Professor Quentin Campbell from the Faculty of Engineering at the North-West University (NWU) has an eloquent, soft-spoken way with words. Therefore, when he said, “it is time to make mining sexy”, the attendees at the NWU’s first ever mining indaba immediately took note with a chuckle.

Prof Campbell was serving as moderator during a group discussion, and his quick wit summed up a few of the delegates’ comments. The NWU’s mining indaba served to bring together leaders in the mining industry with the NWU to discuss establishing a mining school in the Rustenburg area.

The delegates concurred that mining has somewhat lost its lustre as an attractive vocation to study and work towards – something that needs to be addressed. To ensure that the mining sector can capitalise on utilising some of the brightest young minds in the country, mining must have an appealing lure.

One of the ways to accomplish this is through retention initiatives like taking mining closer to where prospective students as well as mining industries are located. A case in point: Rustenburg and its surrounding communities.

“We need to stabilise our talent pipeline to the mines,” said Prof Bismark Tyobeka, principal and vice-chancellor of the NWU.

He also stated that it was evident during the indaba that the NWU was on the right track with regard to supplying industry needs, but that “we have more steps to walk”. He emphasised the importance of differentiating between the NWU’s proposed mining school and the other two mining schools in the country without disparaging them. It is imperative that all three mining schools work together to meet the country’s mining needs.

The NWU envisions a multidisciplinary, multi-stakeholder approach to accomplish this.

The proposed NWU mining school is a package that is aimed at enticing prospective students to embark on a career in a field that is not only rife with opportunities, but also of paramount importance to the sustainable growth of the country. The optimisation of South Africa’s scarce resources and the effective distribution thereof are all factors that were put in the spotlight, as were the ample research and skills development opportunities that collaboration between the NWU and the industry hold.

In giving a summation of his impressions about the indaba, Prof Tyobeka remarked with a wink: “Like my colleague, Professor Quentin Campbell, always likes to say: ‘It is time that we make mining sexy’.”

Prof Liezl van Dyk, executive dean of the Faculty of Engineering, with Prof Quentin Cambell and Ntsikie Kote at the NWU’s first ever mining indaba.

Prof Quentin Cambell