Future of Mining

Transnet, South Africa’s state-owned freight carrier, has been encouraged to reconsider a decision made earlier this year to abandon plans to expand a rail link that would have opened up a new route to Botswana. The project is essential to the coal industries of South Africa and Botswana, according to …

The Botswana Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology, and Energy Security recently awarded Spatial Dimension South Africa, a subsidiary of Trimble, a hardware, software, and services technology company, a contract to design and implement an online mining cadastre system. Botswana Geoscience Institution is the contracting authority. Working with the local …

Caterpillar customers will now enjoy the latest simulator-based equipment training solutions courtesy of a new deal with ThoroughTec Simulation. The development comes after a global cooperation agreement to help improve safety, boost productivity, increase machine availability and create more sustainable mining operations. Under the agreement, Caterpillar Mining will recommend ThoroughTec …

A Mining Centre (MC) has been set up by Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) in an attempt to improve appropriate skills to ensure easy industrial absorption for graduate mining students and also to provide services to the local mining sector. The goal of the BIUST MC is …

Condition monitoring specialists, WearCheck, recently invested several million Rand in four brand new laboratory instruments for their flourishing transformer division laboratories in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. WearCheck managing director Neil Robinson says the company’s investment in the equipment has relieved some of the current sample volume pressure and reduced …

Department of Forestry and Range Resources director, Ms Baitshepi Babusi-Hill has hailed Majwe Mining for sponsoring the tree planting activity, saying said it would come in handy to assist government to combat deforestation. Botswana loses about 118 000 hectares of forests annually, which have to be replaced to avoid deforestation. …

Lausanne, Switzerland; Pix4D, technology pioneer and market leader in industrial photogrammetry software solutions, announces that it is starting a joint innovation project with SAP® to open up the market for drone-based, digital 3D inspections for telecommunications companies. SAP, a global leader in ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software, has included Pix4D …

Aim-listed Botswana Diamonds seeks to raise £300 000 to fund ongoing exploration activities in Botswana and South Africa this year, as well as for additional working capital. The company has arranged a placing with existing and new investors to raise the funds through the issue of 50-million new ordinary shares. …

Global coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdowns and travel bans have crippled Botswana’s mining and tourism, the country’s primary foreign currency earners. This has led to a trade deficit, the difference between the value of imported and exported goods, rose to P4.1 billion in May, further eating away at the country’s precarious foreign …

Operations at different mining sites in Botswana are set to restart after they were on hold following a national lockdown in April this year. Botswana mining companies among them Debswana Diamond Mine, Lucara Diamond Mine and Khoemacau copper mine paused activities on April 2 when the coronavirus-related restrictions began. Operations …