Research Outputs (Mining Engineering)
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Item 120 years of excellence in service to Mining.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-04) Musingwini, C.The Wits School of Mining Engineering, which is celebrating 120 years of service to the mining industry, is the seed from which the University of the Witwatersrand grew, and is now the largest mining school in the English-speaking world.Item Advancing international collaboration through the Global Mineral Professionals Alliance (GMPA).(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-03) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: The GMPA is currently composed of six sister institutes: the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), the Institute of Materials, Mining and Metallurgy (IOM3), the SAIMM, the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (SME), and the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas del Peru (IIMP).Item The brighter side of career cyclically in the mining professions in South Africa.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-02) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: Mining professionals are generally in the fields of mining engineering, mineral processing, metallurgy, geology, and surveying. In order to enter a profession in the mining industry and follow an engineering career, a good mathematics and science education is required when exiting the high school system.Item A forward-looking Young Professionals Council (YPC).(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-04) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: The holistic development of young professionals is critical for the future of our Institute and the industry. The SAIMM’s mentoring programme, which connects young professionals with experienced practitioners in a one-to-one mentoring relationship, is in its second year of existence. Our programme has matched 82 protégés to 64 mentors. This is a truly global programme because the registered participants are from different countries including the UK and USA. This programme allows young professionals to build connections and develop into future leaders of our mining industry.Item The last 100 days in the office of the SAIMM presidency.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-08) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: In the SAIMM we have a rich tradition of leadership succession. Before one becomes President, one must have served at least two years on the SAIMM Council, followed by a year of co-option as an Office Bearer before successively becoming Junior Vice-President, Senior Vice-President, President-Elect, and President; After the term as President, one becomes Immediate Past-President and finally retires back onto Council as a Past President.Item Mine of the future - A mining CEO's perspective.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-05) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: The mining CEO of the future will be a strategist capable of navigating complex integrated stakeholder management, forging sustainable win-win partnerships, and enforcing regulatory adherence and good governance. Such a CEO is likely to succeed as he or she can enlist the support of shareholders, governments, employees, and communities that are increasingly, and rightfully, demanding to share in the benefits of the resources mined in their jurisdictions.Item Mine Planning and Equipment Selection (MPES 2015).(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2016-03) Musingwini, C.Extract from Comment: The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) hosted the 23rd International Symposium on Mine Planning and Equipment Selection (MPES 2015) at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg from 9 to 11 November 2015. This was the first time that South Africa has hosted the MPES in its 25-year history. This conference’s theme was ‘Smart Innovation in Mining’ in order to recognize technological innovations and new ideas that are required to prepare the industry for the mine of the future.Item The modern mining professional - A mining CEO's perspective.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-06) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: Lower commodity prices compounded by low productivity continue to be challenges that severely affect the global competiveness of the country’s mining industry. These challenges require us as an industry to continuously explore effective cost-containing strategies. It is therefore imperative that we regularly optimize and build flexibility into our business systems, respond to these challenges, and leverage the role of new technology and mechanization into our production processes so that we can mine more safely and productively.Item The NDP vision 2030-does the SAIMM have a role to play?(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-01) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: We are making our contribution to socio-economic transformation in a number of ways. Our Scholarship Trust Fund ensures that we continue to assist undergraduate students from poor backgrounds to obtain a university education in mining and metallurgy-related fields, thus contributing towards poverty reduction.Item A perspective on the supply and utilization of mining graduates in the South African context.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2013-03) Musingwini, C.; Cruise, J.A.; Phillips, H.R.The South African mining industry continues to be a major source of employment at a time when at least 25 per cent of the working age population is unemployed. At the same time the industry faces a skills shortage in many of the disciplines necessary for its future health. The University of the Witwatersrand, University of Pretoria, University of Johannesburg, and University of South Africa have historically produced mining graduates for the South African mining industry with any shortfall being met by the recruitment of overseas graduates. More recently, the global shortage of engineers and other mining industry professionals has seen a reversal of this trend and a very significant emigration of well-educated and highly skilled personnel. The traditional career path for mining graduates is in production and mine management. However, there is the parallel (and possibly more pressing) need for specialized skills in such fields as ventilation, rock engineering, mine planning, mineral resource evaluation, and mineral asset valuation. Chronic shortages in these essential areas continue to hamper the development of the industry and may well frustrate its ambitions to be safe, healthy, and profitable into the future. The permeability of skills across sectorial boundaries within the mining industry requires that skills shortages in the platinum sector are not looked at in isolation, but within the context of the entire industry. This paper reviews the efforts being made by the universities, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, to meet the needs of the South African mining industry in terms of the required numbers and the range of specialized skills.Item Relevance or extinction?(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2016-10) Musingwini, C.Extract from Editorial: We are well-known for being one of the oldest professional associations in the local minerals industry, hosting the highest number of excellent conferences annually, publishing an internationally accredited technical journal every month, and having functional branches locally and in neighbouring countries. Our Office Bearers and committee Chairpersons meet once a year to review our strategy.Item Skills for Mining Labour Productivity Improvement.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2017-07) Musingwini, M.Extract from Editorial: Productivity is a very relevant and important discussion point for the mining industry. It is so, given that our industry has been experiencing declining productivity in the past decade, although equipment efficiencies have been increasing. For example, according to a McKinsey study released in 2015, US mining labour productivity had declined nearly 30% since 2007, while other production sectors such as motor vehicle manufacturing had improved their productivity by nearly 180% over the same period.Item Techno-economic optimization of level and raise spacing in Bushveld Complex platinum reef conventional breast mining.(The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy., 2010-08) Musingwini, C.The Bushveld Complex is economically significant and strategically important to South Africa, thus it is imperative that optimal extraction of platinum group metal (PGM) resources on the Bushveld Complex is achieved. Optimal extraction broadly requires that the maximum amount of ore is extracted by excavating and hauling the minimum amount of waste in the shortest possible time, at the least cost, and in the safest and most environmentally acceptable manner. In open-pit mine planning this entails among other things, minimizing the waste stripping ratio, whereas in underground mine planning it includes minimizing the metres of waste development In conventional mining, the main development that is in waste or partly in waste and defines the mining grid pattern, includes levels and raises. It was prudent to consider optimizing level and raise spacing in conventional mining because the method is a prevalent mining method on the Bushveld Complex accounting for nearly 70% of platinum production. The techno-economic optimization of level and raise spacing is characteristically a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) optimization process and should therefore be analysed using MCDA techniques. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was the most appropriate MCDA technique for this research study. By using an orebody code named OB1 based on real geological data that was typical of Bushveld Complex platinum reef deposits, the derived optimal range of vertical level spacing was 30 m-50 m, and the optimal range of raise spacing was 180 m-220 m. The research methodology used in this study and the results obtained were received positively by the South African platinum mining Industry because for the first time in several decades, a holistic methodology and practically acceptable solution had been developed for the controversial debate of optimizing level and raise spacing for conventional mining.