Mining executives with decades of experience are finding that certification that qualifies individuals for management positions in deep underground mines does not necessarily ensure the appointees have the know-how required for underground safety.

Top mining executives Mining Weekly has communicated with of late are putting new certificate-holding recruits through their own on-mine tests before allowing them to take charge underground as mine captains, shift bosses and the like, even if they arrive clutching blasting, mine overseer and manager certification.

In at least one recent safety-breach instance, Mining Weekly understands that the mine captain involved now faces a likely culpable homicide charge for not working according to plan and then lying about it.

Rock stresses are the source of accidents and, unless remaining rock engineering expertise is brought to the fore, Mining Weekly fears for the longevity of deep hard-rock, narrow-reef mining.

As independent consultant Dr John Bristow pointed out to Mining Weekly in a recent communication, the natural closing of open stopes, development infrastructure and holes in old mines is ongoing and all these nonstatic open spaces will be under immense strain.

Rock adjustment, destressing and seismic activity must be huge, Bristow noted, before drawing attention to the largely unheeded warning on fading rock-engineering expertise that Professor Dick Stacey of the School of Mining Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand sounded four years ago.

As things stand today, a huge responsibility is falling on the shoulders of the newly launched Mandela Mining Precinct, in Carlow road, Johannesburg, where the public sector, through the Department of Science and Technology and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the private sector, through the Chamber of Mines (CoM), and universities are trying to pick up where previous researchers left off.

When Mining Weekly interviewed Stacey in 2011, he said there were 600 to 800 people involved in full-time mining research in South Africa in the early 1990s. Today, the Mandela Mining Precinct has managed to assemble an initial 70 people, while using a hub-and-spoke link to universities.

South Africa needs to do something special again, with Bristow recalling the huge roles played by the likes of Dave Ortlepp and Alex Mendesky and the need for new rock-engineering champions. The country needs to accelerate research and development and this responsibility is now falling squarely on the shoulders of Mandela Mining Precinct co-director (CSIR) Navin Singh, Mandela Mining Precinct co-director (CoM) Alastair Macfarlane, Mining Equipment Manufacturers of South Africa (MEMSA) chairperson Freddy Mugeri and MEMSA CEO Dr Paul Jourdan.

At this stage of the game, skilled South Africans need to be reminded of the ‘Thuma Mina’ rallying call of President Cyril Ramaphosa and be prepared to lend a hand.