Electra Mining 2026 marks an important milestone for MMD Africa. Long recognised as a leader in mineral sizers, apron plate feeders and in-pit sizers and conveying (IPSC) systems, the company is using this year’s exhibition to showcase a significantly broader portfolio of solutions for the mining and quarrying industries.
According to Mark Peeters, Business Development Manager at MMD Africa, visitors to the stand can expect three key highlights. The first centres on MMD’s core offering: mineral sizers, apron plate feeders, sizer stations and the IPSC systems built around them. These technologies remain at the heart of the company’s value proposition, delivering efficient, reliable materials handling solutions for demanding mining applications.
The second focuses on MAGNA – Terex’s range of mobile crushing, screening and conveying equipment for high-output operations, with capacities of up to 1 500 tonnes per hour (tph). Since MMD Mineral Sizing Africa became the official southern African distributor for MAGNA in September 2025, the company has expanded its ability to support customers across more stages of the mining value chain. The result is a broader equipment portfolio backed by the same trusted engineering expertise, local support and aftermarket service that customers already associate with MMD Africa.
Peeters is more guarded about the third highlight, revealing only that it points towards the next generation of haulage solutions.
“The real highlight for us is demonstrating how these solutions work together rather than simply sit alongside one another,” he explains. “Whether a customer needs a semi-mobile sizer station, a fully mobile MAGNA crushing train, or a hybrid of the two, they can now work with a single engineering partner backed by one aftermarket and support structure.”
He adds that MMD Africa’s stand is designed around solving operational challenges rather than selling individual products. “We would encourage visitors to come with a problem rather than a product enquiry. Our engineers will be on the stand, not just salespeople.”
Key trends
According to MMD Africa, four key trends are reshaping the quarrying and surface mining sectors. The first is the move towards deeper pits and longer haul distances. Peeters says strip ratios are increasing across many southern African operations, placing growing pressure on haulage costs.
“As mines get deeper, the economics begin to change,” he explains. “The cost of diesel haulage increases in direct proportion to distance and depth, while conveying does not. That single economic reality is quietly influencing the way new pits are being designed.”
The second trend is the shift from decarbonisation as a reporting exercise to a procurement priority. Peeters notes that Scope 1 emissions from diesel haul truck fleets have become a board-level consideration rather than simply an ESG reporting metric.
“Electrically driven crushing and conveying is one of the few interventions that can reduce operating costs and emissions at the same time,” he says. “That is why these projects continue to receive capital approval when many other decarbonisation initiatives struggle to make the business case.”
A third trend is the increasingly challenging nature of the material being processed. Declining ore grades and harder, more variable feed are placing greater demands on crushing circuits, requiring equipment that can deliver consistent performance under more demanding conditions.
The fourth trend is the growing scarcity of skilled labour. According to Peeters, reducing reliance on large truck fleets also reduces the number of operators that need to be recruited, housed, transported and retained – an increasingly important consideration for remote mining operations across Africa.
“Underlying all of these trends is a fundamental shift in how customers evaluate capital investment. The focus has moved towards total cost of ownership (TCO) over the life of the mine, rather than simply selecting the option with the lowest upfront capital cost,” says Peeters.
Response to trends
Peeters says MMD Africa’s appointment as the southern African distributor for MAGNA is a direct response to the changing needs of the mining industry. While MMD has been designing and manufacturing material handling equipment for more than four decades, with a South African manufacturing presence since 2004, he acknowledges that even the most advanced sizer is only one component of the flowsheet.
“Our customers increasingly want us to solve the entire material movement challenge, not just supply individual pieces of equipment. Until recently, we did not have the full toolkit. Now we do,” he says.
According to Peeters, IPSC remains the company’s flagship solution. By sizing material at the mining face and transferring it directly onto a conveyor, operations can significantly reduce truck movements, delivering meaningful reductions in both operating costs and carbon emissions.
“That is where the real step change in cost per tonne and emissions per tonne is achieved,” he says. “However, not every operation is ready for a fixed or semi-mobile installation. Pit geometry, mine life and available capital all influence that decision.”
This is where MAGNA strengthens MMD Africa’s offering. Its range of high-capacity mobile crushing, screening and conveying equipment provides an effective solution for operations that require greater flexibility today, while also creating a practical pathway towards in-pit crushing and conveying as mines deepen and mature.
By combining MAGNA’s mobile equipment with MMD’s established sizing and conveying technologies, the company can now deliver integrated, end-to-end solutions rather than individual products.
“It also keeps us honest,” adds Peeters. “We can recommend the solution that is right for the operation, rather than the only solution we happen to sell.”
Industry challenges
Discussing the biggest challenges facing customers in the extractive industry, Peeters points to one issue above all others: haulage. In deep open-pit operations, he says, truck haulage accounts for a significant share of total mining costs, with those costs increasing as pits become deeper.
While mining companies understand the economics, they have often lacked a partner capable of modelling alternative approaches with confidence and backing the results.
“Our approach starts with TCO, not equipment specifications,” says Peeters. “We would rather take customers through a lifecycle cost comparison that considers capital expenditure, diesel, tyres, maintenance, labour and equipment availability than simply present a specification sheet.”
He explains that MMD’s mineral sizers are designed to deliver low-speed, high-torque comminution with a smaller footprint and lower energy consumption per tonne than conventional gyratory or cone crushing circuits. They are also well suited to handling sticky, wet and variable feed materials that can cause problems for other crusher technologies.
“Ultimately, it all comes down to availability,” he says. “That is where lifecycle cost is won or lost.”
The second challenge is aftermarket support. According to Peeters, mining operations across Africa need suppliers that remain engaged long after equipment has been commissioned.
“Africa is unforgiving of suppliers who sell and disappear,” he says. “Our South African manufacturing facility was established to bring production, technical expertise and support closer to our customers. The MAGNA agreement follows the same philosophy – we do not simply sell the equipment; we support and service it throughout its operating life.”
The third challenge is the speed at which suppliers can respond to customer requirements. “Larger competitors can take months to produce a technically robust proposal,” says Peeters. “Our size allows us to respond much more quickly, and that is a competitive advantage we intend to keep.”
Why Electra Mining?
For Peeters, Electra Mining remains one of the few opportunities to engage directly with the people who influence mining projects from the outset.
“It is where Africa’s technical decision-makers come together,” he says. “We are not only talking to procurement teams, but also to the process engineers, mine planners and EPCM consultants who shape projects long before an RFQ is issued.”
According to Peeters, those early conversations are critical, particularly when it comes to IPSC solutions. “By the time a flowsheet reaches the tender stage, the crushing philosophy has usually already been established. That is why we want to be part of the conversation much earlier in the project lifecycle,” he says.
Peeters believes visitors to this year’s exhibition will encounter a very different MMD Africa from the one they may remember.
“We are proud to represent MAGNA, a flagship appointment that reflects a shared commitment to robust, high-quality solutions for customers handling larger production volumes. It significantly broadens what we can offer and the range of challenges we can help customers solve,” he says.
Peeters encourages visitors to use the exhibition as an opportunity to discuss operational challenges rather than specific equipment requirements.
“If you are planning a new pit, expanding an existing operation, or looking for ways to reduce escalating haulage costs, come and talk to us. We would like to show you what is now possible,” concludes Peeters.
