Modern Quarrying Q2 2022

The keynote speaker on the second day of the conference was respected economist Dr Roelof Botha.

IQSA CONFERENCE

RECONNECTING AT INSTITUTE OF QUARRYING SOUTHERN AFRICA CONFERENCE

After an absence of two years necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the annual IQSA Conference was held over two days at the Kopanong Hotel & Conference Centre in Benoni. At the conference the new chairperson, Jeremy Hunter-Smith was inaugurated, while the programme was packed with interesting papers, and conference goers had the opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and interact with the various companies that exhibited at the conference.

T he conference kicked off with Jeremy Hunter-Smith, CEO of KwaZulu-Natal based Blurock Quarries, officially taking over the reigns as chairperson of the Institute of Quarrying Southern Africa’s (IQSA). His tenure will be for two years and he takes over from PPC’s Lazarus Meko. Overview A wide array of topics were cov ered by speakers at the confer ence. This included ‘Small scale mining – case study’ by Zama Sithole, ‘Understanding the pres sure on electronic detonators’, delivered by AECI’s Christopher Simelane, ‘Basics of dewatering equipment and edge dewatering

construction index. Read more about the ACI on page 36. Digitalisation Hunter-Smith said that the COVID 19 pandemic highlighted the need for the quarrying industry to speed up its digital transformation and related technologies. To stay competitive in the post COVID era, urges Hunter-Smith, requires new strategies and practices. These have to become a critical component within a business. One of the sessions at the conference focused on exactly this: how modern technologies can drive efficiencies. Mintek’s Peter J. van Staden’s presentation was entitled ‘Digitalisation of quarry operations’. The paper presented was based on research

technologies’ by Malcolm Gillespie from Royec Global and a highly interesting report on quarrying in Antarctica – ‘Quarrying way down south’ by Gavin Hartley from IOQ Australia. The keynote speaker on the second day of the conference was respected economist Dr Roelof Botha. His presentation centred around the budget in March as well as the Afrimat Construction Index (ACI) for the fourth quarter of 2021. The ACI is a composite index of the level of activity within the building and construction sectors, and is compiled by economist Dr Botha on behalf of Afrimat. He regarded the budged as one of the best in the last decade and painted a positive picture for the quarrying and

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MODERN QUARRYING QUARTER 2 | 2022