The University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have teamed up to incorporate the use of Fourth Industrial Revolution- (4IR-) based technologies with modern mining practices.

With the rapid increase of automation technologies in the mining sector, there is a need for the sector to embrace 4IR technologies, modernise operations and become innovative in production processes.

“This collaboration aims to ensure the future sustainability of the mining sector, immersed in new technology development initiatives, over the next five years,” the institutions said in a statement after inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

“Many mining companies in South Africa and on the African continent still use ancient and traditional production practices. The MoU marks a new milestone that leads to research-based policy formulation geared towards assisting the sector [with smart mining solutions] in South Africa and Africa,” said UJ Institute Intelligent Systems (IIS) director Professor Paul Babu.

The IIS is one of UJ's flagship institutes for Global Excellence and Stature.

The collaboration with CSIR will help to realise excellence in teaching and enhancement of knowledge in science, engineering and technology competencies to serve as a model of collaboration in the region, Babu said.

The collaboration will include the facilitation of mutual sharing of best practices and expertise in health and safety, automation, e-government, robotics, artificial intelligence and augmented reality, as well as the Internet of Things, distributed ledger technology, smart mobility, defence and security.

“The collaboration will open the door to conduct multidisciplinary application-driven and industrial-based projects that will contribute to address some of the major challenges across various domains such as energy, health, education and agriculture, besides others,” said CSIR Emerging Digital Technologies for 4IR Research Centre acting head and Tshwane University of Technology professor Adnan Abu-Mahfouz.

“The CSIR-UJ partnership will contribute to the human capital development in these state-of-the-art 4IR technologies both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.’’

The MoU also includes the joint supervision of postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers and the joint development of project proposals for national and international funding or grants.

It enables the parties to jointly develop, organise and host conferences, seminars, symposia, workshops and training course and share resources and infrastructure.

Further, the MoU covers the establishment of joint research programmes; collaboration on third-party-funded research, educational or economic assistance activities; and the exchange of scientific and educational literature and materials produced by either or both parties.