Barloworld Ltd., the world’s largest forklift dealer, expects emerging-market sales to eclipse revenue from developed economies over the next three years, bolstered by mining projects in Russia and Southern Africa.

Barloworld’s flagship equipment division, which supplies Caterpillar Inc. mining machinery, “could double” sales after Caterpillar’s $7.6 billion acquisition of Bucyrus International Inc. earlier this week, Chief Executive Officer Clive Thomson said in an interview from Johannesburg today.

The Bucyrus purchase will boost Barloworld’s product range to cover “75 percent plus” of mining companies’ equipment needs from about 25 percent now, he said. Barloworld delivers machines to gold, diamond and coal mines in Russia and in Mozambique, he said.

“It really is ground-breaking, it’s not just one or two incremental product lines,” Thomson said. “It’s probably a doubling of our opportunity into the future in terms of our mining-equipment needs.”

Barloworld earlier today reported a loss of 7 million rand ($992,000) in the 12 months through September, compared with a profit of 671 million rand a year earlier, as sales dropped 10 percent to 40.8 billion rand.

The company also said it agreed to pay $52 million for the 50 percent it doesn’t already own in Vostochnaya Technica, a Russian dealership that sells Caterpillar equipment, according to a separate statement.

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Barloworld had its biggest gain in about 10 years, climbing 5.06 rand, or 10 percent, to 55.26 rand at the 5 p.m. close on the Johannesburg stock exchange. The stock has gained almost 23 percent this year.

The area in Russia that Barloworld supplies covers six time zones and the total size of the area it is licensed to supply Caterpillar equipment to is larger than “the U.S., Germany and France together,” Thomson said. The region is rich in coal, nickel, diamonds, gold and timber.

“On a three-year view we see a much stronger growth in our business coming from southern Africa and Russia,” Thomson said.

Caterpillar plans to distribute the Bucyrus equipment through its global distributors, which will give Barloworld an opportunity to grow its mining-equipment product range to include drag lines and shovels used in bulk mining, as well as conveyor belt equipment, Thomson said.