Core Affiliates

Andy Buffler is Head of the Department of Physics at UCT, and is Director of the Positron Emission Particle Tracking facility (PEPT Cape Town) at iThemba labs, which was established and has been supported with financial assistance from the Chair. He provides expertise in radionuclide labelling for PEPT experiments (which to date have included flow visualization in tumbling mills, screens and heap leaching). He was co-supervisor of MSc students Michael van Heerden and Cong Liu.

Tony Black brings expertise in the socio-economic evaluation of mineral value chains. He is principal supervisor of Luke Farrell, a MPhil (PPE) student who is part of the KZ-N project, and co-supervisor of current MPhil student Shuhei Kato.

Tony Leiman is the Director of the Environmental Policy Research Unit at UCT. He brings expertise in environmental and resource economics. He was principal supervisor of Nikol Hearn, an MCom student who was part of the KZ-N project.

Brett Cohen is a principal consultant at The Green House, a niche sustainability and environmental management consultancy, in collaboration with whom the project to develop a minerals beneficiation strategy for KZ-N province was undertaken. He is also part of the energy systems analysis and planning programme at UCT’s Energy Research Centre. He co-supervised Takunda Chitaka, an MPhil student in Sustainable Minerals Resource Development, and Nikol Hearn, an MComm student, both of whom were part of the KZ-N project.

Brian Chicksen is the Vice President Group Sustainability: Health & EVP Support for AngloGold Ashanti. AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining business with operations in nine countries across four continents and Brian has worked for the past twenty years for AngloGold Ashanti Limited, in a variety of positions. Roles have included Managing Director of AngloGold Ashanti Health (Pty) Ltd, Vice President Safety Transformation and his current role which he has occupied from 2013. He has a medical background as a Specialist Physician. His current accountabilities include leading the global health portfolio, as well as design of the AngloGold Gold Ashanti sustainability strategic framework and enabling its implementation across the business. Brian holds a non-executive position with the Hospice Association of the Witwatersrand (Chairman), and is a Visiting Fellow at Leeds University Business School. He has previously held a non-executive position on the Rand Mutual Assurance Board, and has been a ministerial appointee to the South African Safety in Mines Research Advisory Committee (SIMRAC).

Caroline Digby is a development economist working on mining and sustainable development issues, particularly relating to mine closure and post-mining regeneration. Most recently, she was Director of Centre for Sustainability in Mining and Industry at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She is now working with the Minerals to Metals group at the University of Cape Town in a visiting capacity. Previously she has held posts at the Eden Project, the International Council on Mining and Metals, the International Institute for Environment and Development and CRU International. In 2017 she was appointed as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town

Dave Reid is emeritus professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at UCT. He brings expertise in geology and mineralogy. His interest is in mineral carbonation of platinum tailings, as a means of capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide emissions. He was the primary supervisor of MSc(Eng) student Jacques Vogeli and co-supervisor of MSc(Eng) student Nicole Meyer.

Divine Fuh’s core research looks at “how African urban residents seek ways of smiling in the midst of suffering”. He was the primary supervisor of MPhil student Ayanda Manqoyi, who was part of the KZ-N project, studying the emergence of entrepreneurship among young people in mining areas and how this contributes to sustaining the everyday life of communities.

Elspeth is the Deputy Director of the South Africa Office of the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), and directs its Sustainability Practitioner Programme in South Africa. Before joining CISL, she designed and directed various leadership development programmes for companies through the UCT Graduate School of Business, from 2006 to 2008. She directs the Strategic Social Engagement course in the MPhil specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, and is co-supervisor of MSc students Lewis Tumbama and Mandisi Petane.

Francis Petersen was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UCT in October 2014. Previously, as Dean of the Faulty of Engineering & the Built Environment, he was extremely supportive of the Minerals to Metals Signature Theme, and participated actively in its initiatives. He was chair of the Management Board from 2008 to 2014. In the research area, he had a special interest in mine safety, and was co-supervisor of MSc student Jude Bonsu.

Glen is a Principal Research Fellow at the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland, where he is the Program Leader for the Life Cycles of Mines and Metals Research Program. This program has a holistic and integrative focus on environmental impacts, social implications, technical innovations and economic factors along the metal value chain and over the life of a mining project or operation. Glen’s involvement with UCT has been primarily through the supervision of students who are enrolled in the MPhil degree specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development.

Prof Mostert's original interests in property law matured into specialisations in Land Law and Mineral Law. In these fields, she has contributed to the most authoritative sources on South African Law, addressing issues of constitutional property protection, landlessness, tenure security, restitution, nationalisation, land governance and mineral resource regulation. Her work on mineral law has been cited with approval by both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court in South Africa. She emphasizes the state's duties to achieve better living standards and ensure responsible individual autonomy. She defends the notion of engaged citizenship in the enhancement of freedom and quality of life for individuals and the community and comments on the role of the judiciary in building a society subscribing to principles of accountability and trust in property law. Prof Mostert is rated by the National Research Foundation (NRF) as an internationally renowned researcher. She also held fellowships of the Commonwealth Programme, the Max Planck Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation. The South African Department of Science and Technology nominated her as a finalist for the Young Women in Science Award 2012.

Herman Meyer is a development consultant and economist. Apart from his work with the MtM team, he also collaborates with the Mineral Law in Africa Project (MLiA), Dept of Private Law, UCT as well as the Research on Social and Economic Policy Programme (ReSEP), Dept of Economics, Stellenbosch University. He has worked with development institutions and governments such as the World Bank, UNICEF, the DBE and the Namibian Government. His focus is on inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary research and project implementation. He has done research on a range of issues amongst others social innovation, entrepreneurship and academic entrepreneurship

Formerly in the Department of Physics at UCT, Indresan Govender is now Professor of Particle Technology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and honorary Professor in the Centre for Minerals Research at UCT, where he heads up the computational and continuum granular flow modelling research. He is also the research director of the Positron Emission Particle Tracking facility (PEPT Cape Town) at iThemba labs. He brings expertise in DEM, PEPT and X-ray tomography. He is the co-supervisor of PhD student Olumide Ogunmodimu.

Prof J-P Franzidis was the founding Director of UCT’s Minerals to Metals Signature Theme (2007–2014) and UCT’s inaugural SARChI Chair in Mineral Beneficiation (2008–2014). He joined UCT’s Chemical Engineering Department in 1983, and was involved in flotation research for over 30 years. In 1996, he joined the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC) at the University of Queensland, Australia, to lead the AMIRA P9 project, a major research collaboration between the JKMRC and UCT, McGill University, the University of Newcastle (Australia) and Hacettepe University in Turkey. He returned to UCT in 2007 to direct the newly-formed Minerals to Metals Signature Theme, and was instrumental in establishing the Master of Philosophy degree specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development. He retired from UCT at the end of 2014, and now lives in Australia. He continues to participate in the MPhil, as part of the teaching team of the Research Methodology and Communication course.

Jeremy Mann spent most of his career working for Anglo American in various roles in operating and managing positions in metal production, as lead process design engineer on projects involved in numerous global base metal feasibility studies and engineering projects, including project management of capital projects. He was General Manager of the Anglo American Research facility, and before his retirement was Head of GeoSciences, Process and S&SD Technology development for the Group. In that role he represented the company on a number of global collaborative research organisations, advisory boards and industry research institutions. Currently he is an adjunct professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, and is the technology manager for SAMMRI and an independent project manager for AMIRA International, a global broker, facilitator and overseer of syndicated collaborative projects. His engagement with MtM has been as mentor and supervisor in projects that specifically explore mining projects as a joint venture partnership between industry, the regulator and the community and all stakeholders that will realise shared value accruing to all the joint venture participants.

Jewette Masinja in a senior lecturer in the Department of Metallurgy and Mineral Processing of the School of Mines at the University of Zambia (UNZA). He was previously Head of Group, Environmental Services, of Zambia Consolidated Copper Mining company (ZCCM) and supervised the first ever formal environmental impact assessment of the mining industry in Zambia in 1997. He represented UNZA in the discussions that led to the establishment of the MPhil in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, and directs the UNZA part of the programme. He supervises several research students in the programme and contributes to the course in Environmental Stewardship of Mineral Resources.

Masafumi Nagao is a Visiting Professor at the Institute for the Advancement of Sustainability at the United Nations University in Tokyo, Japan, and project manager of the Education for Sustainable Development in Africa (ESDA) project. This project brings together eight leading African universities in a graduate-level education program for professionals to be engaged in sustainable development in Africa. Professor Nagao made many trips to UCT, and was instrumental in securing funding from the African Development Bank for the MPhil specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development.

Prof Mike Nicol, a former Vice-President and Director of the Hydrometallurgy Division at Mintek, provides expertise in electrochemistry and the manufacture of mineral electrodes. He assisted with the supervision of PhD student Thandazile Moyo. On behalf of MtM, he carried out the national review of the state of hydrometallurgy research at South African universities in 2012, and presented short courses in hydrometallurgy at UCT from 2012 to 2013 to post-graduate students in hydrometallurgy from around South Africa, and hosted research seminars presented by those students.

Dr Nadja Kunz works at the interface of research and practice to improve water management practices within the mining and extractives sector. Her interdisciplinary background spans chemical engineering, business management and policy analysis. She has extensive operational experience in the Australian mining, oil and gas sector, and currently consults as a Water Specialist for the International Finance Corporation which has included a major field project in Mongolia. Nadja received her PhD from the Sustainable Minerals Institute in 2013, followed by a postdoc at Eawag in Switzerland, and will commence as Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia in 2017. She visited UCT in 2016 to establish research areas of mutual interest, and is looking forward to ongoing collaborations.

Dr Patrick Dicks is Technical Director of Senmin International (Pty) Ltd, a company that manufactures flotation reagents. He has expertise in all commercial and technical aspects associated with the purchasing of raw materials used in the manufacture of flotation and polyacrylamide reagents, and in research & development of the aforementioned reagents used in the beneficiation of a wide range of ore bodies. He provided financial support and co-supervised the MSc student Chucky Kunene.

Professor Phillip Kirsch managed the RISKGATE and Mining and Health programmes at the Sustainable Minerals Institute, University of Queensland. He chaired a one-day round-table discussion at UCT on behalf of MtM on what issues a mining company should consider in engaging with a local community five years before a mine started.

Quentin Campbell is a professor at the School of Chemical and Minerals Engineering, North-West University, South Africa. He has 22 accredited journal articles to his credit as well as over 95 international and local conference papers. He has acted as study leader or co-study leader for 28 completed PhD and Masters’ students and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He co-supervised J Oroala together with Prof J-P Franzidis during a Master’s degree study.

Ralph Hamann is Professor at the UCT Graduate School of Business, and holds a Research Chair with the UCT African Climate and Development Initiative. He leads a team of researchers looking at why and how organisations contribute to transformations to sustainability, and how a culture of sustainability may be embedded in large corporations. He lectures a significant component of the Strategic Social Engagement course in the MPhil specializing in Sustainable Minerals Resource Development.

Robert Schouwstra is a mineralogical consultant with over 30 years of experience on the mineralogical aspects of various commodities and mining and processing operations. Involved in investigations on numerous orebodies he obtained a comprehensive knowledge of the impact of mineralogy on the concentrators, the behaviour of minerals in concentrators, smelting processes and hydrometallurgical operations. Combining his experience in geology, processing and process mineralogy he shaped and managed the Process and Mineralogical Research Department for Anglo American. He brings expertise in mineralogical technique development, process mineralogy and geometallurgy.

Wynand van Dyk is a chemical engineer with over 20 years of experience in South African platinum mines, including a period as Senior Technical Manager at Lonmin Platinum. He is now managing director of Arete Consultants and project manager of Elandsfontein Phosphate Mine. He brings expertise in safety and operations risk management in the minerals industry. He was co-supervisor of MSc student Jude Bonsu, and is co-supervisor of MPhil students Clive Mwansa and Daniel Mabeti.