JOHANNESBURG – Leading Spanish mining technology company TORSA has launched its pan-African business hub in South Africa with the intent to dramatically reduce mining incidents and, more importantly, fatalities, in line with a presidential Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). signed at the end of 2022.
During an official visit to South Africa in October 2022, the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, and the Spanish President, Pedro Sánchez, signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of Industry 4.0. President Sánchez announced that Spain will make approximately ZAR35 billion available over the next five years to support the participation of Spanish companies in projects in South Africa and beyond.
With governments intent on seeing higher levels of foreign direct investment by Spanish companies in South Africa, TORSA has accelerated its expansion to the African continent as its collision avoidance technology addresses recently published South African health and safety regulations, to reduce damage and deaths in local mining. .
Health and safety in the mine
Most mine accidents involve heavy equipment, vehicles, and workers. This prompted the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy to promulgate the provisions of Chapter 8 of the Regulations of the Mine Health and Safety Law related to the intervention of Level 9 vehicles to avoid collisions in mobile machinery without rails, both surface like underground.
According to this law, mobile machines must be equipped with technologies that automatically detect the presence of any pedestrian or other machine in their proximity. In the event that measures are not taken to avoid a possible collision, additional means must be provided to return the mobile machine to a safe speed after the brakes are automatically applied.
The company’s award-winning solutions, such as its high-precision Collision Avoidance System with Lidar3D technology and GPS (among other technologies) that offers centimeter accuracy and its unique Monitor Vibration System, have reduced reports of human injuries by 80%. percent in a year.
“The best technology is not always the best solution if it is not implemented in coordination with partners and customers. With 25 years of experience, including a decade specific to mining, and accolades from some of the world’s leading mining companies including Glencore and BHP, both based in South Africa, our technology is unrivaled and has delivered millions of hours uninterrupted work. in all types of mines worldwide”, says Gabino de Diego, Director of Business Development at TORSA.
global expansion
Ahead of the upcoming Mining Indaba taking place in Cape Town from February 6-9, 2023, the company announced the opening of its local office and market presence, which not only benefits South Africa, but also a gateway to Africa.
“The launch of TORSA’s Johannesburg office is another step in our goal of bringing our technology to all of the world’s major mining markets, particularly Africa,” says de Diego. “South Africa is a very interesting market, not only because of its mining potential, but also because of its strategic role within the African continent, as well as its current commitment to apply technologies and procedures focused on increasing safety and productivity in mining operations.”
De Diego says that in addition to launching in South Africa, TORSA has its sights set on the Copperbelt region and other major markets, including Botswana, Mozambique and Morocco, for future expansion into Africa.
“Our goal is to offer the South African and African mining market the same successes that we have achieved for our clients throughout Latin America.
“Our experience in other areas, including distribution and renewable energy, brings technological developments that can benefit South Africa. In the field of distribution, Torsa works for the world’s leading drug distributors, such as Alliance HealthCare, and in the renewable industry, we have launched wind farms in Spain and Chile to provide energy to the equivalent of a city of half a million square meters. inhabitants with an investment of more than 300 million euros”, he says.
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