A research report submitted to the Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Finance and Investment, 2016 / This research investigated the application of capital budgeting and risk analysis techniques and their effect on company performance in the South African mining industry. Studies internationally and locally have reported an improved application of capital budgeting techniques— away from the naïve, non-discounted cash flow techniques of the Payback Period (PBP) to the more appropriate discounted cash flow methods of Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). In a survey distributed to the Finance Managers, Officers and Directors of mining companies in South Africa, we confirmed the increased sophistication in capital budgeting— the results suggest that 83.3% prefer NPV, 61.5% always use IRR and only 58.3% use PBP. On the other hand, and in contrast to capital budgeting, risk analysis is still comparatively naïve; with sensitivity analysis being the dominant technique used in the mining industry. The sophisticated methods of scenario testing and real option analysis (ROV) are rarely employed. An empirical analysis on the effects of capital budgeting and risk analysis on company performance has yielded results in contradiction with the theory of capital budgeting. The finding of the study is a negative and/or insignificant relation of capital budgeting and risk analysis sophistication to company performance as measured by return of assets (ROA). Although this finding is counterintuitive and contradicts theory, it is, however, consistent with international studies of this nature. / XL2018

Coal combustion is recognized as the primary source of anthropogenic mercury emission in South Africa followed by gold mining. Coal is also known to contain trace concentrations of mercury which is released to the environment during coal mining, beneficiation or combustion. Therefore, determining the mercury speciation in coal is of importance in order to understand its behavior and fate in the environment. Mercury was also used, at a large extent, in the Witwatersrand Basin (South Africa) for gold recoveries until 1915 and is still used in illegal artisanal mining. Consequences of these activities are the release of mercury to the environment. Nowadays, gold (and uranium) is also recovered through the reprocessing of old waste dumps increasing the concern related to mercury pollution. While much effort has been put in the northern hemisphere to understand and control problems related to anthropogenic mercury release and its fate to the ecosystem, risk assessment of mercury pollution in South Africa was based, until very recently, on total element concentrations only or on non systematic fragmental studies. It is necessary to evaluate mercury speciation under the country’s semi arid conditions, which are different to environmental conditions that exist in the northern hemisphere, and characterize potential sources, pathways, receptors and sinks in order to implement mitigation strategies and minimize risk. In this study, analytical methods and procedures have been developed and/or optimized for the determination of total mercury and the speciation of inorganic and organic forms of mercury in different sample matrices such as air, coal, sediment, water and biota. The development of an efficient and cost effective method for total gaseous mercury (TGM) determination was achieved using nano-gold supported metal oxide (1% wt Au) sorbents and cold vapor atomic fluorescence spectrometry (CV-AFS). Analytical figures of merit and TGM concentrations obtained when using Au/TiO2, as a mercury trap, were similar to those obtained with traditional sorbents. The combination of isotope dilution with the hyphenated gas chromatography-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID GC-ICP-MS) was also achieved and used successfully for the speciation analysis of mercury in solid, liquid and biological samples. The developed, or optimized, methodologies were used to estimate the average mercury content and characterize the speciation of mercury in South African coals, and also to study the speciation of mercury in selected South African environmental compartments impacted by gold mining activities. The obtained average mercury content in coals collected from the Highveld and Waterberg coalfields (0.20 ± 0.03 mg kg-1) was close to the reported United States Geological Survey (USGS) average for South African coals. Speciated isotope dilution analyses and sequential extraction procedures revealed the occurrence of elemental mercury, inorganic and organo-mercury species, and also the association of mercury mainly to organic compounds and pyrite. The environmental pollution assessment was conducted within the Witwatersrand Basin, at four gold mining sites selected mainly for their mining history and from geophysical information obtained through satellite images. This study showed a relatively important pollution in three of the four sites, namely the Vaal River west site near Klerksdorp, the West Wits site near Carletonville (both in the North-West Province) and the Randfontein site in the West Rand (Gauteng Province). Only one site, the closed Rietfontein landfill site in the East Rand (Gauteng Province) was found to be not impacted by mercury pollution. The methylation of mercury was characterized in all sites and factors governing the mercury methylation process at the different study sites were also investigated. Geochemical models were also used to explain the distribution, transport and fate of mercury in the study systems.

A thesis submitted to the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences (APES), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Johannesburg, February 2013 / Decades after the commencement of modern mining in the 1870s, the South African mining industry addressed the impacts associated with its mine waste deposits. In this, it followed the pattern its international peers had set. This study aims at chronicling, for the first time, the mining industry’s efforts to develop scientifically sound and replicable methods of mine waste rehabilitation. Mindful of the limitations in accessing official and public written sources for such an applied science, the study seeks to take a broader approach: It considers factors beyond pure experimental results (of which only patchy records exist), and considers the socio-economic context or the role of certain personalities, in an effort to understand the evolution of the applied technology between the 1930s until the passage of the Minerals Act in 1991. The bulk of this mine waste rehabilitation work during this period was done by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa and its members, the gold and (later) coal miners. The focus will therefore be on these sectors, although other mining sectors such as platinum will be covered when relevant. Following decades of ad hoc experimentation, concern about impending legal pollution control requirements in the 1950s spurred key gold industry players to get ahead of the curve to head off further regulation. Their individual efforts, primarily aimed at dust suppression, were quickly combined into an industry initiative located within the Chamber of Mines. This initiative became known as the Vegetation Unit. Well resourced and managed by a dynamic leader with horticultural training – William Cook – the Unit conducted large-scale and diverse experiments between 1959 and 1963 to come up with a planting and soil amelioration methodology. The initial results of this work were almost immediately published in an effort to publicise the industry’s efforts, although Cook cautioned that this was not a mature methodology and that continued research was required. The Chamber of Mines, however, was trying to head off pending air quality legislation and in 1964/65, the organisation publicly proclaimed the methodology as mature and ready for widespread application. With this decision, the Unit’s focus shifted to widespread application while its ability to advance the methodology scientifically effectively collapsed in the 1960s and early 1970s. In addition to this shift of focus and resources to application rather than continued refinement, the Unit was constrained by non-technical and non-scientific factors: Key among them was the industry’s implicit belief, and hope, that a walk-away solution had been found. The Unit’s manager Cook stood alone in driving its application and refinement for most of his time in that position. In his day-to-day work, he lacked an industry peer with whom to discuss rehabilitation results and he compounded this isolation through limited interaction with academia until very late in his career. This isolation was amplified by the lack of relevant technical knowledge among the company representatives on the committee tasked with the oversight of the Vegetation Unit: As engineers, all of them lacked not only technical understanding of the botanical and ecological challenge, some even questioned the legitimacy of the Unit’s existence into the 1980s. In addition, the concentration of all rehabilitation efforts in this single entity structurally curtailed the individual mining companies’ interest in the advancement of the methodology, creating a further bottleneck. Indeed, as late as 1973, the key metallurgy handbook covered mine waste rehabilitation only for information purposes, specifically stating that this was the responsibility of the Chamber’s Vegetation Unit alone. To some extent, the presence of a champion within the Chamber – H. Claussen – obscured some of these challenges until the early 1970s. Indeed, the Unit had acquired additional scientific capacity by this stage, which gave it the ability to renew its research and to advance its methodology. That it failed to do so was mainly due to three factors coinciding: the retirement of its internal champion Claussen, a lack of succession planning for Cook, which left the Unit on ‘auto-pilot’ when he retired, and a rising gold price, which turned industry attention away from rehabilitation towards re-treatment of gold dumps. During this period of transition in the mid 1970s, the Chamber’s approach was thus somewhat half-hearted and vulnerable to alternative, potentially cheaper, rehabilitation proposals such as physical surface sealing advanced by Cook’s eventual successor – Fred Cartwright. Though not grounded in any science, Cartwright’s proposal gained ascendance due to his forceful personality as well as the industry’s desire for an alternative to the seemingly open-ended costs associated with the existing rehabilitation methodology. During this time, the Chamber’s structures singularly failed to protect the industry’s long-term interests: The oversight committee for the Vegetation Unit, remained largely staffed by somewhat disinterested engineers, and relied heavily on a single individual to manage the Unit. Not only did the oversight committee passively acquiesce to Cartwright’s virtual destruction of the Unit’s grassing capacity, it also allowed him to stake the Chamber’s reputation with the regulator by championing an unproven technology for about five years. Only Cartwright’s eventual failure to gain regulator approval for his – still un-proven – technique led to a reluctant abandonment by the Chamber in the early 1980s. Cartwright’s departure in 1983 left the Unit (and the industry) without the capacity to address mine waste rehabilitation, at a time when emerging environmental concerns were gaining importance in social and political spheres in South Africa and across the world. The Unit sought, unsuccessfully, to build alliances with nascent rehabilitation practitioners from the University of Potchefstroom. It furthermore failed to build mechanisms for sharing technical rehabilitation knowledge with fellow southern African or international mining chambers, leading to further stagnation of its method. At the same time, up-and-coming South African competitors such as the University of Potchefstroom seized the opportunity to enter the mine waste rehabilitation field as commercial players during the mid 1980s, at a time when the Unit had been reduced to grassing dumps for a single customer, the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs (DMEA). Using its status as a part of the Chamber of Mines, the Unit gradually regained its position of prominence through the development of industry guidelines for rehabilitation. Yet, it would never again occupy a position of pre-eminence in practical fieldwork, as industry players, academic capacities and commercial players entered the field in the mid-1980s in response to a growing environmental movement worldwide. When the passage of the Minerals Act in 1991 formally enshrined not merely rehabilitation but environmentally responsible mine closure in law, the Unit had been reduced to a prominent but no longer dominant player in this sector. This lack of pre-eminence ultimately caused the Unit to be among the first Chamber entities to be privatised when the Chamber began to restructure. This ended its role as a central driver of applied rehabilitation techniques for the South African mining sector once and for all. As this privatisation coincided with the broader opening up of South Africa’s society and economy after the unbanning of the ANC, there would never again be an entity (commercial or otherwise) that would dominate the rehabilitation sector as the Chamber’s Vegetation Unit had done in its day.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2017 / The Merensky Reef vertical grade distribution is highly variable within Styldrift I Mine. The variable nature of the Merensky Reef mineralisation necessitates regular and timeous updating of the planned mining cut with sampling information so that the optimum can be applied during mining operations. The current geochemical assay analysis that is used for the analysis of platinum group elements (PGEs) has been proven to be accurate and precise however it is expensive with long turn-around times from the laboratory. Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology has been tested as an alternative to measure the platinum group element content along the Merensky Reef. pXRF technology cannot accurately measure PGE content directly. Copper and nickel are detectable by the pXRF analyser and, like PGEs, copper and nickel mineralisation peaks along Merensky Reef horizon. Copper and nickel were therefore tested as potential pathfinder elements to target PGE mineralisation along the Merensky Unit. The testing of the pXRF analyser was undertaken by analysing the accuracy of the results it produces as well as determining if a regression between copper/nickel to PGE content is possible along the Merensky Unit. The pXRF did not produce results of adequate accuracy as a consistent significant bias was detected with pXRF results which were consistently lower than laboratory results. Calibration of the pXRF using site specific samples was not sufficient to overcome the bias. Regressions from copper/nickel to PGEs were tested for the Merensky Footwall which could be isolated as a single data population. Significant outliers exist that do not fit the regression analysis due to the inconsistent PGE modes of occurrence along the Merensky Unit. Application of the pXRF to the study area therefore does not meet the required conditions. An underground trial of the pXRF has indicated that peaks in pXRF copper and nickel results often, but not always, coincide with peaks in PGE mineralisation. The pXRF can therefore be used as a low confidence indicator of PGE mineralisation however the user must be aware of the limitations of the instrument. pXRF analysis cannot be used reliably therefore geochemical assay analysis remains the most reliable method to analyse PGE content at Styldrift I Mine. / XL2018

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Johannesburg 2017. / The development of the economy of South Africa and many other countries has been highly dependent on mining industries. Minerals such as gold, platinum, diamond and many others have been mined and continue to be mined. Despite the importance of these minerals, their processing comes with social and environmental problems. During the processing of these minerals, trace elements such as copper, chromium, nickel, mercury, uranium, molybdenum and many others are released as wastes into the environment either, directly or indirectly. The release of the elements into the soil is of concern due to the possibility of groundwater system contamination. The presence of these elements in the groundwater system poses serious challenges to the wellbeing of life forms, due to their toxicity, when they exceed threshold limits. From the processing plants, these elements could be released onto the soil, and mobilise to groundwater, increasing the already existing environmental crisis due to water pollution. Once these elements are in the water, access to living organisms becomes easier through the food chain. Some of these elements are not biodegradable and thus persist in the environment as well as in the bodies of living organisms. They can cause serious health problems because of their toxicity effect. In humans, these elements can be carcinogenic, and also cause chronic disorders, kidney failures, defects in infants, bone and vascular diseases which could also be lethal. It is therefore of importance that these elements are neither bioavailable nor bioaccessible to living organisms. When these elements are mobile in the soil, the probability of reaching groundwater increases. Water, an important natural resource should always be protected from such pollutants. The demand for unpolluted water has been rising every year in the world due to increasing population, extended droughts and improper disposal. This research was dedicated to determining the behaviour of elements in an agricultural soil impacted by mining activities. Agricultural soils are sometimes exposed to pollutants that could originate from dust fallout or precipitation; fertilisers and manure; pesticides; and water used for irrigation. Understanding the iv processes that control the distribution of these pollutants in agricultural soils is an important risk assessment measure, considering that such pollutants have the potential of being taken up by crops and vegetables or transported to groundwater. In this study, a soil on a farm that grows vegetables for commercial purpose. Cabbage, spinach, carrots and potatoes are some of the vegetables grown on the plot and sold to markets in Pretoria and Johannesburg. The plot is in the vicinity of smelting operations in the North West Province. The mobility of trace elements in the soil can be controlled, depending on the type and properties of soil. Hence in this research, the ability of the soil to adsorb elements entering the soil is studied. The batch experimental work was performed to determine the effect of pH, initial concentration (5 - 100 mg/L), competing ions (Fe3+, Ca2+, Co2+, Mg2+, K+, Ni2+ and Zn2+), fertilisers (ammonium nitrate, ammonium phosphate and calcium chloride) and plant exudates (acetic acid, citric acid and oxalic acid as well as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) which is often used as proxy organic ligand (found in manure)) on the adsorption of cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu) and chromium (Cr) onto an agricultural soil. The PHREEQC geochemical modelling code was used to complement experimental methods in predicting processes and to further assess the leaching behaviour of the elements. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) were used to determine the mineralization of the soil. The structural features of the soil were determined using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and the element content was determined using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). The point of zero charge (PZC) of the soil was found to be 8.3 and the cation exchange capacity (CEC) of 51.6 meq/ 100g. In the absence of fertilisers and plant exudates, the soil exhibited a similar high adsorption for elements at all initial concentrations by all the elements. Most (> 90%) of the elements were adsorbed within the first 3 minutes of contact with the soil. Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin-Radushkevich adsorption isotherms were used to describe the experimental data for the elements. Kinetic rates were modelled using pseudo first-order and pseudo second-order equations. Pseudo v second-order gave the best fit for all the elements (R2 >0.999) indicating chemisorption. The effect of pH on Cd and Cu was insignificant however, the adsorption of Cr decreased with pH. The presence of competing ions decreased the adsorption of cadmium more than that of the other analyte elements. The soil was generally effective in adsorbing and retaining the elements. However, the retention was highly dependent on elemental speciation and prevailing conditions e.g. pH (as in the case of Cu and Cr). Such changes in conditions would have implications for groundwater quality. The effect of plant exudates and EDTA was studied and the results showed that low molecular weight organic acids (LMWOAs) viz acetic acid (AA), citric acid (CA) and oxalic acid (OA) and EDTA significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the adsorption capacity of the elements onto the agricultural soil. AA had the least effect on the adsorption capacity of the elements whereas OA and EDTA strongly prevented the adsorption of the elements. Moreover, some of the elements which were already in the soil including those which were not under study such as Ca and Mg were desorbed from the soil by OA and EDTA. Thus, the mobility of the elements was increased by the presence of plant exudates, increasing groundwater contamination and consequently threatening the health of living organisms. Agrochemicals such as fertilisers, stabilizers and pesticides are constantly applied to agricultural soils to improve the fertility of the soil for better crop production however; their presence may affect the mobility and bioavailability of elements in the soil. The effect of ammonium nitrate and ammonium phosphate as well as calcium chloride on the adsorption of Cd, Cu and Cr onto an agricultural soil was studied. The effects of initial concentrations of the elements (5 – 50 mg/L), concentrations of fertilisers (0.01 – 0.1 mol/L) and pH (3 - 8) on the adsorption of Cd, Cu and Cr were studied. The initial concentration of the elements and the concentration of fertilisers had no significant effect (p > 0.05) on the adsorption capacities of Cu and Cr at pH 5. But, ammonium nitrate and calcium chloride decreased the adsorption capacity of Cd. The adsorption of Cd onto the soil was reduced as the concentration of fertilisers increased. The adsorption of Cd was lower than that of Cu and Cr at all pH values. The agricultural soil was found to vi be an effective adsorbent in preventing the mobility of Cu and Cr in the presence of fertilisers but not for Cd whose adsorption was significantly affected by the presence of ammonium nitrate and calcium chloride. A continuous flow fixed-bed column script with specified conditions simulating the natural environment was utilised in PHREEQC for column studies. The geochemical computer model PHREEQC can simulate solute transport in soil surfaces. The effect of initial concentration (100 and 300 mg/L) of the elements, column bed depth (5 and 10 cm) and pH (3, 5, 7 and 10) were considered in this study. The adsorption capacity was affected by initial concentration of the elements since the breakthrough curves at higher analyte concentrations were reached at lower pore volumes than at low concentrations. This can be attributed to the fast occupation of active sites of the soil at higher concentrations. The results from PHREEQC indicated that the conditions used would lead to the oxidation of Cr3+ to Cr6+ leading to the formation of HCrO4- and Cr2O72- which were not favoured for adsorption by soil surfaces due to high solubility. This could have potential implications on the quality of groundwater in regions with similar conditions. Thus, the leaching of Cr6+ onto the agricultural soil will be high in areas where remediation techniques are not applied. The changing of bed depth from 5 to 10 cm did not have an effect on the adsorption of the elements. The ability of the soil surfaces to adsorb Cd and Cu even at lower bed depth implies that the soil will be effective in preventing the leaching of the elements to groundwater due to strong surface interactions of the elements with the soil. The results from PHREEQC showed that the adsorption of Cd and Cr onto the soil surface was not affected by pH. The results for Cr were contradicting with those obtained from laboratory experiments which could be due to the conditions used in PHREEQC. The change in the speciation of Cu at basic conditions decreased the ability of Cu adsorption onto the soil surfaces. The Cu2+ was converted to Cu(OH)2 which were large in size and thus only a small amount could be adsorbed since the other adsorption sites were covered by the large species. This research had notable outputs in the form of publications which will form an important repository of information. / LG2017

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Engineering, 2017 / Empowerment of previously disadvantaged groups has been applied in many countries, in order to achieve specific political, economic and social outcomes. Group preferences and preferential policies are common in developed and developing countries under various names. They have been mostly implemented in countries where a specific ethnic, religious, or gender group has been discriminated against historically. An ESOP is an empowerment tool that can be adapted and designed to achieve the goals of companies, employees and governments. An ESOP is an instrument used to enable employee ownership in private and public companies. Internationally the application of ESOPs have taken various architectures highly dependent on individual company and country circumstances. SA has a long and well documented history of racial discrimination and economic exclusion. Poverty, unemployment and inequality continue to bedevil the South African economy. Transformation in the mining industry is given effect in the Mining Charter which is governed under section 100 of the Minerals and Resources Development Act. The Charter is buttressed by a key set of pillars. These pillars are supplemented by the codes of good practice as well as the housing and living conditions standards. These pillars include reporting; ownership; housing and living conditions; procurement and enterprise development; employment equity; human resource development; mine community development; sustainable development and growth and beneficiation. This report focusses on the ownership pillar of the Charter. The mining industry has completed a number of empowerment deals post implementation of the Mining Charter. The impacts of most BEE deals have not been broad-based; and have mostly benefitted only a few HDSA entrepreneurs. The value and number of transactions have coincided with the rise and fall of the JSE, making the deals expensive – due to elevated stock prices in favourable market conditions. ESOPs enable extensive employee ownership; and have the ability to foster a sense of individual enterprise that fuels productivity in companies that have imbued a culture of ownership amongst their employees. ESOPs generally contribute positively to company performance; and they provide a stable and dynamic working environment, when administered effectively. ESOPs cannot be implemented in isolation; but they require a combination of factors to make them successful. ESOPs generally contribute positively to company performance; and they provide a stable and dynamic working environment, when administered effectively. Effective ESOPs require a combination of elements for success: these comprise of financial incentives, employee-involvement mechanisms and the instilling of an ownership culture. Anglo American was used as a proxy for the industry due to its size and diversity. ESOPs that have been implemented have failed to meet stakeholders’ expectations. These ESOPs are inconsistent, complicated and mostly opaque to employees; whilst delivering modest returns to employees. This report proposes the application of a new ESOP framework that is to be considered in amending existing ESOPs or in the crafting of new programmes. Existing ESOPs are assessed against this proposed framework in this report. The proposed ESOP framework is supported by a set of key principles, essential to the success of the framework. The performance of ESOPs in Anglo American varied when assessed against the framework. With the exception of Envision, Anglo American’s ESOPs have delivered very modest financial benefits to employees. They have not achieved their intended purpose, of empowering employees and aligning company performance with individual employee performance. When assessed against the other pillars of the framework, KIO and AAP did not perform satisfactorily. / XL2018

Thesis presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public Sector Monitoring and Evaluation) to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, 2016 / The South African Government set up the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) in 1996 under the Mine Health and Safety Act, 29 of 1996 to train mineworkers on health and safety issues to minimise injuries and deaths. Later the then Minister of labour reestablished the Authority as a Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) in 2000 when SETAs were set up to replace the old Industry Training Boards (ITBs) (Skills Development Act, 97 of 1998). The mandate of SETAs includes providing for learnerships, internships, undergraduate bursaries, graduate development programmes, and apprenticeships. These Authorities have several challenges. These include poor governance, lack of accountability, Lack of and poor quality data, inadequate information management, and absent or ineffective monitoring and evaluation arrangements (Ministerial Task Team on Performance of SETAs, 2013). These challenges have not spared the MQA and has led to declining performance for two consecutive financial years; namely, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 (MQA Annual Reports, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014. However, only effective monitoring and evaluation arrangements can track and assess reliably how the Authority is performing and why. Therefore, we need to examine the Authority’s monitoring and evaluation system. To undertake this examination, the study posed two questions. To understand our research context, we reviewed literature relating to the history and description of the Authority and the establishment of the SETAs in general. We further undertook a research problem analysis to understand the history and description of monitoring and evaluation in the South African public sector. To do this, we reviewed briefly monitoring and evaluation systems of other developed and developing countries globally. From the reviewed literature, we developed a conceptual framework to guide our research in collecting, processing, and analysing of results. Relatedly, we developed an explanatory framework that helped us in interpreting our findings. Some of our findings pointed to the weaknesses of the MQA’s monitoring and evaluation system in such areas of monitoring and evaluation organisational capacity and documented monitoring and evaluation reporting processes and system. We concluded by providing some recommendations to strengthen the MQA’s monitoring and evaluation system / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the of Masters of Arts Degree in Labour and Development, Economic Policy, Globalisation and Labour (Labour Policy and Globalisation). Johannesburg, 2016 / Zambia has been implementing economic liberalisation policies at the advice of the IMF and the World Bank, to reverse years of economic decline that began with the commodity crisis of the 1970s. As a strategy for economic growth, these included, the deregulation of foreign investment, removal of currency controls, trade liberalisation, decontrolling prices, cutting food subsidies, reduction of state control in running the economy and privatization of state run companies. The rapid implementation of these measures by the Zambian government has seen a change in employment trends in the mining industry from permanent employment to casualisation of labour.These measures have resulted into negative social and economicconsequences on the lives of the casualised mine workers such as job insecurity, poor health and safety standards, lack of protection and union representation, poor remuneration, lack of pension,and other forms of exploitation. Despite booms and busts in the copper price, employment levels have been drastically dropping especially among the permanent mine workers as a cost cutting measure. The role of the state in the running of the mines which Zambia has depended on since independence has diminished significantly and the state is increasingly succumbing to the dictates of the mining Trans-National Corporations (TNCs).The study which was conducted among casualised/contract rock ore drillers at Mopani Copper Mines Plc reaffirms arguments by previous researchers that economic liberalisation has not achieved the high expectations that Zambians wished for and that there is need for government and trade unions to protect the welfare and working conditions of these casualised mine workers who have become a new set of underclass. Through in-depth interviews, observations and documentary analysis, this research has brought to light the social and economic experiences of casualised/contract rock ore drillers at Mopani Copper Mines Plc and questions whether Zambian mine workers were better off when the mines were being run by the state than is currently the case under TNCs. / MT2017

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Johannesburg, 2016. / South Africa, as one of the leaders in mining industry, due to the variety and quantity of minerals produced, has been and is still producing a number of mine tailings which are contaminated by heavy metals. Heavy metals are very harmful to plants and especially to human beings and animals due to their non-biodegradable nature. The problem of environmental metal pollution could be combated by the establishment of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) vegetation on the surface of mine tailings. Besides the toxicity of the substrate, such areas usually lack essential nutrients (mainly N, P, and K) and organic matter. AM fungi contribute to soil structure by forming micro- and macro- soil aggregates within the net of external hyphae. Their presence may reduce stress caused by lack of nutrients or organic matter and increase plant resistance to pathogens, drought and heavy metals. Therefore, mycorrhizal fungi may become the key factor in successful plant revegetation of heavy-metal-polluted areas by promoting the success of plant establishment and increasing soil fertility and quality. The aim of this project was to identify AM fungi from a number of heavy metal sites in South Africa using both morphological and molecular techniques, followed by the evaluation of heavy metal distribution and localisation in mycorrhizal roots. Soil samples were collected from three different provinces, namely: Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West provinces. The sites were selected based on their historical and current heavy metal contamination. Indigenous AM fungal isolates (which are adapted to local soil conditions) can stimulate plant growth better than non-indigenous isolates. AM fungal spores were isolated from 100g of representative soil sample by the wet sieving and decanting method, followed by assessment of spore numbers and infective propagules. The spores of a subset of the pot samples were mounted on microscope slides in polyvinyl lactic acid glycerol and identified by morphological characteristics to the level of genus or species. Most of the spores counted were observed in a 45 μm sieve. These spores were tiny and had different sizes, colours and shapes. The majority of the observed spores were small, brown and oval in shape. For morphological identification, plant roots were stained and hyphae were found to be the most abundant in roots. For molecular identification, two sets of nested PCR primers, namely NS1 & NS4 coupled with AML1 & AML2, were employed in this study due to their ability to amplify all subgroups of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungal, Glomeromycota), while excluding sequences from other organisms. Through both morphological characteristics and molecular identification, the following fungal genera were identified for the first time in the studied sites in South Africa. The study identified a total of 14 AM fungal genera and 55 AM fungal species, which are: Glomus (15), Acaulospora (11), Scutellospora (6), Gigaspora (6), Rhizophagus (3), Funneliformis (3), Archaeospora (2), Claroideoglomus (2), Ambispora (2), Sclerocystis (1), Fuscutata (1), Entrophospora (1), Diversispora (1), Paraglomus (1). Both Glomus and Acualospora have been observed to be the highest occurring genera in the analysed soil samples, followed by Scutellospora and Gigaspora and others mentioned. PIXE technique was successful in localising elemental concentration in both plant roots and AM fungal structures, as well as in indicating the large vesicles in root tissue. AM fungal structures in the outer cortex or outer epidermal layer of the root cross-sections were observable, as shown by the more significantly enriched Si in the vesicles and arbuscules. Distinctive elemental maps can be used to localise sites of colonisation and verification of the symbiotic nature of the tissue. This indicates that a range of metals can be sequestered in AM fungal structures above levels in surrounding host root tissue, and demonstrates the potential of Micro-PIXE to determine metal accumulation and elemental distribution in mycorrhizal plant roots and inter-and intracellular AM fungal structures. This research highlights the potential of AM fungi for inoculation of plants as a prerequisite for successful restoration of heavy metal contaminated soils. It also illustrates the importance of AM fungal diversity in selected high heavy metal (HM) sites in RSA, particularly in the North West and the Gauteng gold mining slime dams. Therefore, phytoremediation of mine tailings by mycorrhizal plants seems to be one of the most promising lines of research on mine tailings contamination by heavy metals. The strategies which evolved during this project have great potential for phytoremediation of toxic mining sites, and thus can help mitigate the environmental problems, especially in the mining waste sites. / LG2017

A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Engineering by research only and to the Stochastic Mine Planning Laboratory, McGill University as part of the COSMO scholarship in Mine Planning under uncertainty Johannesburg, 2017 / This dissertation discusses the use of stochastic orebody modelling techniques for assessing geological uncertainty associated with gold mineralisation at Geita Gold Mine in Tanzania, and proposes a practical methodology that can be applied to similar studies. As part of the pre-feasibility stage studies for underground mining at Geita, stochastic simulations were required to assess the geological uncertainty associated with isolating (modelled) high grade lenses that occur within the known low grade mineralisation currently targeted for underground mining. Two different simulation techniques are applied in this research: Sequential Indicator Simulation to generate lithofacies realisations from which to assess ore category boundaries and shapes for use in quantifying volumetric uncertainty; and Direct Block Simulations to simulate gold grade realisations from which to assess grade uncertainty. This study identified potential upside and downside mine planning scenarios for volumes and total metal content from the ore category and grade simulations respectively. The findings of the results demonstrated that the high grade zones are much more broken up and discontinuous than the currently modelled high grade shape. The current business case uses a probabilistic high grade shape based on a single grade indicator and a probability choice of 50 percent as the threshold for high grade. The results of the study consider a simulation of possible outcomes based on the same threshold grade indicator and hence quantify the uncertainty or total geological risk. This geological risk may be introduced to mine designs, production schedules and NPV predictions The stochastic workflow developed can be applied to analogous deposit types to assess the risk related to geological uncertainty. The work includes a description of practical considerations to be accounted for when applying the techniques. / MT 2017