The papers in this edition are all related to Mineral Resource Management, the field in which Professor Richard Minnitt practised for many years in the Chair in Mineral Resources at the University of the Witwatersrand. Professor Minnitt has followed the great luminary, the late Danie Krige, in pioneering many aspects of this field, especially in the areas of geostatistics and…

This edition of the Journal is dedicated to papers covering many aspects of the exploration, mining, processing, and beneficiation of diamonds: a commodity of great significance to the economy of South Africa for more than a hundred years.  Diamonds provide a unique source of interesting history in South Africa, and learnings from the early days of diamond mining are still…

I recently visited the Eastern Cape for the occasion of my eldest son’s wedding. It is the first time I had visited beautiful Morgan Bay, and we ventured up the coast into the former Transkei for some sightseeing. At one point we deviated onto a very small dirt track (fortunately we had a 4x4 vehicle) and arrived at a small…

This volume of the Journal recognizes the immense contribution of Professor Dick Minnitt, of the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he is one of their four NRF-rated academics and one of only three Professor Emeritus appointments in the School. He spent most of his career at Wits, supervising not only postgraduate (MSc/PhD) candidates…

This edition of the Journal is dedicated to the Diamonds: Source-to-Use conference held during June 2018 at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Johannesburg. It was attended by 107 delegates, some of whom came from as far away as Botswana, Namibia, Canada, the UK, and Belgium. It was the seventh conference in the series, which targets the full spectrum of the diamond pipeline from exploration…

Background note from the Consultation on South Africa hosting an Affiliate Centre of the World Economic Forum (WEF) 's Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution held earlier today at the CSIR International Convention Centre. The key highlights are summarised below.

Making the Fourth Industrial Revolution work for Women The Department of Science and Technology (DST) calls for nominations for the 2019 South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA). The awards recognise and reward excellence by women scientists and researchers, and profile them as role models for younger women. The awards will be made to women who are South African citizens…