SPECIAL ARTICLES

Spotlight - 2001 student colloquium

The SAIMM Student Colloquium 2011 was held at the University of Pretoria, South Africa on 16 November 2011. A new format provided parallel sessions for mining students, metallurgy students, and poster presenters, thus giving more students a chance to participate in this prestigious event. Universities from southern Africa were also invited to participate, and students from the University of Zambia were welcomed to the event.

On this occasion each presenter was given a book prize and the best presentations from the Mining session and from the Metallurgy session were awarded R10 000 each in prize money. The best five presentations from each session are published in this April edition of the SAIMM Journal.

During 2011 it was decided that the SAIMM would recognize the contribution made by mentors of all the students who gave presentations. The mentors of the winning students were invited as SAIMM guests to attend any SAIMM conference of their choice. This is a small token of appreciation for the commitment and dedication of all mentors at all tertiary education institutions.

The SAIMM would like to thank our sponsors-Anglo Operations Ltd, SRK Consulting, Kumba Iron Ore, and Exxaro Resources Ltd-for making this colloquium a success and for showing their support to the future professionals in the industry.

The SAIMM Student Colloquium 2011 hosted 134 delegates. The keynote address, delivered by Dr Willem van Niekerk from Exxaro, focused on innovation as the key competence for growth, differentiation, and sustainability. The address included important concepts such as the definition of innovation versus systematic innovation, and was illustrated by examples from industry.

The technical programme for the Metallurgy session included physical metallurgy, corrosion, and leaching topics, and extractive metallurgy, milling efficiency, and the economic modelling of a ferrochrome furnace. The Mining session saw topics ranging from optimization of mechanized stope ore passes to a comparison between down-dip mining and breast mining. The technical program was of very high standard, and the students had the opportunity for open discussion with the delegates during the cocktail function.

At the cocktail function the president of SAIMM, Professor Nielen van der Merwe made the following awards:

• Mining: Stephanie Ferreira, University of Pretoria
• Metallurgy: Hannes Van der Watt, North West University
• Poster: Nadia Church, Stellenbosch University.

We appreciate the input from all the participants, organizers, and sponsors. For the 2012 colloquium we would like to welcome more of our colleagues from southern African institutions and even more participants from industry. We look forward to the SAIMM Student Colloquium 2012!

Z. Botha
Convener of the Student Colloquium