Agrément South Africa, an agency of the Department of Public Works managed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has awarded 29 fit-for-purpose certificates during the 2016/2017 financial year following a rigorous process of testing and evaluation. The CSIR has been managi...
Continuous assessment of rock mass response by microseismic monitoring
The mining industry is one of the main drivers of the South African economy. Traditional drill-and-blast mining, practiced particularly in the South African platinum and gold mines, is both expensive and fairly dangerous in terms of the limited understanding of the rock mass response to deformati...
Opening up Africa’s road industries to new innovative products
Roads in Africa have often been challenging to travel on because of the different types of pavement failures. With the help of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR) world-class bituminous binders laboratory, US-based science company, DuPont, is changing how roads are built i...
Development of methodologies for the measurement of diesel exhaust emissions and diesel particulate matter
The project seeks to find a suitable technique, or a combination of techniques, to measure the different compounds found in diesel engine emissions. These techniques will be tested for feasibility, accuracy and robustness under controlled conditions and under real-mining conditions. Ultimately, r...
Assessment of statutory equipment compliance for South African mines based on a centralised database
This project reviews how the maintenance of statutory equipment is scheduled, inspected and reported in South African mines with the aim to develop a conceptual centralised database system for the maintenance of statutory equipment in terms of scheduling, inspection and reporting. During an incid...
Developing and enhancing CSIR geophysics capabilities
The project aims to develop and enhance the CSIR’s existing geophysics capabilities to allow for an increased capability and offering in applied mining geophysics and the emerging field of hydrogeophysics. The CSIR’s geophysics capability is based on a number of versatile high-resolution imaging ...
Geophysical delineation of acid mine drainage footprint in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Area
The objective of this project is to investigate improved characterisation and dynamic monitoring of the acid mine drainage (AMD) footprint in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Area by using high-resolution geophysical imaging. The effect of AMD on surface and groundwater resources in the Cra...
Geotechnical and environmental sensor integration for safer mines
This collaborative project between South Africa and China is aimed at enhancing knowledge, skills and technology for the sustainability of the mining industry. The project focuses on developing an integrated mine monitoring system for continuous monitoring of daily rockmass stability and prevaili...
South Africa's coal mines to process low-grade coal to produce quality products
South Africa’s best-quality coal, located in the central Highveld basin, is depleting and alternative sources of coal need to be developed to supply the country with coal in the future. The quality of coal mined in the central basin is also gradually becoming poorer while the coal market is incre...
CSIR role in advancing the mining cluster
The first meeting after the mining component of Operation Phakisa was recently held at the CSIR’s Johannesburg facility, which will soon be known as the Mining hub. CSIR Group Executive: Operations, Laurens Cloete, opened the meeting by welcoming all participants. “We are open to the institutiona...