Darius was born and grew up in the Luanshya district of Zambia’s Copperbelt Province. He graduated from the University of Zambia (UNZA) in Lusaka in 2004 with a BSc in chemistry, and worked as an Environmental Project Assistant with the Advocacy for Environmental Restoration Zambia (AREZ) group at UNZA School of Mines.
Christo was born on 18 November 1963 in Vereeniging and matriculated in 1981.
He obtained his Dip Tech (T5) in Metallurgical Engineering from the Vaal Triangle Technikon. He worked at Iscor Vanderbijlpark in Blast Furnaces Production for a year, then moved to Iscor Research and Development in Pretoria, where he worked in the Process Metallurgy Department for four years. His area of focus was iron manufacturing, with particular interest in the evaluation and characterization of iron ore, coal, and coke for the blast furnace, direct reduction, and the newly developed Corex-process.
Ian has been a member of the SAIMM Johannesburg Branch committee since 2009. He was elected Vice Chairperson in 2011, and has been Chairperson since 2012. He also represents the SAIMM as an observer on the Council of the Geological Society of South Africa.
Ian started in the mining industry as a learner official with Rand Mines in 1985, and graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand with a bachelor’s degree in mining engineering in 1989. He worked at Durban Roodepoort Deep, Douglas Colliery, and Harmony Gold Mine before leaving Rand Mines in 1993 to take up the position of mine manager of a small gold mine on the East Rand.
Pierre Bredell, Pr.Eng. - B.Eng.(Mining)
Pierre has been an active Mining Engineer since 1995. His early years were with Randfontein Estates Gold Mines and Centrocen Projects. In 2000, Pierre co-founded and developed LQS International, a geological and mining engineering consultancy with offices in Johannesburg, Perth, Vancouver, Santiago, and London.
Scientific progress relies on the publication of ideas and experimental results that can be replicated, tested,and improved over time.
The first printed book on metallurgy to have been published in Europe is considered to be De la Pirotechnia, written in Italian by Vannoccio Biringuccio, and published in Venice in 1540. Together with De Re Metallica, written by Georgius Agricola and published in Latin in 1556, this can be considered to mark the start of scientific and technical literature in this field. Scientific publishing of journal papers has been in existence for 350 years, since the world's oldest and longest-running scientific journal, the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, was first published in London in 1665.
On 31 July 2015, the SAIMM Young Professionals Council (YPC) hosted the Career Development in the Minerals Industry event for final-year university students in mining and metallurgy, at Mintek in Randburg. The event was attended by students from the universities of Johannesburg, Pretoria, and South Africa.
The first Career Development in the Minerals Industry event, organized by the former Career Guidance and Education Committee of the SAIMM, took place in August 2013. This event was not held in 2014. The YPC, having taken over the mandate of promoting the interests of young people in the minerals industry (formerly assigned to the Career Guidance and Education Committee), took on the task of convening the event in 2015, as they considered it valuable for final-year university students.
The SAIMM recognizes the value that young professionals can contribute towards the Institute. On 12 September 2014, the Career Guidance and Education (CGE) committee held a workshop with the primary objective of convening an interim council of young professionals to:
The International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) held its forty-first annual meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 22 to 28 May 2015, in conjunction with the World Tunnel Congress 2015 ’Promoting Tunnelling in South East European Region’ organized by the ITA and the Croatian Association for Tunnelling and Underground Space.
Dear member
AMIRA International is building Data Metallogenica (www.dmgeode.com) as a web-based not-for-profit global encyclopaedia of ore deposits for the mining industry and associated institutions. While it is still growing at a rapid rate, DM already contains quality technical information on over 5,000 mineral deposits of all kinds from around the world. It has been supported by over 150 mining & exploration companies, many geological surveys and many professional societies/associations.
The South African Committee on Tunnelling (SANCOT) held its annual conference from 23 to 24 April 2015 under the theme of ’Mechanised Underground Excavation in Mining and Civil Engineering’. The conference took place at the beautiful Zulu Kingdom, Elangeni Hotel in Durban, South Africa.
