OBITUARY

Dr Ferdi Camisani - July 1939 - November 2020

Ferdi Camisani was born outside Parma, Italy just a few weeks after the declaration of World War II

He was a student of the father of geostatistics, Georges Matheron, in Fontainebleau, France and together with Danie Krige, wrote some of the first papers on the application of geostatistics in South Africa.

During his long career in South Africa he worked with De Beers, Anglo American, the Atomic Energy Corporation, and Anglovaal.

Ferdi was a member of the Geostatistical Association of Southern Africa (GASA) and the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM). On his retirement from SAIMM activities in 2012 the President, Gordon Smith, acknowledged his contribution as follows:

> Attendance of the CMMI meeting in 1997 which established a set of

standard reporting definitions which became known as the Denver Accord and which still remain today the backbone of international reporting standards.

> Chairpersonship, from its inception in 1996, of the Main Working Group which compiled the content for the first publication of the SAMREC Code in March 2000.

> Participation in the CMMI committee which was responsible for the adoption of the definitions in the Denver Accord by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN-ECE) in its International Framework Classification for Reserves and Resources - Solid Fuels and Mineral Commodities.

> Participation in October 2003 at the meeting in Reston VA that saw the formation of the Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards (CRIRSCO).

> Continued attendance, as a CRIRSCO representative, until May 2012, at the many sessions under the auspice of the Sustainable Energy Division of the UNECE. Notable among these activities was his membership of the Bureau for the Expert Group on Resource Classification, working on a classification framework for solid minerals and the oil and gas industry.

> Continued representation of South Africa and the SAMREC Code on the CRIRSCO Committee from its inception in 2002 until 2012. This included meetings in Chile, China, Russia, and the UK where he gained the respect of the many people he came in contact with and in doing so enhanced the reputation of professionals in the SAIMM and in South Africa.

> Representation of the SAIMM over many years, which included presentation of papers, at the Application of Computer and Operations Research in the Minerals Industry (APCOM) conference held every four years.

> Lecturing at the University of Pretoria in Geostatistics, a field in which he was a recognized leader.

Ferdi was also recognized throughout the world by the many people he encountered as a true gentleman for whom nothing was too much trouble. He will be sadly missed and we all will be the poorer for his passing. He is survived by his wife Lorraine and son Fernando.

J.R. Dixon