RESEARCH PROFILE The Department is currently involved in four key research focus areas, and efforts will be concentrated on growing research capacity in these areas: MECHANISATION AND AUTOMATION ROCK-BREAKING AND EXPLOSIVE ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
ROCK ENGINEERING
Efforts to increase the Department’s research outputs started to pay dividends during the
mining industry, minerals,
period under review. The Department strives for a
chemical engineering, drones, air pollution, open-cast mines, rehabilitation, soil, mining
continuous improvement in the number of articles
sites, mineral resources, acid mine water, environmental engineering, water utilisation engineering, metallurgy, research,
published in journals, an increase the number
minerals, mining law, forensic engineering, mine health and safety, investigation, mechanical engineering, collision management, mines,
of citations these papers attract and to improve
accidents, energy, convectional heat transfer,, mining engineering, evaluation, hydraulic splitting cylinder, breaking rock, deep-level mining, flyrock, engineering
researchers’ H-index (based on citations per
education, problem-solving, professional development, leadership, rock engineering, pillar extraction, fracture zone, seismicity, coal mines, rockburst, shallow-dipping
researcher). There is also a drive for staff to apply for
tabular stopes, depth, load-and-haul, operation, opencast colliery, town and regional planning, technology management, business strategies, coal-mining sector,
National Research Foundation (NRF) ratings.
projectification, South African mining industry, knowledge transfer, maintenance technologies, maintenance strategies, systems thinking, decision making, bottom
A key achievement in 2019 was the awarding of a B2 rating (international recognition) to Prof Francois Malan, the Department’s Research Coordinator. Prof Malan was also invited to present two keynote lectures at international symposia on the research of the Department’s Rock Engineering Group.
line, leadership style, operations, digitisation, integration, asset management, life cycle management, supply chain management, geology, remote sensing, magnetite, exploration, coal, groundwater, natural gas reserves, CO2, sedimentary rocks, hydrocarbons, mineralisation, hydrothermal deposits, heat flow, geothermal energy, magmatic intrusions, dolomite mine, rock fractures, slope stability, design parameters, structural geology, mine facilities
Another achievement that illustrates the international recognition of the research conducted in the Department was the awarding of the annual prize of the international Society of Mining Professors (SOMP) for best publication to the Department for a paper written by Dr Johann Uys and Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman. This paper focused on the 4.0D® Leadership Development Model for mining and related industries in the context of the 4IR, which the two authors developed.
Many collaborative, cross-cutting contract research initiatives were conducted during the period under review. Mining-related research in the various
Compared to the previous year, a larger number of papers was published in conference proceedings. This was partly due to a number of high-profile international Rock Engineering symposia, such as the 14th Congress of the International Society for Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. Efforts were made to present high-quality papers at these symposia to increase the Department’s visibility and profile. The current focus of the Department is to publish more papers in similar journals. The drive to publish in internationally recognised high-impact journals will continue in 2020/21. DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING
departments in the Faculty, as well as other faculties throughout the University, continues. This forms part of the Mining Footprint initiative, which is coordinated by the Mining Resilience Research Centre. 14
ANNUAL REVIEW 2019/20
