Amid various conversations on the importance of technology in African mining, a panel discussion at this year’s London Indaba titled ‘Is asset management the key to unlocking growth for mining in Africa?’ focused on the importance of asset management in the sector.
During the discussion, Wits Mining Institute and Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment director Professor Glen Nwaila highlighted the role the university was playing in ensuring students were equipped with the necessary skills to meet industry demands.
He pointed out that there was a skills gap between the expectations of the industry and what was being taught by universities. As a result, he said Wits and other universities had begun to build the necessary infrastructure to fill these gaps.
He cited the example of the Sibanye-Stillwater DigiMine Laboratory – a mock mine that exposed students to a real mining environment before taking them to the field.
Nwaila added that new courses havd also been introduced for first and second year engineering degrees, which included data-driven decision-making, to allow upcoming engineers and upcoming scientists to gain hands-on experience.
Moreover, he said the university had introduced capacity development courses.
“This is actually a partnership between the Wits Mining Institute and a number of original-equipment manufacturers, together with mining companies, because we have realised that us coming up with problems and presenting them to the industry as solutions doesn't really work. We actually have to go into the industry and find out what are some of the core issues. And that is what we have been doing,” he said.
“The university becomes a safe space to actually test technology before you deploy it in a mine,” he added.