Update on the Department of Mining and Process Engineering at the Namibia University of Science and Technology

Last year I reported how John Ralston (posting of 27 May 2014), founding Director of the Ian Wark Research Institute in Australia, has been helping the Polytechnic of Namibia to transform to University status. John is now back in Namibia at the newly formed Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) and tells me that the first stage of the recruitment drive to the Department of Mining and Process Engineering (DMPE) has been very successful.

DMPE at NUST

There are now sixteen academic staff working in the Department, with a further five support staff giving a complement of twenty one. John says that the Department is very well led by its energetic Head, Associate Professor Harmony Musiyarira, who has a PhD fromWitwatersrand University. Harmony is an experienced metallurgical and environmental engineer, who has a fine combination of industrial and academic experience.

I was pleased to see that recent appointments include Professor Jonas Addai-Mensah. I have known Jonas for many years, and last caught up with him at ALTA 2011 in Perth (posting of 30 May 2011). He is a highly respected international researcher with wide experience in minerals processing and was formerly Professor and Associate Director at the WARK Institute, University of South Australia.

With Jonas in Perth, 2011

Other minerals engineering appointments are Associate Professor Chris Magombedze, who has a PhD from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Associate Professor Dick Groot, whose PhD was from the University of Port Elizabeth. Chris is a very experienced Metallurgical Engineer and has held key professional, leadership and management positions during career stints with Sanyati Copper Mine, University of Zimbabwe, NTNU, BHP Billiton, Barrick Gold, Xstrata Copper and MMG Australia, and Dick is a highly experienced hydrometallurgist with extensive academic experience at the University of Pretoria preceded by a distinguished career as a Principal Scientist at Mintek.

John Ralston with Dick, Harmony, Jonas and Chris at Rosh Pinah Zinc, Namibia

John informs me that the DMPE has recently moved into a new $200MNAM building, with excellent facilities, which it shares with Civil Engineering. There has been a very substantial upgrading of equipment with more to follow in 2017 and 2018. In addition there will be another three academic staff vacancies available shortly at Associate Professor/Senior Lecturer/ Lecturer level. The support staff numbers are also being increased. Importantly a new undergraduate strand in chemical engineering is to be introduced in 2017, incorporated within the Process Engineering of DMPE.

I am sure we will hear much more of this exciting new African University, so look out for more updates!

 

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