Posts by Alice Bothma:

“Dig Deep” – The Mining Podcast

The podcast is free to download on iTunes and Stitcher and is recommended to anyone in the mining or quarrying industry who wants to learn and connect with other like-minded people.

Reduce overall costs and increase productivity with DigiShot Plus 4G

The DigiShot Plus 4G System features a fast and simple deployment method, an automatic check to ensure the correct number of detonators per channel, energy monitoring right up to the point of blasting, and automatic detection and testing of detonators. “Our system offers remarkable capabilities designed to prevent blast delays and speed up blast deployment safely,” says Sandy Tavelli, Dyno Nobel Global Product Manager.

Electra visitors can experience BME’s new blasting system ‘first-hand’

Blasting and explosives leader BME will be launching its new AXXIS central blasting system (CBS) at the international Electra Mining exhibition at Nasrec, near Johannesburg in September. BME’s world record breaking AXXIS surface system will also be featured at the stand, and visitors will be able to log detonators ‘on the block’, allocate timing designs and fire a virtual blast.

Why critical minerals could be too scarce for “America First” mining

The mantra of America First has been a strong central component of President Trump's political agenda. In pursuing this, the President has identified numerous "critical" materials considered crucial to the United States' national and economic security. However, there remain reasons to suggest that the ultimate aim for these materials to be domestically mined and processed in the United States is impractical in the long term.

Terratec and Vale win award for exemplary biosolids management

Mine closure is one of the biggest prices the environment pays in the mining enterprise, so coming up with a canopy system to restore the mining-impacted land to its natural condition is of invaluable importance, making Terratec’s innovation a considerable contribution to the field.

Resource nationalism redux: Some recent regulatory trends in Africa

The revival of resource nationalism policies tend to correlate with commodity prices – increasing during both commodity supercycles and commodity downturns. However, the policies of resource nationalism implemented by Tanzania and South Africa in 2017 appear to be exceptions to the general trend as global commodity prices are in neither a supercycle nor a downturn. This suggests that the reforms introduced by the Tanzanian and South African governments were caused by factors other than a pure drive to maximising socio-economic benefits. The legislative measures adopted by Tanzania in July 2017 result from a sense of mistrust between the government and mining companies, and the government’s drive to secure greater benefits for the country. In South Africa, increased resource nationalist measures are seen in Mining Charter III (June 2017) which like its predecessors was published to address the racial inequality created by the country’s Apartheid past.