Mintek has a strong geospatial capacity, applied mainly in mineral economic and strategic studies and in researching sustainable outcomes of mining, including water efficiency, energy efficiency and local economic development. We are also undertaking R & D in Sensor Web Enablement of mine environmental monitoring and process control. We run a dedicated Ubuntu geospatial server with a full FOSS GIS stack including PostGIS, GeoServer, GRASS, GeoNetwork and Python-based Sensor Web services and use QGIS and uDig extensively on the desktop along with ArcView 9.
The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Department falls under the Mineral Economics and Strategy Unit (MESU) at Mintek.
GIS provides a powerful tool to map, analyse, model and visualise spatial data relating to mineral research. Mintek GIS Services include GIS data capture, mapping, spatial analysis, modelling and web mapping. Examples of the use of GIS in Mintek projects include:
- Mineral scan for Trade and Investment Kwa-Zulu Natal (TIKZN). This study examined coal resources, building and other materials in KZN. GIS was used to identify mines, deposits and occurrences with future investment potential utilising multiple criteria suitability analysis. Various criteria were taken into consideration including the location of available mineral resources and distance to transport routes, markets and labour.
- Short, medium and long term forecasts for Eskom of major mineral sector developments in South Africa for the period 2006 to 2037. A GIS analysis grid was compiled to identify areas where high production and energy requirements are anticipated for mining and processing of selected commodities.
- Studies on mining and sustainable water use. GIS was used to identify areas with a negative water balance in relation to mine and community locations, in order to identify potential areas for recycling mine water for communities.
- Maintaining a database of existing mineral resource locations of mines, deposits and occurrences, including geographical co-ordinates and related data.
People
Gavin Fleming
Senior GeoInformation Science and Sustainable Development Researcher
On the GIS side of things Gavin heads Mintek’s GIS department which captures, manages and publishes spatial information and products such as paper and online maps. He is an advocate of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) as well as of open standards and interoperability and applies these wherever possible. He recently led the organisation of ‘Free and Open Source for Geospatial 2008’ (www.foss4g2008.org), an international conference that took place in Cape Town in September 2008. A specific niche of GIS that overlaps with various other fields is ‘Sensor Web Enablement’ (SWE), which is the subject of a research project to develop Sensor Web applications for mine environmental monitoring. His other major work interest is sustainable development through mining. In that arena he is working on projects investigating water and mining and local economic development in mine-affected communities.
Gavin qualified from the Univeristy of the Witwatersrand with an MSc in population genetics, after a BSc and Hons in genetics and microbiology. In 1996 he made a complete switch to GIS, starting at GIMS, then in 1999 moving to the GIS lab in Environmentek (now Natural Resources and the Environment) at the CSIR. Still at the CSIR he spent a year at the Satellite Applications Centre and then a year at ‘ICT4EO’ (ICT for Earth Observation) at the Meraka Institute before moving to Mintek in 2006.
Mandy Vickers
GIS Technician
Ms Vickers has more than 5 years experience in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) field. She holds an Honours degree in Geography and Environmental Management as well as a Diploma in Geographic Information Systems from the the University of Johannesburg.
Ms Vicker's key areas of expertise lie in GIS data capture, mapping, spatial analysis and modelling. She has been involved in geological mapping and spatial data analysis relating to mineral research at Mintek. Prior to this she was involved in GIS projects within the development planning, water services and forestry fields in South Africa, as well as the GIS component of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Provincial Spatial Economic Development Strategy.
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