4 minute read
Research focus areas
Since its establishment in 1961, the Department has played a significant role in mining engineering teaching, learning and research at the University of Pretoria, and has contributed greatly to the mining industry by providing world-class graduates. Over the years, the Department’s strategic intent has followed the ebb and flow of the fortunes of the industry. However, it has proved to be resilient and ready to turn challenges into opportunities.
The Department’s resilience was demonstrated most recently in 2020 and 2021 when the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic caused it to embrace disruptive approaches to teaching and learning, and to emerge more agile and flexible than ever before. The change of its language of tuition to English to facilitate access, the present strong emphasis on leadership skills grounded in sound technical skills, and contributions to inculcating a safety culture in mining operations serve as further examples through which it ensures the delivery of work-ready graduates.
The Department’s research efforts are concentrated on growing capacity in mechanisation and automation, rockbreaking and explosives engineering, management and leadership, and rock engineering. This research is not only aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the industry, but also at eradicating poverty, unemployment and inequality.
Research related to mechanisation and automation will help restore the competitiveness of the mining industry and ensure that the bulk of the country’s mineral resources can be profitably extracted. This will require a substantial reinvestment in technology that will build on improvement and modernisation efforts towards fully autonomous, non-explosive, remote mining environments.
It responds to an urgent need to develop next-generation mining systems, especially systems that will enable the mining of deeper narrow reef, hard-rock commodities, such as platinum and gold. Systems to make current mining operations safer, healthier, more productive and sustainable also need to be developed. This includes the digitalisation of mining operations to keep abreast with international developments in the areas of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0-type applications. Current research in this area focuses on the type of equipment required to successfully mine South Africa’s narrow tabular ore bodies, as well as modified mine design layout to best suit this new equipment.
Over the past decade, in particular, tremendous changes have taken place in the mining industry, which have challenged the deeply ingrained conventional views that served mining companies so well in the past. This is according to Dr Johann Uys, a senior researcher in the Department. People will be placed on the foreground as a vital success factor alongside viable ore bodies, and well-developed and optimised operations. The mining landscape has changed in terms of our social license to mine and our commitments to uplifting communities around mines. The Department’s approach is to make mining more sustainable by ensuring that the next generation of mining engineers are leaders who will boldly take the industry into the future.
Leadership development has been on the Department’s agenda for the past decade, and its strategic importance will continue to be highlighted as the Department enters the next decade of mining education. Dr Uys believes that, by first attacking the crisis of leadership, the industry will deepen its credibility and, from this point of departure, authenticate the issue of institutional legitimacy to deepen trust in the role of mines as a community stakeholder.
While the 4IR has brought very exciting possibilities for mining, the Department is mindful that a number of things are necessary to sustain the industry. The main shift in mining will be from a purely technical to an increased socio-technical activity. The Department has already embraced this challenge by including elements in its Mine Design curriculum related to the closure and rehabilitation of mines, and community impact – either through the establishment of a new community or through possible resettlements; both of which address sustainable social impact in a post-mining activity environment and economy. As people, miners also need to accommodate needs and create a balance between the use of technology and the role of the human being. Technologies related to the 4IR may disrupt people, and while AI algorithms may take over much human decision making, the entire human function cannot be replaced. Future human skills such as complex problemsolving, adaptability and flexibility, resilience and negotiation will be of vital importance. Enterprises must adapt to change by adopting solutions and innovations brought about by disruptive technologies. It will therefore be necessary to extend beyond the current fixed value chains, shifting knowledge away from production points to offsite trans-organisational knowledge hubs and shared services. In this lies the requirement of a leader with a specific set of future skills, which will be cultivated in the University’s Department of Mining Engineering. The ability to strategise will always be a human skill, and can never be taken over by a machine.
The future impact of a graduate from the University of Pretoria thus lies in developing a shared vision of how technology can better benefit economies, societies and the human condition. The true impact of the 4IR lies in collaboration, and this is the foundation of sustaining the industry and equipping the next generation of mining engineers for an era beyond the 4IR.
