The business relationship between mining technology integration partner and provider Dwyka Mining Services, integrated platinum group metals and chrome producer Tharisa, and a group of original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) has led to the development of a new test mine at the Tharisa openpit mine near Rustenburg, in the North West.

This partnership also led to the formation of Dwyka , a dedicated learning and development hub at the project offices adjacent to the mine.

“Dwyka ’s purpose is to develop, train and retain talent so that we can fully use both the technology and the environment in which we are operating,” says Dwyka Mining Services CEO Jamie van Schoor.

The test mine provides a real-world environment for OEMs to demonstrate, refine and validate technologies, and securing organisational buy-in for Tharisa’s transition to underground operations is a key achievement, he says.

All the business units involved see value in curated talent and a new digital curriculum, with mining teams eager to adopt tested technologies, adds Van Schoor.

Dwyka has collaborated closely with Tharisa to manage risk, designating specific zones for testing and prototyping to ensure safe, meaningful engagement.

“A critical insight is that team development, not just technology or terrain, is essential,” he asserts.

Innovation Laboratory, Test Mine Launch

“We are approaching an exciting milestone with the upcoming launch of both Dwyka and the ‘sandpit’, or test mine,” says Van Schoor.

A “sandpit” in this sense is a controlled, isolated and safe environment designed for testing, experimentation and training in the mining sector.

He says the upcoming Electra Mining Africa 2026 expo and conference, to be held in September, will serve as one of the platforms to share progress, highlight the human impact of Dwyka and showcase some of the technologies and partnerships already under way.

One of the key innovations that Dwyka will showcase is the containerised modular learning laboratory, which will allow for a training-as-a-service model, consequently enabling the company to deploy laboratories to other mine sites and customise outputs based on specific gap analyses.

The group has also invited other mining companies to engage with Dwyka to rethink how they approach skills development and align initiatives, such as broad-based black economic-empowerment expenditure, with meaningful, circular outcomes that empower communities.

Beyond Electra Mining, Van Schoor says Dwyka is planning a broader engagement roadmap, including a tech roadshow to Tanzania and a highly disruptive presence at Investing in African Mining Indaba 2027.

A key strategic direction of Tharisa has been the adoption of a digital twin model, supported by a geographic information systems-enabled 3D spatial capture system, across the mine’s operations.

This involves working with 3D mapping partners, such as Emesent and LASE, which Dwyka invited to join as innovation partners within the sandpit.

These partners’ role is to help establish a continuously evolving digital representation of the mine, he notes.

“This facility offers an exceptional opportunity to collaborate closely with end-users and refine solutions in a real, evolving mining environment,” says Emesent chief commercial officer Ewen Cameron.

With Emesent’s technology being proven extensively in the underground mining world, the company is keen to demonstrate how its expertise in simultaneous localisation and mapping technology can be applied to other terrains and engineering disciplines.

With mining environments changing daily, the management of change detection, convergence monitoring and volumetric flows is critical to safety and operational efficiency.

“. . . these are not static requirements but require constant coverage and monitoring,” he adds.

In parallel, Dwyka and Tharisa are actively engaging with a broader ecosystem of technology partners.

This includes connectivity providers, OEMs focused on capital equipment for underground operational improvements, robotics companies and a range of specialised remote sensing and hardware vendors operating in the realm of the Industrial Internet of Things.

The intention is to bring these technologies together in an integrated way where connectivity enables machines, machines generate data and sensing platforms provide the intelligence layer for a data-driven operating environment.

“What we are building is a model where these capabilities are embedded into both machines and people,” says Van Schoor.

Through Dwyka , learners and graduates will be deployed in a technology-as-a-service capacity, gaining hands-on experience while supporting the ongoing capture and analysis of spatial data.

As an existing supplier having already proven operational savings and throughput optimisation, LASE Industrielle Lasertechnik chief sales officer Lars Mohr says the company is looking forward to adding more value to Tharisa.

“Our involvement as a founding partner reflects our belief in the sandpit model as a platform for meaningful, applied innovation to support our scale and market fit to the global mining market,” he concludes.