The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana’s oldest contract miner Paul List has been sharing his views and thoughts on the mining industry in Ghana.
The interview touched on a wide range of issues including BCN’s operation in Ghana, contract mining , challenges among others.
Below are highlights of the questions and answers.
Tell us a little bit about BCM and how you got here?
Bit of long story really but in short, and as you know we work in contract mining and all types of work associated with it. The company started 97 years ago when it was called F. List and Sons Bayswater contracting and at that time we mainly did civil earthworks and mining and civils. This was in Australia and before we moved permanently to Ghana, and became BCM, about 35 years ago. I took over as chief executive from my parents, at around the same time in 1981, and we diversified into the mining sector, which is where we still are today.
The opportunities were here, we had the expertise, and it was a decision we have never regretted. I myself naturalized as a Ghanaian in 2014, so the company is a wholly Ghanaian owned enterprise, and I am happy say, we are probably the most experienced mining contractors in the West African mining industry?
- So what is the industry like today as compared to what it was like 30 years ago?
Well, its changed a lot; much better supervision by the authorities, of what we do and how we work in terms of safety and respect for the environment. Also the equipment we use today is far better, safer and efficient. There is obviously a lot more competition in the market, and other international companies have come to Ghana, but BCM is still very well respected.
One of the main things that has also changed is the emphasis on the environment, and the way the sector works. As CEO, finding new ways to tackle these issues, and improve the way we operate is my main task, and also ensuring we maintain our high-performance standards, and continually deliver client expectations. In the early years I used to be able to visit workers at various mine sites fairly regularly; these days I am kept busy in the boardroom and on the road, visiting clients, and attending meetings. I sometimes miss, just being in the field.
- Is the sector as dangerous as it seems: any experiences you want to share?
Well as you know we have worked in several countries and not all of them are as safe as Ghana, and any kind of work, that involves large amounts of money, carries with it the natural human element of danger. Some of the places that a contract miner like ourselves has to work, can be quite dangerous simply because of the terrain, the tools we use, like explosives for blasting, and the giant vehicles and other equipment for haulage, as well as the kinds of environments we work in.
BCM has the best safety record of any mining contractor on West Africa, and we believe, in the whole of Africa.
Normally we work in places far away from normal human habitation and literally have to turn them into places where workers can stay, and where they can work in safety. As you know some of these places can also sometimes be quite lawless, especially in countries where civilian police authority isn’t found everywhere. It isn’t unusual for us to be attacked in some of the more remote locations, and if that doesn’t happen, then the day-to-day work of keeping safe on a mine site is quite a big challenge anyway. I have personally had to deal with mishaps on sites; landslides and even pit wall failures caused by adverse geotechnical environments. Its’ never easy.
As I said, not everywhere is as peaceful as Ghana, and I can guarantee most mining sector workers have had at least one life threatening experience in the field, that they would not like to repeat.
- What do you think are some of the major challenges affecting the sector?
I think that for actual mining companies, the cost of exploration is still very expensive and doesn’t always come with reward. The cost of running a mine site can be quite expensive and if you miscalculate you can make large investments that can’t be supported by the eventual outputs from the mine.
For civil earthworks and contract miners like ourselves, I think the main challenge is that of ensuring we are always treated fairly when bidding for work, managing our workforce and retaining them, managing our fleet of equipment and keeping everyone safe where we work; of course there is a lot more, but in a nutshell that’s it.
- How do you account for your success as a company?
I think one of the key factors has been our experienced technical expertise, our professionalism, and excellent safety record. Most industry watchers know that BCM has the best safety record of any in the sector.
I also think that the company has a great reputation which we have built over a number of years, and we also have the trust of the industry for delivering to schedule.
BCM is one of the few companies that provides a full range of diversified services, so in essence we are something of a one-stop-shop for civil earthworks and contract mining. Its’ that kind of expertise that made us the only Western open pit mining contractors in the Central Asia; Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
There are a lot of other things but one of the main ones, that gives us an edge, is that most of the workforce, you see employed by our competitors, were originally trained by BCM, something we are extremely proud of, and something that says that the BCM standard, is actually the industry standard.
- So is BCM only engaged in contract mining?
Well to a large extent, our business is contract mining, but I have also ventured into the mine operator business using the investment arm of the company. As BCM Investments we purchased Adamus Resources in 2016, as part of a plan to strategically acquire and develop high-quality mines in Africa.
In 2018 we bought Segala Mining Corporation, a gold mine in Mali, and then in 2019, we bought an 80% share of Samira Hill SA, a gold mine in Niger.
The last investment we made was in 2020 with Northern Ashanti Mines Co. Led. The plan is to make them both profitable for us, and the communities and countries where we operate.
We have also ventured into Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Liberia, but as I mentioned before it is a business with a lot of risk, and sometimes if you operate in unstable environments you stand to lose everything
- Does the mining sector deserve its poor reputation for the way it treats the environment?
To a certain extent, I would say yes. ‘The industry is responsible for a lot of land degradation, and for creating areas that will take years to regain any sense of being natural again. That said, in a lot of cases, degradation, environmental destruction were always going to be almost impossible to avoid, because of the continuing demand for the ore, metals or minerals that are held there, and the fact that there aren’t any real substitutes, to the methods being used.
What I think is more important now though, is the fact that action is being taken to deal with the problem; extractive industry is being held to account, and all the industry players are paying more attention to the effects of our operations, and taking steps to mitigate, re-afforest and re-vegetate where we work.