Training programme to close skills gap in minerals processing in NAM countries
South Africa is hosting 19 delegates from 13 Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) member states in a training programme to build capacity in minerals processing and beneficiation in these countries.
The three-month training programme, which opened on 13 May 2016 at Mintek in Johannesburg, is a collaboration between the NAM Science and Technology (S&T) Centre, the DST, Mintek and the Department of Mineral Resources. It is the second to be hosted at Mintek, which has become a leading provider of minerals processing and metallurgical engineering products and services to industries worldwide.
The training is expected to help the NAM countries to play a role in the new beneficiation drive to benefit their economic growth, industrialisation, skills development, technology transfer and innovation.
Developing countries, including South Africa, despite having large mineral resources, do not fully exploit these due to a lack of skills in adding value by advancing modern and innovative research and technology.
For example, most African countries still export minerals as ores, including gold and platinum, without significant downstream processing that leads to value addition.
Mining and minerals beneficiation is important in providing invaluable contributions to downstream industries, which hold the key to a country's industrial development. Mining is also an important source of foreign exsite2016, tax revenue, infrastructure creation and employment generation in developing countries, such as those affiliated to the NAM S&T Centre.
The participants, who are from Botswana, Egypt, Eritrea, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, will be exposed to Mintek's mineral processing techniques and undergo in-service training.
Policy-makers and government officials will receive training on how to formulate policy and implement it in the minerals processing and beneficiation field.
The focus on processing options and technologies is meant for experts already working in the policy space, but who have limited exposure to modern, advanced and new ways of minerals processing and beneficiation. As such, the focus is on basic minerals and mining research, as well as advanced minerals processing and mining, analytical capabilities and advanced beneficiation*.*
The beneficiation and technology focus will provide participants with the options best suited to their needs and the level of processing advancement in their respective countries.
