The State-owned Council for Mineral Technology (Mintek) has published a hard-covered glossy coffee-table book to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the organisation, which has led the way in mineral research and development (R&D) in South Africa and passed on valuable South African-developed technologies to the world.
In the past decade, Mintek has developed and installed online cyanide-measurement systems at gold mines in Peru, Mexico and Tasmania in 2004; piloted large-scale heap bioleaching technology for copper sulphide, in southern Iran, in 2005; and unveiled a nanotechnology centre for the production of platinum catalysts for fuel cells in 2007.
Speaking at Mintek’s eightieth anniversary celebration earlier this year, South Africa’s new Mineral Resources Minister, Ngoako Ramatlhodi, said that it was incumbent on Mintek to lead the way in mineral and metallurgical R&D in view of South Africa’s considerable mineral reserves and that he was pleased Mintek would be expand-ing its learnership programmes by enriching its graduate development interventions and intensifying the training of artisans and technical professionals.