Mintek: briefing
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MINERAL AND ENERGY PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
15 June 2001
MINTEK BUDGET AND PLANS 2001/2: BRIEFING
Chairperson: Mr DM Nkosi
Documents handed out:
Mintek Budget and Plans 2001/2 Presentation (see Appendix below for version without graphs)
Mintek website: www.mintek.co.za
SUMMARY
Mintek presented its budget and plans for 2001/2. The Committee discussed issues relating to capacity building, scientific innovations, recycling and environmental management. The Committee was concerned that the amount of money spent on research as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product is dropping. The Committee stressed that government funding of research must increase.
MINUTES
Mintek presentation
Dr Paul Jourdan, the CEO of Mintek (for nine months), told the Committee that the budget had been passed by the Board and the Ministry and only Parliament must now approve it. He pointed out that the Minister has suggested that all Chief Executive Officers should have performance contracts. These contracts will stipulate time periods for various tasks. If CEOs do not perform within the agreed time period, reasons must be given. He summarised the Mintek budget for various projects (see document).
Discussion
The Chairperson said that despite the interesting presentation, aspects were not clear to the Committee. He focused on capacity building and asked how Mintek selects and prioritises their projects. He also asked how Mintek funds projects such as Edu-map considering the reduced funding from government.
Dr Jourdan said that the environment has changed drastically over the last five years. Many laboratories have closed because companies such as Anglo American have moved elsewhere. He explained that Mintek is trying to increase capacity through universities and said that the universities are involved in their projects.
Further, Dr Jourdan explained that Mintek only prioritises problems involving complex metallurgy. Mintek will not prioritise a project that uses normal technology or will not add any income to the organisation.
Mr Nkosi (ANC) pointed out that the presentation did not deal extensively with either waste management or recycling. He asked Dr Jourdan to elaborate on the issues relating to the mining dumps and waste management.
Dr Jourdan replied that all waste material is recycled and the metals are used for building or road construction. Waste is extracted and the metal is recycled. He said that Mintek would like to be more involved in the coal dumps but it is difficult to do all things at once. Mintek would like small-scale operators to deal with the problem in Witbank, Ogies and Springbok. The intention is to extract usable coal from these dumps. Mintek will clean the waste so that it does not catch fire.
Ms Motobatse (ANC) referred to Mintek’s inventions and innovations and asked how Mintek patents its projects. She also asked where the Zenzele project is situated.
Dr Jourdan said that Mintek tries to patent their projects as much as possible. He explained that Zenzele is a demo center based at Mintek. The intention is to extend Zenzele into small-scale fields like the diamond mining areas. In future they hope to extend Zenzele to all areas.
Mr Oliphant (ANC) asked what impact Mintek has in the other provinces and what happens to mine dumps in these areas.
Dr Jourdan replied that minerals are not found in all the provinces. Mintek must operate where there are minerals and the location of minerals is concentrated in particular geological and metallurgic terrains. He said that even though some industrial minerals such as ceramics and limestone are found in other areas, these products are not as valuable as gold and other minerals.
Mr Oliphant asked how Mintek is involved with laser technology and diamond cutting technology. He was informed that the technology is produced by John Bond. He asked whether the technology developed by Mintek belonged to Mintek or to the international experts hired by Mintek.
Dr Jourdan said that John Bond had made a presentation to Mintek but he could not say whether this related to technology or not. He affirmed that all technology used by Mintek belongs to South Africa.
Mr Oliphant wanted to know how South Africa could adapt mining methods used by other countries to create more jobs.
Dr Jourdan said that Mintek is only marginally involved in deep mining. Mintek is involved in processing and not mining. They extract economic elements from rocks. Mintek prefers using machinery underground because this minimizes mining casualties. Ultimately he said that Mintek is not qualified to say whether a foreign system is better or worse than the systems currently used in South Africa.
Prof Mohamed (ANC) asked who provides Mintek with its core funding. He pointed out that the amount of money spent on research as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product is dropping. Further, he argued that the government is not providing funding for research and foreign funding is also diminishing. In essence he argued that Mintek should receive the largest portion of funding available for science.
Dr Jourdan said that the funding issue is a very sensitive issue. He insisted that if the state provided more funding for Mintek, the nature of Mintek would change. He argued that the state should maintain Mintek for its original purpose - to develop innovative new technologies. He agreed that funding both from the government and foreign donors is decreasing. He suggested that the issue be debated in Parliament. He added that if Mintek succeeds it is expected to do more and he said this explains why Mintek has been pushed thus far.
Prof Mohamed then asked why the gold mining industry does not opt for bacterial leaching because bioleaching is very important.
Dr Jourdan said bioleaching is not good for certain mines and that it is only good for the Wits gold. Bioleaching is only applicable to South Africa because some of the mines are very old. Bioleaching is more effective particularly in areas with ores because they are difficult to treat.
Prof Mohamed pointed out that bursaries have been declining for white males since 2000, but have been stable for blacks since 2000. He asked if this meant that no bursaries were available for whites in 2000.
Dr Jourdan said that Mintek expects the percentage of white bursars to drop to fifteen percent. He said this is acceptable because it is a reflection of the percentage of whites in the country. However, he said that Mintek must only accept the best students to remain world class hence it does not accept students only because they are from a particular designated group. Dr Jourdan added that they are planning to reduce the number of bursaries but improve the quality of the bursary.
The Chairperson suggested that the Mintek Board assist the Committee on policy issues. The Chairperson highlighted the issue of government funding and support raised by Prof Mohamed. Dr Jourdan agreed that he would take the issue forward.
Mr Nkosi insisted that the issue of recycling does not only apply to mining but to other areas as well. He suggested that a method be established to deal with these other areas. He referred to the huge piles of steel in the harbour. He asked whether there are any processing methods that can prevent hazardous waste.
Dr Jourdan said that they are working on this issue. He said that all their methods tend to be environmental friendly. There are two strategies available. The first is to clean up the old mines where old methods are used, because Mintek cannot introduce new methods in old mines. The second method is to introduce new methods in new mines.
Prof Mohamed commented that sciences are now pushed to find commercial funding. He highlighted the need for science councils to raise this issue with Parliament and Mintek is one of the organisations with the highest commercial funding.
Ms Ngaleka asked whether Mintek ensures that international skills are transferred locally so that it need not rely on international skills indeterminately.
Dr Jourdan replied that Mintek uses a minimal number of international consultants. He added that when they do use these consultants, they make sure that they get everything possible from them because they are too expensive.
Ms Ngaleka then asked if Mintek could indicate its gender balance in all its operations.
Dr Jourdan responded that, similar to the rest of the mining and metallurgy industry, Mintek has a shortage of women. He said that Mintek is trying to recruit more women through bursary offerings.
The Chairperson concluded by saying that the Committee would consider ways in which to progress in terms of the points discussed.
The meeting was adjourned.
Appendix:
The Mintek Budget and Plans
2001/2002
An overview of the technical and social plans of Mintek for the budgetary year 2001/2
Planned expenditure 2001/2002
Expenditure planned |
2001/02 |
Gold |
41,706,019 |
Platinum |
23,748,261 |
Ferrous metals |
38,763,657 |
Non-ferrous metals |
55,736,442 |
Industrial minerals |
22,610,925 |
Opportunity enhancement |
11,737,458 |
Total |
194,302,761 |
Planned income 2001/2002
Income planned |
2001/02 |
Core Funding |
76,872,000 |
Earmarked funding |
10,550,000 |
Commercial income |
112,980,000 |
Sundry income |
6,000,000 |
Total |
206,402,000 |
- Beneficiation
Jewellery (by end 2001)
National hallmarking/quality assurance
National programme for mainstreaming products to markets
National Jewellery product innovation centre
Establishment of rural incubators, hives co-ops and JVs
Enviroplas (by end 2002)
process based on the DC arc furnace for the treatment of zinc bearing metallurgical waste to produce an environmentally acceptable slag ill solve many environmental problems associated with the presence of heavy metals.
Bioleaching for base metals(by end 2002)
Successful demonstration of the bioleaching of complex polymetallic concentrate in Mexico.
Engineering of the bioleaching of clean chalcopyrite.
Development of high-temperature heap bioleaching of low-grade predominantly chalcopyritic ore,
Titanium chlorination (by end 2003)
evaluate known technology for slag chlorination and sponge consolidation
Magnesium from dolomite(by end 2004)
develop an efficient and low cost thermal process for magnesium metal
Coega ferronickel and ISSP
Export of mineral technologies, capital goods and services
Technology commercialisation
High quality, focussed technologies & services
Partnerships and joint ventures
Marketing strategy
The Americas
Australia and Africa
Asia
Foreign income
Cluster development strategy
Resource based technology strategy (RBTS)
Regional strategies for the mineral processing sector
Commercial projects in the region
COSAK (Chambisi)
Heap bioleach
Floatstar (Namibia)
PlantStar (Zimbabwe)
SADC – MCU participation
Capacity building
Availability of mineral resources
Metallurgical opportunities in wastes
Database of surficial resources (DACST - SA only) later SADC
Beneficiation projects in the region
Cobalt (Chambisi)
Zimbabwe ferroalloy and stainless steel
Mozambique ferronickel
Zambezi valley mineral based industry potential
Development of Small, medium and micro-enterprises
Support to small scale mines
Whole package incl. downstream applications
National small mining development programme (NSC)
Small scale mining unit
Will be set up in 2001
Technology demonstration centre
Internal transformation (more under HR)
Employment equity
Procurement policy
Mintek structure
Mintek budget 2001/2002
Gold industry programme
Bacterial leaching with extremely thermophyllic cultures
Beaconsfield bacterial-oxidation plant in Beaconsfield, Tasmania.
Commissioning of the Laizhou bacterial-oxidation plant in Shandong Province, China..
Nelson Gold of feasibility-study design criteria for a bacterial-oxidation plant for the Chore refractory gold deposit in Tajikistan..
Feasibility-study pilot plant campaign for Nelson Gold on the Taror gold-copper deposit in Tajikistan, leading to the development of design criteria for this plant.
Interpreting expert system
Consortium with Lonrho and Professor Loveday. It is likely that milling will be chosen for piloting the technology. DACST has given preliminary approval for funding
Autek
Catalyst project, which is a joint venture with Anglogold and
Goldtest and other services
Igoli and environmentally acceptable practice standards for small miners
Platinum industry programme
Recovery of PGMs from UG2 ore with elevated levels of Cr2O3
Technology which will enable smelting of PGM concentrates containing elevated levels of chromium (5 % Cr2O3), which, in turn, will lead to higher PGM recoveries during flotation.
Optimisation of ultra high temperature Platinum alloys
Conroast
Ferrous metals industry programme
Ferronickel process
[Ed note: Diagram not included]
Development of more economical stainless steels
Duplex stainless steels and smartbolts, (both funded), are expected to continue.
Vanadium stainless steel research will continue if funded by DACST.
Improvement of intravascular stents
The work on adding platinum and /or gold to stainless steel for human body implants will continue
Furnace control
Integration of Minstral into the PlantStar platform
Development of the Minstral 6 for six-in-line electrode furnaces.
Non-ferrous metals industry programme
Bioleaching of chalcopyrite
Engineering of the bioleaching of clean chalcopyrite using the extremely thermophilic bacterial culture. The availability of the Mexican demonstration plant facility may provide an opportunity for the larger scale testing of a reactor with sulfolobus culture
Thermal magnesium process
Develop a process at a 100 kg/h Mg demonstration level
Zinc refining
Build pilot plant for refining PWG Zinc to Special High Grade Zinc
Enviroplas
Process flow model to appraise various waste treatment processes with different mixes of feed material
Industrial minerals industry programme
Savmin
To demonstrate the technology on different mine water (esp. on coal mines) and extend this test work to water generated from various metallurgical processes
Chlorination of high titanium slag
Evaluate different technology for the chlorination of high titanium slag, specifically the fines fraction.
Construct and commission test facilities for the execution of chlorination experiments under steady-state operational conditions.
Conduct sponge consolidation and remelting tests using a vacuum induction furnace and a vacuum arc remelting furnace. Evaluate the economics of the process.
Edumap
Originally the Mintek Aurora Programme (1992-2000)
Transformed into an NGO that can serve wider interests
EDUMAP launched on 03 April 2001 under the leadership of Mr N Melville
Minquiz
A national Mintek project aimed at stimulating the interest of school going children and technology (specifically metallurgy)
Mintek Bursars
In house training
Objective
Creates opportunity for employee development that supports Mintek business
Creates employee development opportunities in the nation’s interest
Operational goals
Enhance business and financial understanding in Mintek
Support and enhance problem solving and decision making skills
Provide Adult Basic Education and Training
Equip managers and supervisors with the necessary management skills
Sensitisation of employees with regards to HIV/aids
Mentorship
Identification and development of:
Possible managers/supervisors
Technical specialists
Transformation of Mintek
Employment equity
Business development
Advance skills/knowledge base
Career path development and succession planning
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