further back, to the various pagan and Norse celebrations that took place at this time of year Europe-over. That goes to explain why some of these myths are so creepy; there’s an dark, old-world feel to these legends that takes you right back to the spooky forests of the Europe of old... And they also seem like various ways that desperate parents have attempted to bribe and scare their children into behaving and taking care of their clothes!

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So, whilst Bavaria is overrun with the horrors of Krampusnacht each December 5th, what other beasties should a discerning monster-hunter look out for during a European road-trip this holiday?

Kallikantzari In Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Cyprus, you may be unfortunate enough to come across the Kallikantzari. These goblins are small, black and furry, with tusks and horns, and it is very...ahem, easy to tell if they are male.

Their name is thought to come from Turkish roots, roughly meaning ‘black vampire’, and according to the Greeks, these little goblins are on a yearly mission to end the world. Deep in their tunnels, they spend all year sawing through the trunk of the World Tree, aiming to chop it down and bring about the End Times. However, Christmas distracts them and draws them to the surface, allowing them to run

free between December 25th and January 6th. This seems like a terrible thing, because whilst they’re on the surface, they cause havoc to any mortals they come across: however, once they’re forced to return underground, they find that the World Tree has healed itself once more, and the process must begin again.

So, if you come across any of these little goblins, whatever you do – don’t chase them back into their holes!

Gryla and the Yule Cat Gryla is a giant ogre in Iceland who leaves her cave every Christmas to hunt children for her annual Christmas stew, and yet she is the least of your worries from her household. In a way, we can forgive her for what she does: she’s a single mother attempting to provide for 13 troll-children – a group of hungry young adult sons also known as the ‘Yule Endeavour Magazine | 53

Lads’, which paints quite the picture. These ladslads-lads aren’t the biggest threats to fear from her home, either: no, the biggest by far is Jólakötturinn, the family cat.

Known as the Yule Cat, the highly judgmental Jólakötturinn roams the towns and villages of Iceland every Christmas, peering through bedroom windows to look for sleeping children to eat. However, like most Christmas beasties, Jólakötturinn has its own sense of morals: it only eats bad children, and will believe that a child has been good if it seea that they received a new set of clothes as a Christmas present. Show Jólakötturinn your new clothes, and you’ll live: if you didn’t receive any, then leave out an old set of clothes and hope that they’re neat enough to have the cat fooled.

Frau Perchta As well as goat-men and goblins, many Christmas traditions involve witches. There is the Italian La Befana, who evidently does Santa’s job for him in Italy to help him cover more global ground on his time limit. She leaves gifts for good kids and

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lumps of coal for bad kids – the classic Santa M.O. Myths of other Christmas witches, however, are less pleasant. One such witch is Frau Perchta, an Austrian and Bavarian menace who takes justice into her own hands by slitting the bellies of bad children and stuffing their bodies with straw. She is often depicted with a long, beak-like nose, or with a masked, metal face bearing the same, and is sometimes followed around by an entourage of ghosts or demons to help her do her dirty work. Not quite as whimsical as Christmas elves!

Hans Trapp & Père Fouettard From monsters to witches to simply monstrous people, it’s surprising how many countries have folklore associations between Christmas and the annual return of long-dead murderers. Forget Freddie Kruger and Michael Myers showing up each Halloween – we should be worrying about Hans and Père.

These men are from separate legends, but they are both said to haunt France – Hans works locally, sticking to Alsace-Lorraine, whilst Père takes on all of the far north and eastern French regions, the south of Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland.

Traditionally, Hans was a greedy man who turned to witchcraft and made deals with the devil to become rich. This got him excommunicated from the Catholic church, unsurprisingly, but his reaction to the news was a curious choice: he took to roaming the countryside disguised as a scarecrow, presumably to allow him to attack unsuspecting travelers.

Unfortunately, Hans’ crimes took a turn for the worse: possibly as the catch in a bargain he made with the devil, he became obsessed with the desire to eat human flesh. He murdered a shepherd boy and cooked him up, but was struck down by lightning before he could take a taste. Still possessed by this unfulfilled need, he is said to roam the countryside each Christmas, going door to door in search of tasty children to sate his cannibal curiosity.

Similarly, Père Fouettard had a taste for killing children. Originally a butcher, he and his wife would kidnap, rob and kill wealthy kids, then cut them up

and hide the bodies in salting barrels. According to the myth, St Nicholas found out and brought the children back to life (yay!), then punished Père by making him his eternal manservant. The only issue is, Père’s new job is to deal with the bad kids that St Nicholas finds, and the word ‘cannibal’ gets thrown around. This seems like a DBS check oversight on St Nick’s part. Père’s other name in his new role is “Whipping Father”, and we’re not even going to venture a comment on that!

Overall, it’s interesting that a celebration centred around a child born to, eventually, die for the sake of the world is marked by a myriad of traditions that involve murdering children who’ve been bad. Arguably, this sense of joy and yet death, hope yet morbidity around the idea of an infant has influenced some of these traditions: in other cases, the traditions date far further back, before this Judaic faith reached European shores, when dense forests and cold weather inspired the imagining of all kinds of creatures to make pacts with, appease or fall foul too. Be grateful that these days, the biggest monster we need to worry about appeasing is that one relative who’s impossible to buy for.

Endeavour Magazine | 55

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

A BIT OF EVERYTHING Makro chevron-square-right www.makro.co.za phone-square 0860 300 999

Makro

Marking its 50th year since its inception, Makro has evolved significantly over half a century.

This is no wonder, as the retail space as a whole has changed beyond recognition in that time, and Makro has refused to fall behind. From warehouse chain to online hub, in every phrase of its life, Makro has been a catch-all solution to South Africa’s retail needs. Now, it is not only working at maintaining its position as an answer to people’s needs, but it is striking towards doing so in a greener and cleaner manner.

F

ounded in 1971 as a one-store operation, Makro began life in Germiston – a small city in Gauteng, South Africa. Even this first store was revolutionary for its time: it became South Africa’s first cash-and-carry store to use top-end technology for stock and sales tracking. Of course, what the 1970s and ‘80s considered ‘top end’ wouldn’t count for much now, but it set a precedent early on: a precedent of digitally-led stock management and carefully supervised logistics – starting points that would scale well into the vast, internet-based operation it is today.

The range of Makro’s products these days spans from electronics and houseware to camping and outdoor equipment, books, pet supplies and even food and liquor. As well as its online presence, it has maintained a physical one, too, with 22 stores located in cities around South Africa. In essence, Makro lands somewhere between Amazon and a supermarket, approachable and convenient both for those who rely on internet shopping and those who can’t access it, with the same products and deals available both in-person and via ecommerce.

Convenience and affordability are two aims of Makro. In the company’s words, “We operate under a low cost/ low margin trading philosophy, enabling us to deliver quality merchandise at competitive prices. This ethos enables high volume distribution of merchandise at competitive prices. The value offering to all customers also includes quality brands and bulk volumes if required. The most differentiating feature of Makro is its true ‘One Stop Shopping’ feel, with everything available under one roof.”

So, how did Makro transition from a one-store operation to the on-and-offline network of stores and warehouses it is today? By 1987, five new stores had been added to the roster, and the following year, a new MD was appointed - Mark Lamberti. Under Mark, Makro would undertake the venture that instigated its eventual rise: the company founded Massmart, a multi-format major wholesale and retail group. Now with 411 stores in 13 sub-Saharan countries, Massmart’s first store opened in 1993, and this same store has reportedly become of the most popular retail outlets in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg.

Whilst Makro’s stores are ‘warehouse stores’, Massmart was able to present stores in a variety of 58 | Endeavour Magazine

Makro

formats best suited for their particular stock, from computer game stores to DIY supplies. Although the journey began with Makro, Makro ended up as one of the stores under the Massmart holding company, but whilst it was one of many, it remained the cornerstone from which the arced outwards.

In 2011, this new structure bore real fruit, when in 2011, Massmart was able to form a merger with wellknown US company Walmart. The two companies’ similar formats made for a natural partnership, allowing Walmart to expand its business interested into South Africa through the already-accepted brand, and allowing Massmart and Makro access to products that had previously been out of reach.

However, it was in 2014 that Makro and Massmart embraced the modern age. It launched its ecommerce platform in 2014. As they said of the development: “It is the next step in our digital evolution and the perfect opportunity for us to ensure that we continue to provide the best shopping experience on every level.” Ecommerce is the way of the future, replacing the need for magazine page-flipping, and offering the convenience of ordering products without needing to leave the home. Whilst for some people, this is

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essential, for most, it is simply easier: however, during the pandemic period, the already-booming ecommerce market skyrocketed; with people either confined to their homes or preferring to be in them than in crowds, online shopping was utilised like never before, and any ecommerce company that could keep up with demand stood to gain.

However, ecommerce’s shipping-heavy operation model has an issue: it isn’t the best for the environment. Between this, its warehouses and its 22 stores, Makro has a carbon footprint to concider, and the company is well aware of its responsibility towards the environment. For this reason, it has a series of initiavies in place to make sure its operations are sustainable. One key area of this is its ever-improving design of its stores: as the company states, “Each new store is more efficient than the last.” For example, the company’s latest store - in Kwa-Zulu Natal, Amanzimtoti – has been designed to be more water and electricity efficient than its predecessors, and it has also been designed with space to incorporate indigenous plants.

One of the ways this store and others seek to be water-efficient is through the use of water harvesting. All stores built after 2009 feature

A bit of everything

refrigeration plants that are 18% more energy efficient than those running in legacy Makro stores and 35% more efficient than the systems traditionally found in the market in South Africa. This refrigeration uses, in part, recycled water condensate from the stores. These refrigeration systems are needed to protect both products and customers from high temperatures, and by using recycled condensate, the system’s energy consumption, and in turn the energy consumption of the entire store, is significantly reduced. This system is then further supported by a thermal storage system, which assists in the cooling process during peak demand.

The stores also use compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFL), which draw less current than traditional bulbs, and also don’t get hot, which removes this added pressure to the air-conditioning system.

On top of these in-store measures, another, straight-forward way in which Makro attempts to reduce its carbon footprint is to expand into reexisting store buildings where it can. Rather than building a new store from scratch, the company takes on and improves and empty one where possible, saving on cost both for them and the environment. In both cases, in taking on existing

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Endeavour Magazine | 61

Makro

buildings or having new ones built, the company takes care to avoid eyesores, making sure that when their stores are near a residential area, it blends in with the area. One such step is to ensure that every fourth parking space has a tree – something often seen and taken for granted in supermarket parking lots, but that makes a huge difference to shade, air quality and the overall pleasantness of the space.

There is still a long way to go, but Makro has made good strides in the right direction.

Finally, as well as its sustainability initiatives, the company is also conscious of its CSR responsibility as an established entity within the country: “Makro is aware of the serious challenges which face our country,” the company states. “As a business, we recognise the responsibility we have to contribute generously to the upliftment and care of South Africa and the people who live here.”

For this reason, the company supports or runs many charitable initiatives, such as its flagship project, Hope Worldwide SUCCEED, which supports Early Childhood Development Centres

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and the caretakers that work in them, providing the funding they need to function as they should.

Makro believes that education and early childhood development plays a central role in creating a better future that will not only benefit our children, but the future of South Africa,” the company states about the program, which launched in 2012. Its other CSR ventures include its support of the Kommunity desk company, which again lends support to basic education, the African Children Feeding Scheme, and the Tomorrow Trust, which offers summer school and Saturday school programmes to help students who would like to improve their performance.

It hasn’t just been 50 years of success for Makro, but 50 years of assisting others, either through the convenience of their one-stop shops or through the charitable and green initiatives that have developed along the way. With ecommerce as successful as it currently is, it seems unlikely that either Massmart or Makro are about to slow in their tracks any time soon. Hopefully, as the store’s influence continues to spread, so too will its green efforts, until its deliveries are as clean as its lightbulbs.

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

ZINC ABOUT IT Nyrstar chevron-square-right www.nyrstar.com phone-square +31 495 512 920

Nyrstar

Based out of Budel-Dorplein in the Netherlands, Nyrstar runs an international, multi-metal operation that has been active for 150 years. Describing themselves as supplying “resources for a changing world”, this company may be a century and a half old, but its metals are essential to modern life. We took a closer look at the company’s rich history and the wide-spread net of operations that have developed since then.

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ocusing primarily on zinc, the company also sources, mines and processes lead, sulphuric acid, copper cement, copper sulphate, gypsum and manganese dioxide. The Budel HQ is located near to one of the company’s seven smelter sites, which process, among other things, the metals acquired from the company’s two locations in Tennessee, USA, holding five individual mine sites all together. Overall, its various sites and operations spread over Europe, the Americas and Australia.

Managing a broad portfolio of these 12 varying operations is not without its challenges, and the 2020-2021 pandemic period has done nothing to ease matters. In fact, due to higher shipping costs, electricity cost issues in Europe, and mines slowing or shutting during lockdown periods, the demand for zinc is outstripping its supply. Happily for companies such as Nyrstar, if they can manage to produce results, this means they can benefit from the metal being priced at an all-time high. In the face of these challenges, both temporary and long-term, Nyrstar must be strategic in how it uses and utilises its assets. In the company’s own words:

“Nyrstar’s management’s strategy is aimed at positioning the business for a sustainable future as a leading global multi-metals processing business. We do this by continuously improving each of our operations, seeking untapped value and excellence, and leveraging the passion and dedication of our people. Accordingly, Nyrstar has developed a coordinated approach to redeveloping and operating its asset portfolio to optimize the concentrate feed into its smelters, maximise minor and precious metal extraction, and enhance the margins of its end-product mix.”

As well as having a long history, Nyrstar sounds confident in its claims of a long future: it states that it can “meet the demand for zinc, lead and other metals and products for many generations to come” - that’s quite the pipeline! The company nods to its many years of experience in the art of smelting and processing, but that can’t take all of the credit: to explore the claim, we first turned our attention to the company’s two mines in Tennessee.

The first of the two, the East Tennessee complex, consists of a processing plant and three underground zinc mines: Young, Coy and Immel.

These three mines are all located around the Knox 66 | Endeavour Magazine

Zinc about it

and Jefferson counties within a close 20-mile distance from each other, and work closely with Nyrstar’s Clarksville smelter in particular, which sits 250 miles from the group. However, due to their proximity, the initial processing takes place at the Young mine.

All three of these mine sites are primarily sources of zinc, though the company refines others from its slate of metals from the rest of what is mined and sent on. The zinc ore in these mines appears in underground deposits, but these deposits appear ‘Mississippi Valley’ style; open-space fillings of breccias and fractures within limestone and dolomites. Whilst Nyrstar has only owned these mines since 2009, their history as active mining operations originally go back to the 1850s.

The company’s second collection of mines, too, calls for underground mining, with the zinc mineralisation much like that in East Tennessee locations. AS well as zinc, however, the miners are able to retrieve notable amounts of germanium and gallium. This Middle Tennessee site consisted of two mines: Gordonsville and Cumberland, the

former of which also has a processing plant at the mine. After being processed in Gordonsville, it is then sent, like the products from East Tennessee, to the Clarksville smelter.

Younger than the East Tennessee mines by over 100 years, in terms of operation, these mines were purchased by Nyrstar at the same time – 2009. Unlike the Eastern sites, however, it was not until 2017 that Nyrstar reintroduced them to active operation, instead spending that time to get the mine up to code and ready for more efficient use.

Both of these mines were acquired in 2009; extremely recently, considering Nyrstar’s age. Its true history, therefore, lies in its many smelters - especially as only one smelter from its portfolio deals with its own mines.

It’s in looking into these smelters and their history that a little more light is shed on Nyrstar’s ‘150 years’ of experience: Nyrstar itself, as a company, was only founded in 2007 – some of the years since then have certainly been a long slog, globally, but it’s a little shy of 150 years between then and now! However, this figure is actually derived from the history of the

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Nyrstar

sites themselves, many of which – like the Eastern Tennesse mines – date back to the mid 1800s.

Nyrstar’s full complement of smelters are located in Auby, France; Balen, Belgium; Budel, the Netherlands; Clarksville, USA; Hobart, Australia; Høyanger, Norway and Port Pirie, Australia. No wonder the Tennessee mines all send their products to Clarksville!

Most of these smelters focus on one form of zinc or another, but not all. One smelter stands out, both because it is not a zinc-based refinery and also because its name appears in the list of targets the company holds for its near-future development.

These plans include much of what one would expect – to ‘optimise’ its smelters and its mines to operate at their full potential, to maintain its current safety standards etc., but one strategy in the company’s list is more unique: to “ramp up” an ongoing redevelopment of one of its smelter locations. This smelter is in Australia, at Port Pirie. This site is one of the world’s largest primary lead smelting facilities, and the third largest silver producer, making it a very interesting arrow to have in Nyrstar’s quiver. In total, it produces commodity grade lead, copper cathode, silver dore and sulphuric acid, and at 756 employees, it is one of Nyrstar’s biggest operations,

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That said, the end-goal for this site’s redevelopment is to make it into an advanced metal recovery and refining facility, with an angle towards introducing the ability to handle our old friend: zinc. This won’t replace the site’s silver and lead operations, but will instead supplement them.

In fact, the aim is to make the mine able to produce many of its own high margin feed materials – that is, the costly metals and minerals it needs in order to process its main exports.

Its added zinc capabilities will aim to account for 50% of the zinc required by the lead and silver smelter to do what it does best, greatly reducing the cost. To achieve this, the site will undergo many changes, including the replacement of the existing sinter plant with an oxygen enriched bath smelting furnace and replacement of the existing sulphuric acid plant with a new plant with greater capacity and upgraded technology.

The Port Pirie Smelter is located on the eastern shore of the Spencer Gulf in South Australia, approximately 220 km north of Adelaide. It is one of Nyrstar’s longest-active sites, having been in operation, under different names, for 130 continuous years. Because of its long history and its close symbiosis with the Port Pirie community that

Zinc about it

it cohabits with, Nyrstar is also committed, through this redevelopment, to improve the location’s emissions and environmental footprint.

These developments, and the many others taking place in order to keep Nyrstar’s broad Mining & Construction Tools portfolio operating and up to date, are happening American Family under a joint helm: since 2019, 12 years after it Brunnermade & Lay and products are owned designedsince to 1882 deliver high production footage at the lowest was first founded, Nyrstarts operating business possible cost. was majoritively bought by Trafigura, one of the world’s leading independent commodity trading companies. It is under this joint guidance that Products are precision machined from high quality steel, then heat treated to insure Nyrstar makes its current moves. The company TUNNELING ROCK DRILLING strength and durability.

The extensive EXTENSION describes Trafigura as focused entirely on creating Brunner & Lay line includes - Striking long-term value, with both the resources and the Bars, Couplings, Carburized Drill Steel, agility to adapt to meet their markets’ and business Hi-Frequency Hardened Drill Steel, and partners’ changing needs. If Nyrstar’s greatest Rok-Bits™, available with standard, conical, strength is its well-established global footprint, ballistic, or parabolic inserts. then Trafigura’s is its expert trading. Together, the two are in a perfect position to take advantage of In-field specialists are available to help you with technical support. zinc’s current price, and better yet, to improve1510 the N Old Missouri Rd, Springdale AR 72764 Call (800) 872-6899 or visit BrunnerLa ph 479 756-0880 fx 479 756-5366 sustainability of their operations as they do so.

Hopefully, 150 years behind them can turn into many Contact us at 1-800-872-6899 or visit our website at www.brunnerlay.com more, cleaner years to come.

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Call (800) 872-6899 or visit BrunnerLay.com Endeavour Magazine | 69

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

RENEWING RENEWABLES E.ON chevron-square-right www.eonenergy.com

E.ON

As a leading energy supplier, E.ON is a household name. Headquartered out of Germany, the company has a broad global reach, bringing energy to corporations and homes alike. With an ever-growing consciousness over global warming and environmental sustainability, many small to medium sized energy companies have appeared and positioned themselves on the market as green alternatives, promising all-green or mostly-green energy. However, this doesn’t mean that the big-name companies are being left behind by the green revolution: we took a look at E.ON, who combine a range of energy disciplines, to investigate its efforts into renewables.

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.On’s energy supply comes from renewable and non-renewable sources alike: coal and nuclear are on its roster, but so are hydro power, solar power, biomass and wind. This side of its operations has existed far longer than one might expect, too: its foray into wind began in the UK in 1991, and since then, has taken a leading role in Britain’s wind power industry. Its biomass operations are also extremely interesting: another UK-based innovation, the Blackburn Meadows biomass energy plant was only added to E.ON’s portfolio in 2015, this low-carbon solution makes the most of existing biodegradable by converting them into renewable energy.

Diversification is a wise move for any energy provider, ensuring that the company can fulfil its obligations to its customers without having all of its eggs in one basket. As the world moves towards a preference for green energy, this diversification is even more important, giving E.ON a valid horse in this race, and allowing it to draw on multiple sources from which to reach the high demand for energy that comes from our modern world.

Regarding this shift in the energy market, E.ON has this to say: “The energy world is transforming; it’s getting more decentralized, with network connection points multiplying and energy feedin further fragmenting. E.ON is committed to this transition to a low-carbon energy system that takes maximum advantage of renewable sources. Our platform connects consumers with a steadily growing number of distributed renewable energy producers and provides the backbone for sustainable, low-carbon e-mobility.”

The Blackburn Meadows biomass plant was, historically, a coal-fired power plant, but is now used to supply renewable energy to businesses around the Sheffield area including IKEA, Ice Sheffield, Sheffield Arena and Forgemasters’ Steel Works.) In 2017, this plant helped to lead the way on battery storage in the country: technology that means the plant can respond to the National Grid to support it with stored energy in under a second.

As for wind, the company invested £2.4 billion towards the development and improvement of the technology. The company now operates 20 such farms in the UK alone, both onshore and offshore.

One of these offshore farms, located at Blyth, was the first offshore wind farm to be built in UK waters.

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Renewing renewables

Though it has since been decommissioned, the £4 million investment operated between 2000 and 2019 and helped to lead the way in wind power technology in the country.

Globally, E.ON has invested almost €10 billion into renewable technology, and as well as investing into the sources and storage themselves, the company has also turned its R&D attention to best handling this energy once it’s produced. As the company explains; “To manage these complex energy flows while ensuring a reliable electricity supply, we’re making our networks smarter. Connecting customers and renewable energy sources in an affordable way requires the use of innovations and intelligent technologies. For example, smart grid elements help us increase the capacity of our existing grid in order to integrate renewables, at the fraction of the cost of new lines and bigger transformers. Smart Grid investments will ensure that our grid is flexible enough to meet tomorrow’s challenges. We want to help make the energy transition a reality so that sustainable energy is available to everyone.”

HYDROTECHNIK LÜBECK brings environmental protection and technical progress into harmony.

The Big Bubble Curtain has its origins in the technology of compressed air barriers, which HYDROTECHNIK LÜBECK has been using for more than 50 years to protect against floating debris and oil. It has been in use around the world since 2008 for construction work on almost all offshore wind farms and for blasting work in the North and Baltic Seas.

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E.ON

E.ON’s commitment to lower its carbon footprint inspired the company to devise a new climate strategy in 2017: “The focus is on the reduction of carbon emissions released in connection with the sale of power and natural gas to our customers. This is because these emissions constitute the majority of our CO2 footprint. This also includes reducing our own energy consumption. All of our plants and buildings will be climate-neutral by 2030, meaning they will no longer cause any emissions.”

Although not all of E.ON’s energy sources are green, the company has stated that renewables will continue to be a key focus going forwards.

proposed project, negotiation support, risk assessments, procurement assistance, and pretty much any administrative planning issue that you could think of. Likewise, during construction, they offer everything from inspections of budgets to the machines themselves.

“We look at construction activities from an owner’s perspective. With an operating portfolio of over 5.3 GW, we know how important it is to set a sound basis during development and construction for a smooth operation and high availability.” The company is also proud of the fact that it is not affiliated with any turbine manufacturer, meaning that its technology recommendations are based entirely on client needs, with no bias.

“Global trends – like sustainability and climate protection, digitalization and technological innovation – are altering the energy landscape. At the same time, our customers’ energy needs are changing. The result of Between this assistance and ongoing support these changes is a brand-new energy world once a farm is up and running, E.ON Wind Services – decentralized, green, and interconnected – makes it much easier to pursue renewable wind that we must adapt to.” power. It can save energy producers expenses Wind continues to be the main champion of this effort, to the point where E.ON has even established an entity dedicated to it: E.ON Wind Services. The company has this to say about itself: “E.ON Wind Services is an independent, full-service provider of operations, maintenance and other wind services. We’re one of the world’s largest owners and operators of onshore and offshore wind farms, with locations in Europe and the United States. With over a decade of experience operating our own sites, our focus is on finding customer-orientated solutions and creating service packages to fit your needs. We’re committed to finding innovative ways to improve our wind turbine maintenance.”

E.ON Wind Services has a presence in Germany, Sweden, the UK, Italy and North America. It is a trusted service provider for stakeholders across the wind industry, and as such, has long-term partnerships with companies such as Rampion, London Array, Rødsand and Papalote Creek. The company offers wind turbine maintenance, monitoring, testing, and the provision of spare parts. In summary, it exists to provide service support to wind turbine operators.

These services even extend to wind forecasts and, of course, project management over wind farm construction.

Regarding its involvement in construction, E.ON Wind Services offers support both before and during this process. Their pre-construction services include reviews of the site and the 74 | Endeavour Magazine

through sound advice and management, as well as timely and effective repairs and maintenance, all of which helps to make this green, clean form of energy more affordable. It will not only assist E.ON in lowering its carbon footprint and expanding its use of renewables, but can also help others to do the same, working towards a cleaner and more sustainable world.

E.ON claims that it is number three worldwide in offshore wind energy, and is confident in its “expertise in engineering” in both this field, solar and bioenergy. “The energy world is steadily becoming more distributed, digital, and de-carbonised. Our grids are constantly getting smarter, which enables them to integrate more renewable energy while remaining reliable. Our innovative solutions help customers of all sizes – from families and small businesses to large manufacturers and entire cities – to use energy more efficiently, produce their own renewable energy, and thus reduce their carbon footprint.”

Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

75 YEARS YOUNG Ethiopian Airlines chevron-square-right www.ethiopianairlines.com

Ethiopian Airlines

After operating for three quarters of a century, Ethiopian Airlines knows a thing or two about flying.

We spoke with Tewolde Gebremariam, Group CEO, about how Africa’s leading local airline is meeting and exceeding its goals and how it plans to work with Africa’s other carriers to fly to new heights

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thiopian Airlines describes itself as “the flag carrier of Ethiopia”. In operation for 75 years, the airline has grown from its first flight in 1946 to become of the biggest carriers in the continent.

In fact, according to Tewolde Gebremariam, the Ethiopian Aviation Group – of which Ethiopian Airlines is a part - is the “fastest growing aviation group in Africa”. This national endeavour originally ran weekly services to Cairo, but this service quickly expanded as demand grew. At the time, the airline’s fleet consisted of surplus aircraft from the US military – sparse vehicles that were efficient but had few in the way of creature comforts. However, it was a starting point – 70 years later, in 2016, the airline became the first in Africa to receive the highly advanced Airbus A350XWB and to fly one in African skies!

Today, now wholly owned by the government of the FDRE, the airline serves 112 international and 21 domestic destinations across five continents.

Within Africa today, the airline claims to be “unrivalled for efficiency and operational success”.

The company goes on to explain: “Operating at the forefront of technology, the airline has become one of Ethiopia’s major industries and a veritable institution in Africa. It commands a lion’s share of the pan-African network, including the daily and double daily east-west flight across the continent.”

This strong position and recognition within Africa is, in part, the result of their efforts towards their company Vision: “As per our 2025 Vision, Ethiopian aspires to become the leading aviation group in the continent – a vision we have already accomplished with time to spare.” This achievement already firmly under their belt, Ethiopian don’t plan to become complacent. Instead, Tewolde says that Ethiopian will continue growing, expanding both in network and fleet size. To achieve this, the airline is seeking to increase its collaboration with African carriers – a collaboration that will not only allow Ethiopean to further expand into reach within Africa, but the entire indigenous aviation industry.

“The aviation industry of the continent is characterized by being buoyant, yet heavily skewed in favour of non-African airlines,” Tewolde explains, going on to elaborate: “As it stands, African airlines have limited market access within Africa. 80% of the air transport between Africa and the rest of the world is owned by non-African carries, while indigenous African carriers share the remaining 20%.”

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National Institute of Trans port- School of Aviation Technology established in 2015 to fill the gap of Aviation experts in the country.

The school has two depart ments (i) Department of Aircraft Maintenance Engineering. (ii) Department of flying and Operations Management.

The School accredited by NACTE to offer (a) Bachelors’ Degree in Aircraft Maintainance Engineering. (b) Ordinary Diploma in Aircraft Maintainance Engineering.

The school also accredited by TCAA to offer Cabin Crew abinitial course.

Providentially the School become Authorized Training Center by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in 2019 and accredited to offer the following professional short courses:Global Distribution System Fares and Ticketing – Amadeus Airport Operations Fundamentals Airline Marketing Airline Customer Service

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Ethiopian Airlines

In part, these challenges are due to a lack of a well-developed airport and ICT infrastructure for African airlines, as well as slow progress in discussions over an African Open Sky Agreement.

In the face of these issues, Ethiopean decided to act: “As Champion of Single African Skies initiative, Ethiopian has been advocating the implementation of the Single African Air Transportation Market (SAATM) to the world, underlining the need for the collaboration of African states as per the Yamoussoukro Decision. In part, SAATM is intended to drive down airfares by allowing the airlines of signatory countries to freely access each other’s airports.” These lowered charges would help alleviate financial stress on local airports, and would free up local airlines’ ability to collaborate and share resources. SAATM has already been signed by 23 member countries, and Tewolde feels confident that this is an important step forward: “We believe we will succeed in this.”

Of course, campaigning for open airspace and cut fees is only half the battle in Ethiopian’s continued conquest of Africa’s skies – the other half is in their quality as an airline. Already the leader of its indigenous family of airlines, Ethiopian is clearly

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doing something right. We asked Tewolde what he felt was the key to their current success: “The success of Ethiopian Airlines, among other reasons, is attributed to our unique hub, Addis Ababa.

Strategically located in the middle of East-West major trade lane, this hub makes our connections seamless and convenient. This efficient network of connectivity has enabled Ethiopian to connect Africa with the rest of the world better and faster than any other carrier.”

“The other reason Ethiopian is successful is the efficient network of connectivity and frequency of our flights. There is no airline, other than Ethiopian, that connects Africa with itself and the outside world. Our frequency stands out as best with daily and double daily connections throughout the continent.”

Ethiopian’s fleet is not only well connected – it is also extremely well maintained. With an average age of only five years, their fleet – which started out from the humble beginnings of second-hand American war planes – now boasts a range of what Tewolde rightly calls “trailblazing and environmentally friendly aircraft”

75 years young

“Utilization of latest technology is also one of the qualities that led to our continued success.

We are at the forefront of utilizing latest industry technology and pioneer in African aviation.” This applies not only to the planes themselves, but also the systems used to support both flights and the ground services provided to passengers and customers. Technology is as essential as staff when it comes to running operations smoothly, especially given an airline’s complex logistical requirements.

“Here at Ethiopian, we say ‘Success Loves Speed!’, and we believe that we have to grow fast. With the abundance of technology at everyone’s hand, we have to stay updated to satisfy the requests of our esteemed customers.”

Handling both passengers and cargo, Ethiopian must be reliable. Their Cargo & Logistics Services department is one of the largest in the world, with its top capacity at close to 1 million annual tons. They are equipped to handle anything from perishable items to dangerous or unstable cargo, and even live animals! However, the most precious of their cargo will always be their paying passengers, and their staff themselves. As a part of their care for both, one of Ethiopian’s many recent expansions has

Flightline Training Services was established on the principle that affordable high quality technical training is the key to a higher standard of aircraft maintenance, increased safety and lower operating costs for the operator.

Located at the WILSON AIRPORT within close proximity to City Centre, the Flightline Training Services Nairobi Centre provides a world class training environment.

Contact us: info@flightlinetraining.com

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Ethiopian Airlines been an investment in its catering department.

The department employs a team of highly trained local chefs that can produce traditional Ethiopian dishes as well as Chinese, Indian, Ottoman, Italian, Halal and many more European meals. In keeping with the airline’s 2025 vision, the department has recently had a complete overhaul, with hightech upgrades and an increase in space to their kitchens. The new premises is three times larger than the previous facility, including 20 loading and 10 offloading docks to help in the delivery of ingredients and transport of meals to the airline’s 240 daily flights.

In the new facility, the catering team are able to produce an impressive 100,000 meals a day to support the airline. The department even has time to offer a laundry service, looking after everything from crew uniforms to seat covers.

This department is one of many; to break Ethiopian Airlines down, one must look at the Ethiopian Aviation Group. This Group supports the airline itself and the many departments needed to keep it running smoothly, including the ET Inflight Catering, but also ET Regional Services; ET International Services; ET Cargo & Logistics Services; ET MRO Services; the ET Aviation

PROVIDE: RAMP, PAX, CARGO AND MAIL SERVICES HARDWARE CAPABILITIES • Pushback’s • Conveyor Belts • GPU’s • ASU’s • Ramp Tractors • Motorized and non motorized Steps • Water Waste • Forklifts • Pallets • Potable Water • Ambulift • Bus

OPERATIONS • PAX • Lost and Found • Load Control • Cargo Domestic and International • Ramp Operation • Technical Library • Maintenance Department • Quality Management • Security • Safety

SUPPORT • Finance and Accounting • Human Resources • Social Care • IT • Law

Web:

www.mahs.co.mz

Email: comercial@mahs.co.mz info@mahs.co.mz Mobile: +258 82(84) 3102320 +258 823010118

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75 years young

Academy; ET Ground Services and ET Airports Enterprise.

Of these, one of the most exciting is Ethiopian’s own Aviation Academy, which allows them to train staff to their high expectations: “We are selfsufficient in the training of aviation personnel who embody the values and spirit of Ethiopian Airlines.

Our Aviation Academy is the most modern and the largest in Africa with more than USD 100 million investment, and intake capacity of 4000 trainees.”

The Academy prepares trainees who wish to work in all areas of airline operations, from pilots and cabin crew to maintenance staff and customer service personnel.

The ability to run this in-house training, to such a high standard and with this level of resources at their disposal, allows Ethiopian to invest heavily in their most valuable resource. “Our highly skilled and dedicated employees play significant roles in the success of the airline. We have a hard working and skilled workforce. The airline is also led by highly skilled and vigilant management who skilfully navigate through difficult situations such as fuel surge, conflict situations, and sustain the airline’s success and growth.”

Between their strong position in Africa and this ability to ensure a constant supply of well-trained

staff, it is no wonder that Ethiopian Airlines are confident about their future, and they’re happy to invest in it. New developments on the horizon for the company include ten new global destinations, the construction of an Ethiopian 5-Star Hotel, and an expansion to the Addis Ababa Bole Airport, which is central to the airline’s operations. The expansion project will increase the capacity of the airport to 22 million passengers per year – a dramatic rise from the current 10 million. Meanwhile, the hotel, currently under construction, has been designed to house an impressive 373 rooms, four restaurants, two bars, swimming pools, gift shops and duty-free shops, meeting rooms, gyms, and a banquet hall that can hold 2000 people.

However, it is the airline’s recent SAATM agreement with local carriers that promises the most exciting change. Already far ahead of their personal goals, Ethiopian are passionate about bringing about industry-wide change for indigenous African airlines, and their recent successful negotiations are only the beginning. Hopefully this is the first essential step towards African companies reclaiming their skies: watch this airspace!

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Written by Alice Instone-Brewer

DIGGING INTO DIGITAL SSR Mining chevron-square-right www.ssrmining.com phone-square +1-303-292-1299

SSR Mining

During the pandemic, many companies finally turned to addressing those IT innovations that had been overdue for a while, but in the case of SSR Mining, the company had already gotten itself prepared for this new kind of world.

In recent years, it had been through a rapid physical expansion, and with this new scale of operations to handle, the company had recognised the need to follow this growth with the next step: digital support. We spoke with David Thomas, Director of Information Technology, about why it’s important for mining to digitise.

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SR Mining Inc. is a Vancouver-based mining company that focuses on precious metals – more specifically, silver and gold. For 70 years, the company operated under the name ‘Silver Standard’, but changed its name to SSR Mining Inc. in August 2017. In fact, everything has changed for the company recently: in 2014, it grew from being a one-mine operation to having three active sites: the Marigold mine in Nevada, U.S.A., the Seabee Gold Operation in Saskatchewan, Canada, and its Puna operations in Jujuy Province, Argentina. These aren’t all – keeping its pipeline active and alive for the years to come, the company also has two sites in development, in San Luis, Peru and Pitarrilla, Mexico, and two sites under exploration in Canada, at Amisk and Sunrise Lake.

Everyone knows that both silver and gold are used heavily in the production of jewelry and other forms of decoration, but there are other, less immediately obvious industries that also use the precious metals. Electronics is one: gold is used in bonding wire production, and silver is used throughout everyday technology, such as mobile phones and laptops, as well as more extreme applications such as satellites and even high-tech weaponry! Prices for both silver and gold fluctuate, as does investor interest, but the uses of the metals persist. The industry isn’t going anywhere, but due to factors such as world politics, competing stock interests and many more, the price of silver and gold is variable. We spoke to David about how SSR responds to this, and his answer was so sensible, we wondered why we hadn’t thought of it. “We can’t change the price of gold, but we can change the cost per ounce to get it out of the ground.” This is a brilliant way for SSR to take control, and get as much benefit from its portfolio as possible, but how is the company going about it?

Of course, the price of gold is currently at a fantastic point for mines. Traditionally carrying a ‘safe haven’ value, times of instability tend to see a rise in gold price, and the price was already projected to rise anyway. The pandemic only increased this fact, leaving gold mines sitting very comfortably. However, these good periods come and go, and SSR wants to be ready for every event, meaning it needs to run as efficiently as it can.

By David’s own admission, mining is one of the last industries, along with agriculture, to fully embrace the benefits of digitisation, but, like agriculture, it is also one that can greatly benefit from the level of visibility and analysis this change supports. Mining

Digging into digital

is an industry with many factors at play, across multiple sites, with everything from exploration results to vehicle routes needing easy-to-read monitoring so efficient, cost-effective actions and decisions can be made. This is exactly what SSR is working towards. As Director of Information Technology, David was able to tell us more:

“For us, the driver is to be more efficient, and also to improve on our operations processes.

One example would be truck productivity; even just taking a different route on a pathway in the mine can have an impact on the cost per ounce, due to gas consumption. Multiply that by a thousand times a day, in multiple mines, and that’s a big impact.” And those are just the small details. Being able to monitor and manage everything from minor details to wider-scale planning allows for loose bolts to be identified and tightened.

SSR has been working on developing and implementing the software needed for this for the

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SSR Mining

past two and a half years, and are already seeing the impact, and there’s still a long way to go.

“I don’t think there is ever an endpoint. Mining is one of those industries with so many areas to apply analytics to: you’ve got truck productivity all the way to exploration drill hole sampling, process mill productivity, and even safety and sustainability.” With so many areas to develop, this should be a continuous process for SSR, putting these processes in place, and once they’re there, improving them and learning ever-more applications for the data it makes visible.

Regarding this change, David described SSR Mining as ‘fast followers’ rather than innovators.

The desire to try new ideas is there, but to be on the front line of this development would be too costly an endeavour for the company’s size. However, whilst they don’t have the budgets of mining giants, they also don’t have the deeply entrenched, legacy IT systems, which gives the company a strong advantage. “Companies such as Tech Resources, BHP – they have a fairly extensive IT infrastructure.

We’re lucky in that we don’t have any of that, so pretty much any project we start, we move into the Cloud right off the bat, and we try to encourage our

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vendors to set up in such a way where they can be supported in the Cloud.”

Not needing to undo existing work allows SSR to leapfrog over steps of the process faced by larger companies. However, this, and being a fast follower, doesn’t mean there there’s no work at all.

The company must carefully select which existing routes and approaches to take, and even though they aren’t process pioneers, they are still devising the system in-house. “Quite honestly, there’s not really any off-the-shelf product. The stuff that is available was written by geologists in the 1980s and 90s.” Engaging with software developers, analytics, industry leaders and graduates alike, SSR Mining have been devising its system carefully. It is also working closely with vendors such as Komatsu and Hitachi Wenco, whose trucks have inbuilt software that SSR Mining can upload and integrate into its own analytical processes.

One dramatic example of how game-changing these capabilities could be relates to SSR’s Seabee Gold operation in Northern Saskatchewan. This remote mine site is only accessible by road for one month of the year – the rest of the time, ice and snow block the passage entirely, and the only way

Digging into digital

in and out is via small planes. These planes can only carry a maximum of ten people at a time, or limited cargo, and are of course costly to fly for every trip.

Therefore, supply chain management and forward planning, down to the last detail, is essential for cost-saving and making sure that the mine is ready to function for the year to come. “It’s ice road access, so between March and April is the only time you can drive in there. It takes us the whole year to schedule the ice road and the trucks. We fill up on fuel, cabling, all the key items that are needed to run a mine for the rest of the year. Even diesel is something we need to plan for an entire year, so that has to be trucked up there.” By being able to dot all of the ‘i’s and cross the ‘T’s, and monitor their operations in new levels of analytical detail, SSR can plan for this in a tighter and more cost-effective way than ever before.

Whilst an extreme case, this same benefit is felt throughout SSR’s operations – with so many factors at play, and at such a scale, every detail helps.

Rise Air is one of Canada’s largest aviation support providers and we are proud to support SSR Mining with aircraft services for their projects in Saskatchewan.

We have extensive experience flying into Northern locations with our diverse fleet of aircraft including wheels, floats, and skis, and are capable of transporting passengers and supplies to remote and challenging destinations.

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