Industry intelligence
In line with Orion Minerals’ firm
commitment to ensuring local communities’
benefit from its ventures, the company
has commissioned introductory mining
familiarisation short courses within the
Siyathemba Municipality, in South Africa’s
Northern Cape province. The programme
is aimed at raising public awareness of the
mining industry and the opportunities
the industry creates, ahead of the planned
development by Orion of the Prieska Zinc
Copper Project.
Orion is in the advanced stages of
completing a bankable feasibility study (BFS)
on the Prieska Project. A recently completed
scoping study indicates that the planned
Prieska operations could be in production
by 2022, processing at 2.4Mtpa of run-of-
mine material and having a skilled workforce
numbering 850 people.
“While we advance our bankable feasibility
study and put funding in place for project
development, we wanted to start preparing
the community to be able to leverage off the
numerous opportunities mining ventures
Minerals
Communities benefit from mining
Communities in the Northern Cape are reaping the rewards of mining in the province
can bring. The Siyathemba community has
considerable interest in the Prieska Project
and is eager to understand our business
and how best we can collaborate for mutual
benefit. We have thus initiated week-long
training courses centred at Prieska, Marydale
and Niekerkshoop, for those residents who
have completed their grade 12 and have an interest in mining,” says Walter Shamu, COO
of Orion.
The programme has, to date, been
successfully completed by 158 participants,
with 400 registered for the first programme.
Participants also earn accreditation towards
industry-recognised mining-related
qualifications.
Outgoing CEO of WorleyParsons RSA
Denver Dreyer, who takes up the role of
Senior Vice President Mining, Minerals
& Metals (MM&M) for Europe, Middle
East and Africa for Worley, says that the
merger will increase the organisation’s
global footprint in the minerals, metals and
mining sector.
South Africa will continue to be a global
centre of excellence in mining and minerals
processing, providing solutions for each
step of the mining value chain. The Worley
MM&M division for Africa is headed up by
Robert Hull, who was previously responsible
for the management of all projects delivered locally and globally from WorleyParsons
RSA.
Hull’s counterpart, Ed Hanbidge, will
head up the EC&S (Energy, Chemicals &
Services) division for southern and eastern
Africa. Hanbidge was previously MD of
Jacobs Matasis, the South African arm of
Jacobs ECR.
“The presence of these two complementary
divisions in South Africa – one focusing
on minerals and mining, the other one on
energy, oil and gas – will create a stronger,
united entity in many respects through
combined services, delivery programmes,
resources and expertise,” says Hanbidge.
and healthcare innovating to address
challenges unique to our continent.”
Mkansi says that while South Africa has
made slow progress, lacking the necessary
skills, scale and business confidence to build
out globally competitive factories, there
are still significant opportunities for 4IR
progress: “There is still a chance for South
Africa to take the lead in Africa, but it needs
a national effort,” she says.
She adds that automation cuts across all
sectors, and is not limited to manufacturing
or industry. “Automation is the future
– it is the basis of the Fourth Industrial
Revolution. You see it in the service industry,
for example, where airports use scanners
instead of staff to check passports, and
where restaurants have automated payment
terminals.” To make 4IR progress, South Africa needs
to embrace a triple helix approach in which
government, industry and academia make a
coherent commitment to work together to
support the country’s ambitions, she says.
“We need more emphasis on STEM skills
and innovation development at grassroots
level. We need industry and academia
to collaborate to ensure that skills meet
industry needs,” she says.
Mkansi notes that UNISA is currently
collaborating with the Society for
Automation, Instrumentation, Measurement
and Control (SAIMC) to introduce
South Africa’s first formal automation
qualification, to be delivered through
UNISA’s department of Mechanical and
Industrial Engineering.
A force for the future
WorleyParsons and international company
Jacobs Energy, Chemicals and Resources
(ECR), have merged under a new entity
called Worley.
Worley is set to be a global provider of
project and asset services in energy, chemicals
and resources and minerals and metals.
The integration of the two organisations
will create a global company of almost 60 000
people across more than 50 countries. Worley
will offer full life-cycle services for customers
across hydrocarbons, chemicals and minerals
and metals, with extended global delivery
centre capabilities, supported by world-class
people and systems.
4IR demands national effort
For South Africa to compete successfully in
a 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) economy,
stakeholders across all sectors must work
together to drive progress in this country.
This is according to Prof Marcia Mkansi,
an associate professor at the Department of
Operations Management at UNISA and one
of the organisers of the African Operations
Management Conference, to be staged
alongside Africa Automation Fair in June
this year.
Mkansi says South Africa still lags behind
world automation leaders such as Germany
as China, and even fellow BRICS country
India in terms of industrial automation
progress. “We shouldn’t fall behind and
become consumers and adopters of foreign
intellectual property. We need to see sectors
such as mining, agriculture, manufacturing
[6] MINING MIRROR JULY 2019
www.miningmirror.co.za