In the stope
Her bubbly personality instantly
lights up the room as she walks
through the door in a rush. With
flawless hair and make-up, one
would be forgiven for thinking
that Dibuseng Hlole is a model
when, in fact, she is a geologist
and businesswoman, writes
Dineo Phoshoko.
A
s a service provider through her
company, Nichnaat Consulting,
Hlole works with mining
companies at exploration phase, which
includes doing pre-feasibility and
feasibility studies, resource estimation,
drilling, mapping, and trenching. She
predominantly works with junior
mining companies.
Growing up, Hlole had multiple career
choices in mind. These included being
a teacher, social worker, or pharmacist.
“When I was in primary school, I wanted
to be a teacher because I used to like the
way they mark,” she says with a chuckle.
After completing matric at Pretoria
College, Hlole furthered her studies at
the University of the Witwatersrand.
“When I got to Wits, I was not sure what
I wanted to do. I heard about geology.”
Despite the fact that geology was never
one of her career choices, Hlole became
interested in it.
She was drawn to studies about the
earth and how everything evolved.
She mentions an encounter during
her undergraduate studies where
students were taken on an excursion
and were made to taste rocks as one
of the methods of identifying the type
of mineral at a particular geographical
location. Hlole found this fun.
Getting into the industry and
facing challenges
Establishing a career in the mining
industry was not easy for Hlole and
having graduated at a time when the
industry was not doing particularly well
did not help either. Hlole finally made
her break in the industry, starting out at
the rock engineering department at Tau
Lekoa Mine in the North West Province.
She discovered that it was an entirely
different environment compared to what
she had learnt at university. “You need to
put the theory and the practical together
for everything to make sense,” she explains.
Her colleague and mentor Joggie van Oort
played a significant role in helping Hlole
learn all the ropes of being a geologist. “He
wanted to teach me everything. He used to
call me his daughter,” she says fondly.
As with any career, challenges are
inevitable. Going underground to
www.miningmirror.co.za
JANUARY 2019 MINING MIRROR
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