2
The old Chinese proverb goes: “May you live in
interesting times” – indeed that seems to be the mantra
each year as the scale of turbulence internationally with
threatened trade wars, denuclearisation and quest for
the next technological breakthroughs dominate the
political agenda internationally. While at home the
sheen of “Ramaphoria” has worn off and the extent of
the economic challenges facing the country become
more apparent. As such remains incumbent upon us
as an organisation to ensure that we remain relevant.
Commodity prices remain in a relatively positive domain
which has somewhat cushioned the turbulence of the
political environment, but we cannot purely rely on this
as the status quo. The industry is cyclical by nature and
the demands for the industry to be safe, environmentally
responsible and efficient are ever present.
This has been a very challenging year for Coaltech –
we have had three chairpersons within the space of six
months, a resignation of a deputy chairperson and major
instability because of member company restructures.
This meant we had to ensure we had continued
commitment from the membership base. Thankfully I
am delighted to report we have overcome most of these
challenges and are now in a position to embrace our
future from a much stronger base. In addition, during
this period, our esteemed executive director, Johann
Beukes, who has been a guide to the organisation since
its formation, retired. Over the years his input was highly
valued by all of us and while he is already missed, life
moves on. It is with great pleasure that Henk Lodewijks
has been appointed to lead the organisation. Henk is a
very experienced mining engineer who has worked in
most areas of the technical mining sphere with a number
of South African mining houses and I am very confident
during his tenure his leadership will take us in the right
direction.
From our 2016 strategy workshop and with many
challenges to the organisation the following were the
key initiatives face the Board:
y
y
Replacement of the executive director
y
y
A well-attended colloquium
y
y
Setting a platform for idea generation
y
y
Developing a project pipeline from the idea
generation sessions
y
y
Evaluation of the cost of the pipeline and seeking
alternative sources of funding if and when necessary
A successful recruitment process has taken place with
the appointment of Henk Lodewijks. The colloquium
that took place in Witbank during March was the most
well attended event that we have ever staged (with 230
attendees). We staged three Ideation sessions facilitated
by an industry partner RIIS at the CSIR in April.
In 2017, it was decided to rationalise the subcommittees
to the following structure:
y
y
Mining (including underground mining, open cast
mining, Ventilation, Engineering & Geosciences
disciplines)
y
y
Processing
y
y
Environment
This has worked very well and will be subject to review
depending upon the project workloads of the respective
subcommittees.
CHAIRMAN’S REVIEW
“I am delighted to report we
have overcome most of our
challenges and are now in a
position to embrace our future
on a much stronger base”
