Australia’s High Commissioner and Ambassador to South Africa Graeme Wilson will open the facility, with industry and local government notables expected to attend.

The new office and facility comes after MineARC landed a major contract to supply 17 of its CoalSAFE refuge chambers to Anglo American’s New Denmark colliery in August.

Each of the intrinsically safe chambers is capable of housing up to 16 miners for up to 48 hours during an underground emergency.

“MineARC’s patented liquid CO2 powered technology powers the refuge chamber’s life support systems – including air conditioning for miners and CO/CO2 scrubbing– regenerating the air inside the chamber, making it safe for miners to breathe,” the supplier said.

The Johannesburg complex, located in the suburb of New Riding, hosts more than 1300 square metres of office and manufacturing space.

At existing capacity it can produce up to 10 finished refuge chambers per month.

MineARC general manager for Africa Tom Long said it had supplied refuge chambers to African mines for the best part of 10 years.

“Establishing a facility on the African continent means our local clients will benefit from greater sales and after-service support, a faster turnaround time on manufacturing and freight and lower costs,” he said.

“What we’re now seeing across Africa is a real determination to bring mine safety to the top of the agenda and in line with world’s best practice safety legislation and technology,” MineARC GM Mike Lincoln said.

“The New Denmark contract is justification of this.”