Modern Mining December 2022

MINING News

New Digital Dome catapults Johannesburg Planetarium into the future

Deane, Director of the Wits Centre for Astrophysics and the SKA Chair in Radio Astronomy at Wits. Together, Wits and Anglo American have provided R75-million to fund the first two stages of the three-stage project, with the Wits University Council committing R20-million and Anglo American providing R55-million. During the first stage, the Planetarium will be refurbished and digitised with a state-of-the-art digital projection system, auditorium seating, and a Science and Technology Exploratorium. The second stage sees a north wing expansion for a new suite of operational offices, an exhibi tion area, as well as a seminar room and meeting space for Digital Dome show plan ning and design.

Wits University and Anglo American have partnered to fund the refurbishment, expansion and digitalisation of the 62-year old Johannesburg Planetarium into a new, future-savvy, multidisciplinary research, training and science engagement events hub. “A facility like the new Wits Anglo American Digital Dome is a way of honing

a more intuitive and immersive understand ing of big data, where we will be able to visualise our work, whether it is in teach ing anatomy to first-year medical students, visualising the myriad particle showers in the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, explor ing the first galaxies in the Universe, or testing new games, built by Wits’ gaming design students,” says Professor Roger

Wits University and Anglo American fund the refurbishment of Johannesburg Planetarium. In the third stage, which is yet to be funded, a new east wing research-focused building will house open-plan office space for visiting multidisciplinary research teams to interface with in-house data visualisation and Digital Dome show rendering experts. It will include a creative studio, film and sound production facilities, to enable Wits to develop much of its science engage ment digital content on site. Stage 1 and 2 will be completed in 2023 and open to the public in 2024.  MMP hands over Au and PGM Resource Atlas to Council for Geoscience

The Mandela Mining Precinct (MMP) recently handed over the Au and PGM Resource Atlas to the Council for Geoscience (CGS). The Resource Atlas was developed by the MMP in 2018 on one of the world’s leading geographic information systems, ArcGIS, with the aim of developing mineral resource models to better understand PGM and gold mineral resource opportunities in South Africa. ArcGIS offers several tools to facilitate streamlining data acquisi tion and loading processes by allowing data custodians to upload new datasets via a web interface. “The Au and PGM Resource Atlas is the first of its kind in South Africa and gives end users access to mineral resource and reserve information on a single platform. Its purpose is to give a holis tic visualisation of the remaining gold and platinum group metal mineral resources in South Africa and, ultimately, promotes collabo ration among mining companies to access contiguous mineable blocks using alternative mining techniques,” says MMP director, Johan Le Roux. The portal enables collaboration between academia and indus try, as well as mining and exploration companies. It also encourages the ongoing collection and digitisation of valuable geological data and helps familiarise undergraduate students with the PGM and Au mining industries. 

MMP hands over Resource Atlas to the Council for Geoscience.

4  MODERN MINING  December 2022