News and Activities
Minerals to Metals News and Activities
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has sponsored a project dedicated to education for sustainable development in natural mineral resources management. The selected students’ research has a focus on gender equity.
Kabang’u Sakuwaha is a geoscientist working in mineral exploration for Rio Tinto Zambia, one of the world’s largest metals and mining corporations. She is also currently completing her MPhil in sustainable mineral resources development at UCT. And now she has received a grant from the AfDB to write commissioned papers on topics of mining and sustainable development goals.
The African Development Bank, headquartered in Abidjan, has made a R 4,2 million grant from its Middle Income Country Technical Assistant fund to the South African government, for a UCT-led operation to develop skills and knowledge on the tricky questions of mining and sustainable development. The aim is to help turn the minerals extraction and beneficiation industries into a force for sustainable development in the country, and ultimately on the continent.
Corey Beavon is a master’s student in the Minerals to Metals Signature theme at UCT,has been accepted for an internship at the World Economic Forum (WEF) and is working on ensuring the Sustainable development Goals are integrated into the Responsible Mining Development Initiative (RMDI) which is a flagship project at WEF. The RMDI is a multi-stakeholder tool that provides practical mechanisms to measure and communicate the needs and expectations of different stakeholders in the mining industry and is currently being implemented in Guinea.
The United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals for 2030 include the eradication of poverty and containing the dangerous effects of climate change. But the work that lies ahead requires many knowledgeable individuals capable of working in increasingly complex environments. Universities must step up to the plate, says Professor Harro von Blottnitz, head of Environmental & Process Systems Engineering.
Mike Solomon led project with 4th year vacation students where the objective was to assess comparative levels of alignment of companies’ reported information with the objectives of the SDGs. The students were allocated companies. For each company they collected information on current practices in the sector through analysis of public domain information.
In September 2015, nearly all the world’s nations (193) agreed to adopt a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015-2030. The 17 SDGs contain 169 targets that impose specific, easily quantifiable features that can be monitored to gauge progress towards meeting the goals. The SDGs should serve as a reference point and a global compass for policy makers as they navigate a complex, dynamic, and difficult economic and political backdrop.
Collaboration between UCT’s Minerals to Metals Signature theme and Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden – Rossendorf e. V. (HZDR) strengthened by vist and signing of the MOU at UCT on 4th May . The MOU signed between UCT and HZDR at UCT on 4th May 2016 acknowledges the aligment of the two institutions and provides the framework for collaboration between UCT’s Minerals to Metals Signature theme (MtM) and the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF).
The UCT Centre for Mineral Research welcomed University of Queensland’s (UQ) Dr Grant Ballantyne as a visiting scholar from April 4-8, 2016. Ballantyne’s visit was very timely as the Centre finalised its submission to the World Economic Forum’s ‘Mapping Mining to the Sustainable Development Goals: A preliminary Atlas”. Ballantyne made a substantial contribution to this work, in particular to Sustainable Development Goal 11 (Energy). Ballantyne based his input on his research at UQ and work with CEEC International, the not-for-profit industry body addressing best practice in energy efficient mineral processing.
The mining industry is facing many economic and technical challenges and innovation is urgently needed to meet them. As Jeannette McGill, event judge and Head of Technology & Innovation at Anglo Platinum commented, the industry strives to remain both relevant and resilient in rapidly changing times.