The Southern African Coal Processing Society (SACPS) awarded the Coal Man of the Year title to mining giant Anglo American coal division metallurgy manager and industry stalwart Kevin McMillan at the SACPS’s yearly dinner, held in Johannesburg earlier this month.

McMillan, who is also a past president of the society, won the award for his contribution to the society’s work in its efforts to promote and educate the coal processing industry.

The SACPS student awards were also presented at the event. The society recently decided to honour students across the two main education sectors, namely universities and training colleges, and the winners for 2014 were Angelique du Randt and Hendrik Nortje respectively.

Nortje won the Student of the Year Award for achieving exceptional results in the advanced coal prepar-ation course. He achieved 90%, 96%, 87% and 95% for his respective modules, and his final distinction pass mark was 86%.

He achieved these results while at Colliery Training College, in Emalahleni, and he is currently employed by coal beneficiation specialist Ukufisa Coal.

Du Randt received the University Award for her final-year project at North-West University (NWU) titled Water Drainage from Coal Stockpiles, in which she simulated water drainage through a laboratory-scale stockpile using a drainage pipe.

It was possible from her work to determine the relative drainage rate for coals of different particle sizes.

She also correlated the drainage rates obtained in the pipe with those determined in independent tests on a large 15 t stockpile and highlighted the differences and similarities. Additionally, she proved that fines of less than 300 μm were prone to transport through the stockpile.

Du Randt’s work served as the precursor to a current master’s project, sponsored by research association Coaltech, involving other universities and organisations.

Her results are also partly responsible for NWU now having two master’s and three final-year students on continuation studies.

Du Randt is currently employed as a process engineer intern at State-owned power utility Eskom’s Hendrina power station, in Mpuma-langa.