An investigation of buying behaviour of explosives by mines in South Africa

Abstract

The South African Mining industry comprises diverse mining activities and minerals such as platinum, diamond, iron, uranium, coal, manganese, gold, silver, copper and others. Mines play a large role in businesses in their areas and use a lot of explosives to extract minerals. Four explosive manufacturers dominate the explosive market. This study evaluated the buying behaviour of mines when they buy explosives for commercial purposes, and attempts to identify why a mine would change from one supplier of explosives to a competitor. A sample of the mine managers, mine overseers and the explosives managers of the mines was drawn. Data was collected from gold mines (27%), platinum mines (23%), chrome mines (17%), manganese mines (10%), coal (17%) and other mines (7%). Some 83% of the mines sampled have a turnover of R100 million and 90% have more than 500 employees. A total of 36 questionnaires were circulated, of which 30 were properly completed and received; setting a response rate of 81%. The results show mines agree that safety, results, quality, support and service (including after sales support), price and supplier-buyer relationship are the drivers of the mines to purchase explosives products.