Industry collaboration

The Mineral Council’s Senior Executive: Modernisation and Safety, Sietse van der Woude, presented findings on the progress and prospects of the 4IR. The event was attended by industry experts, mining alumni, lecturers and students.

Delegates from the Department of Labour responsible for inspecting accidents in public infrastructure and related mining incidents were exposed to VR as a tool to examine accidents and improve the quality of analysis.

Students from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) visited the Department’s VR facility, where they were exposed to the changing technological landscape and new ways of doing business in the 4IR.

Dr George Maluleke, Senior Manager: Projects at Kumba Iron Ore delivered a presentation to the final-year Mine Design students about the company’s community resettlement project from Dingleton to Siyathemba. The project saw Kumba Iron Ore move about 3 400 people from Dingleton, which is about 20 km outside Kathu, to Siyathemba. The company built the new suburb from scratch so that the Kumba Sishen mine could extend its operations to the Dingleton area. Siyathemba means “we hope”, and the new suburb has its own community centre, police station and clinic.

The Department is proud to count Kumba Iron Ore among its long-term strategic partners. In this regard, delegates from the Kumba Iron Ore Professional in Training Programme also attended a leadership presentation by Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman and Dr Theunis Otto, in addition to visiting the Department’s VR facility.

Dr George Maluleke (left) and Dr Johann Uys

Thanks to a sponsorship from Harmony Gold, five of the Department’s postgraduate students were granted the opportunity to attend the Mining Indaba 2020 in Cape Town. Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman also served on the Young Leaders Programme discussion panel.

The Department hosted its successful Annual Golf Day at Pretoria Country Club on 24 January 2020. The event was sponsored by Sandvik, Komatsu, Harmony, Detnet, GigaJoule and InHouse. The seventh Annual Golf Day is scheduled for January 2021.

INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

METF SPONSORSHIP OF NEW LABORATORY EQUIPMENT

The Minerals Education Trust Fund (METF) has made available a generous capital amount for new laboratory equipment in the Department. The support of the METF is graciously acknowledged and appreciated. The Department partnered with African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) to launched the African Rainbow Minerals Postgraduate Bursary Initiative. This was predicated on the vision of Dr Patrice Motsepe, Executive Chairman of ARM. To celebrate the launch, Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman held a welcoming

AFRICAN RAINBOW MINERALS POSTGRADUATE BURSARY

lunch at the University, which was attended by ARM’s Ferrous Chief Executive, Mr André Joubert, and Group Executive: Human Resources, Ms Busi Mashiane, together with the beneficiaries of the African Rainbow Minerals Postgraduate Bursary Initiative. These are Divine Ile, Collins Papo, Ruan Els

and Keaton Philo. By supporting postgraduate students in the mining industry value chain, this initiative is set to establish the company’s consolidated minerals resources industry footprint in the University of Pretoria. Beneficiaries will include postgraduate students in mineral sciences and complementary fields, such as finance, management and information technology. It is thus a multi-department intervention, which is aligned to the multidisciplinary approach followed by both the Department and the University. The ultimate goal of this partnership will be to develop these students’ careers as leaders in the mining industry and to serve as a talent base for ARM.

The initial group of beneficiaries includes a diverse group of students from varying backgrounds studying towards honours and master’s degrees in Mining Engineering. Their research interests range from rock mechanics to mining technology integration (linked to the 4IR) and explosives engineering.