Wits Mining Research Institute

Mining is where Wits started and the University is located amongst some of the world’s richest mineral resources. The University grew out of the South African School of Mines, which started in Kimberley in 1896, later becoming the South African School of Mines and Technology in Johannesburg in 1911.

Wits has over the past century supplied South Africa and the global mining industry with geologists, mining engineers, metallurgists and managers, and has been generously supported by industry through endowments, student bursaries and research grants.

The Wits Mining Research Institute will be home to Africa’s leading multidisciplinary research in all technical, social, and economic aspects of mining. It will help a key part of the South African economy to reach its potential while developing sustainable communities and safeguarding the environment. The Institute will reverse a recent decline in South Africa’s mining research output. It will expand mining research from geology and technical studies to include the social impact of mining, community participation, land rehabilitation and labour issues.

The new Institute will stimulate collaboration between disciplines as diverse as law, management, sociology, migration, economics, engineering, healthcare, materials science, geology, energy, environmental science and community development. Among specific challenges are the extraction of gold in narrow reefs at depths hostile to human survival, and the identification and exploitation of resources in remote and sensitive environments.

Mining is vital to the South African economy and is key to jobs and development. It contributes substantially to the South African GDP and half of export revenue. South Africa has some of the richest mineral resources in the world. More than half a million people are directly employed in mining, and another half million indirectly. Yet the sector underperforms against potential, has limited value-adding beneficiation, and faces threats including cost increases and demands for nationalisation.

The mining sector also faces the triple pressures of commercial survival, increasing labour and community benefits from mining, and protecting the natural environment. The Institute will contribute to the opening of new mining areas, a national mine closure strategy, the development of a minerals beneficiation economy, and the nurturing of skills in a key sector of the economy. Research will include exploration, safety in mining, economic geology and the efficient extraction of resources, environmental sustainability, deep-level mining, safety and occupational health, and the full spectrum of social impacts and mine rehabilitation.

The Institute will provide independent evidence-based advice to industry and government. It will undertake valuable contract research and development, develop skills and expertise, and increase South Africa’s capacity for mining research and development.

For more information, contact:
Interim Director: Prof. Nielen van der Merwe
+27 11 717 7402
nielen.vandermerwe@wits.ac.za