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 into modern mining practices.

With the rapid increase in automation technology 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, [which is] immersed in new technology development initiatives, over the next five years,” the institutions said after inking a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last week.

“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,” says UJ Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) director Professor Paul Babu.

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

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

The collaboration will include the facilitation of mutual sharing of best practices and expertise in health and safety, automation, egovernment, 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 addressing some of the major challenges across various domains, such as energy, health, education and agriculture, besides others,” says 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 at both 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 courses and share resources and infrastructure.