Full name(s) and surname:
Buhle Sinaye Xakalashe

• Company: Mintek
• Qualifications: BEng (Chemical), MSc Eng (Materials Technology)  

Short professional biography

Buhle has over 15 years of research and development experience in the field of extractive metallurgy from the following local and global institutions: Mintek (South Africa), NTNU/SINTEF (Norway), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), KU Leuven (Belgium) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) (Greece). He has industrial experience through a stint at TRONOX Namakwa Sands’ DC arc furnace operation for the production of high TiO₂ slag and pig iron. Buhle is currently the Head of New Technology in the Pyrometallurgy Division at Mintek. He is a member of the Technical Programme; Diversity and Inclusion in the Minerals Industry (DIMI); Environmental, Social, Governance and Sustainability (ESGS) committees of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). He contributes to organising of conferences including but not limited to the Furnace Tapping Conference 2014, Mine-Impacted Water Conferences (2020 & 2022), Southern African Rare Earths International Conference 2021 and the 8^th International PGM Conference 2022. Buhle is passionate about batteries, particularly battery recycling towards a circular economy.