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Company Announcement: GeoForum, Africa’s premier geological exchange takes place at the Turbine Hall in Newtown

24th June 2013

By: Creamer Media Reporter

  

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This conference provides a platform for those involved in the geosciences to interact and share information on commodity explorations, developments in current mineral deposits and gain additional insight in Geoscience techniques from both academic and industry points of view.

The geological exhibition, career fair and excursion to the Magaliesberg Cable Car and Geological Overview drive on the last day of GeoForum present opportunities to network with colleagues old and new.

African mineral exploration continues – always searching for prime deposits that the mineral sector can exploit and develop in supporting the social and economic needs of the continent.

The opening keynote address will be given by Murray Hitzman Professor of Economic Geology at the Colorado School of Mining. He maintains that what were once laboratory experiments have now become the new technologies of wind turbines, solar energy collectors and electric cars. The mineral elements required by these technologies will be needed in significant quantities but are not presently mined or traded in large quantities.

Ongoing fields of research are now critical if technology is to develop sufficiently to meet future resource energy needs. Nevertheless ‘investments in scientific and human capital in these areas by governments, industry and academia have declined precipitously in the past several decades leading to a potential crisis for the future,’ he adds.

The CSIR has developed small mining equipment able to mine stopes too small for human access. The machine can be used in stopes with up to thirty degrees of dip, has the intelligence to perform tasks as instructed and find its way along safe paths, and has sensors to map the excavation while simultaneously estimating the condition of the hanging wall at the same time. The paper presented will describe its potential in rescue operations and the rationale behind the development.

Richard Schodde Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia has a long term outlook for the global exploration industry. His regression model quantifies the relationship between commodity prices and world economic growth and exploration expenditures. He maintains there is a symbiotic relationship between commodity prices and exploration spend – the key driver being the amount of metal found versus metal demand. The challenge for industry is to develop new techniques for exploring efficiently while recognising the importance of geochemical and geophysical methods for district selection and drill-targeting.

The West African Exploration Initiative (WAXI) is an ambitious research and training project focusing on the mineral potential of the Leo-Man Shield. The area covered by the shield includes Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Gambia.  The project is a classic collaboration between industry, government and university (including the University of the Witwatersrand) which aims to assist exploration companies and state geological surveys while helping local institutions build sustainable capacity.

Africa continues to provide new mineral deposits.  Exploration of the Wigu Hill complex in Tanzania has revealed rare earth minerals which are typical of deposits found in Bayan Obo in China and Mountain Pass, California. Each of these areas has economic grades.

The Kalahari Manganese Field hosts almost 80% of the world’s known land-based resource of manganese ore and metal. The Kamoa deposit in the DRC contains indicated resources of 43.5 billion pounds of copper and inferred resources of 9.8 billion pounds as of January 2013.

The Dallol springs of Ethiopia appear to be unique as their strong iron enrichments cannot be explained by simple interactions between meteoric groundwater and juvenile volcanic rock.

As Indian iron ore production decreases and China’s industry increases, the future of West African iron ore beams bright.
Over a thousand borehole data were captured to construct a regional-scale 3D kinematic model of the Bushveld Complex using layers of Rustenburg Layered Suite as market horizons. It reveals the cross sections, stress patterns in addition to some previously unknown faults.

At present there is significant interest in the shale gas potential of the southern Main Karoo Basin with exploration rights received from Bundu Gas, Chevron and Shell International. Until official exploration begins, available stratigraphic, mineralogical and geochemical data from legacy investigation wells may be used to model shale reservoir properties in the region. It has been proposed in a study commissioned by the U.S. Energy Information Agency that a total of 485 trillion cubic feet of shale gas may be recoverable but this is highly speculative. The actual resource will remain undiscovered until a hydraulically fractured test well produces gas of commercial interest.

The Waterberg Coalfield has long been touted as the replacement for the Witbank Coalfield which now has limited resources. Water scarcity, distances from port and limited rail have hindered the development of this coalfield. Dawie van Wyk of GeoCoal Services examines the exportation of carbon products or electricity as an alternative scenario.

Modern analytical techniques and innovations such as the microfocal X-Ray Computed Tomography and the ultra-high resolution 3D seismic reflection imaging will be seen to play a major role in modern mining.

GeoForum 2013 is diverse, informative and interesting with a wide range of dynamic speakers presenting academic and commercial papers and posters.

Issued by: Geological Society of South Africa.
All wishing to attend this conference should contact the conference GeoForum secretariat:

RCA Conference Organisers: 

Robbie@rca.co.za 

+27 11 487 3819   

www.rca.co.za/geoforum2013/index.html

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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