The Weir Group's strategic alliance with Anglo American has won the prestigious External Collaboration Award at the 2014 Procurement Leaders Awards.

Weir’s Global Framework Agreement with Anglo American was announced in September last year and is focused on improving energy consumption and lowering maintenance requirements across Anglo American’s operations in South Africa, South America, North America and Australia. Dean Jenkins, Weir Minerals managing director, said, “To have won such a prestigious award just eight months after announcing this strategic alliance is a clear demonstration of the hard work of the teams involved. By working closely with Anglo American, we have been able to help them achieve significant cost savings and deepen our partnership even further.”

Anglo American uses approximately 30,000 pumps in its global operations. By collaborating with Weir's Minerals division, Anglo American has been able to make immediate gains in reliability and power saving by retrofitting Weir-developed technology to existing pumps. In doing so, the life of key components has doubled, and in some cases trebled, while power consumption has been reduced significantly.

The Judging Panel said, “The judges believe that this project is a great example of supplier innovation. The entry demonstrates the power of a solid sourcing strategy and collaboration with selected suppliers.”