Tanzania, situated in Central-Eastern Africa, has vast amounts of natural resources including gold, diamonds, coal, iron ore, nickel, platinum and other elements and minerals such as Uranium, which was discovered in abundance in 2007. It is the third-largest producer of gold in Africa after South Africa and Ghana. OTR were awarded a long-term contract to assist Barrick Gold with their mining operation in the country.
North Mara is located 200km NE of OTR's regional office in Mwanza and 100km east of Lake Victoria. Located in a largely unexplored gold district, North Mara has three open pit mines, with 4 million oz of gold in reserve. Mining started at Nyabirama in 2001, with two further pits in development phases. OTR have assisted Barrick at the site by taking care of all aspects of tyre service, using the TotalTyreLogic programme.
Buzwagi lies 120km South of Mwanza, in the North West region of Tanzania. Sitting on 3.3 million oz of reserves, mining commenced in May 2009, with 200,000oz of gold expected to be produced this year. OTR were present at the site during initial preparations and ensured smooth day-to-day running of the CAT 785 fleet through their full tyre management programme. The site has now been built up to include tyre repair and service workshops, giving Barrick the assurance that their tyres are in the best possible hands.
Mwanza is a large port city in Northern Tanzania, situated on the southern side of Lake Victoria. It is ideally placed to provide OTR's TotalTyreLogic package to Tanzania's mining sites, and also acts as OTR's regional office in Tanzania, offering both service and sales.
OTR have installed a site manager at each mine, along with a dedicated team of tyre servicemen to oversee day to day operation. The continued use of TotalTyreLogic, with monthly tyre reports, detailed site severity inspections and use of working best practices applied by OTR worldwide has seen overall tyre life doubled at both sites.
