“Real Time Mining Engineering Education for Real Time Mining Engineers”
Department of Mining Engineering Newsletter (June 2010)
Welcome to our first newsletter. Many exciting things have
happened during the last six months. Undergraduate and
post graduate student numbers are continuously increasing
and the research profile in the department is slowly but
surely coming to its full potential.
UP Open day
The Mining Engineering Society constructed a shaft
headgear to draw potential engineering students. Many
prospective students visited our stand and lecturing staff
answered questions and promoted Mining Engineering as a
discipline.
Congratulations to Dr. Ronny Webber-Youngman, HOD,
promoted to Associate Professor as from July 2010
Overview of lecturing staff:
The department went through some difficult times with
three lecturers resigning during the course of 2008 and
2009 and joining the mining industry again. Fortunately,
over the last 18 months, all fulltime staff vacancies, except
one (rock engineering, but will covered by Johan Hanekom
from Industry) were filled by industry experts. The salary
subventions by the Minerals Education Trust Fund (METF)
made this possible and hereby acknowledged. Clive Knobbs
(Ex Rand Mines) joined as management and leadership
expert facilitating the augmentation of the departments
teaching styles and also lectures underground mining.
Wolter de Graaf (ex AEL) and Gawie van Heerden (Ex
Bafokeng), both Professional Engineers, were also
appointed as senior lecturers late last year. Wolter as
explosives & surface mining expert and Gawie as
underground mine design/planning expert and mine
financial evaluation. Gawie and Wolter to complete their
Masters degrees in Mining Engineering in the next two
years.
Nitha Olivier (Instructural designer) joined the department
to assist in getting all mining related course material in a
new electronic interactive visual format to be completed by
the end of 2011, in time for our ECSA accreditation visit for
2012. Finally, 2 additional positions have been secured for
post graduate students to assist in the daily activities of
running the department. Miguel Coelho and Michael Neale
graduated last year and have been released by their
employers for a one year period to complete their Honours
degrees in Mining Engineering.
Oupa Mothibi is lecturing the underground mining modules
and plays a key role in final year dissertations and also coordinates the post graduate courses. Oupa also completed
his Honours degree in Mining Engineering and the degree
will awarded during the September graduation ceremony,
now the Masters degree!!! Ronny Webber-Youngman still
lectures the mine environmental engineering course in the
department.
Department of Mining
New Image on the 3rd floor - Mineral Sciences building
The entrance to the department has been revamped and is
now arguably the most picturesque foyer on campus. Both
the staff room and the laboratory have had facelifts and
upgrades. Can anybody see Daleen Gudmanz’s hand in it??!
Graduation Ceremony April 2010: A total of 33 Mining
Engineering degrees were awarded to 27 under graduate
students and 6 post graduate students. Congratulations,
we want to wish them all the success in their mining
careers. The following awards were also made during the
ceremony:
Overall best final year student
Michael Neale
Best mine design in final year
Barend Human
Best environmental engineering student
Wilhelm Warschkuhl
Best strata control student
“The definition of lecturing: information passes from the lecturer’s notes to the student’s notes
without passing through the mind of either.”
“Real Time Mining Engineering Education for Real Time Mining Engineers”
Michael Neale
Well done to you all!
“The definition of lecturing: information passes from the lecturer’s notes to the student’s notes without passing
through the mind of either.”