Adult Education and Training

South Deep fulltime employees, contractors and community members can now register for the Adult Education and Training (AET) Programme.

Primary purpose:

South Deep Gold Mine is offering Communication in English and Maths programmes aimed at improving people’s abilities to cope with further training. It is an accredited programme and can be taken at AET levels 1 to 4 (NQF1) depending on your current competency levels. AET registration for 2022 in now open.

Promotions

Congratulations to our colleagues who were recently promoted

Congratulations to Rohini Ramsunder, who has been promoted as Superintendent: Employee Relations. She enjoys helping people and her profession allows her to do so.

Find out more about Rohini here

Congratulations to Munashe Mudarikwa, who has been promoted as Trackless Mobile Maintenance Overseer. He believes that engineering gives him a chance to make a difference in the world using his hand and brain.

Find out more about Munashe here

Congratulations to Mpho Mutobvu, who has been promoted as Superintendent Environmental Management. He enjoys engaging with different stakeholders and sharing environmental challenges and solutions with them.

Find out more about Mpho here

Bursaries

South Deep has a well-established bursary scheme offered as part of its Social and Labour Plan (SLP). Bursaries are offered based on the financial needs of a student, and students are required to work back for the period sponsored, depending on the availability of vacancies at South Deep.

Graduate trainee opportunities and internships

South Deep offers the opportunity to gain practical experience to its current bursars through vacation work and experiential training. Graduates are also accommodated through a three-year postgraduate training programme and are assigned a mentor who will provide appropriate professional guidance.

We also offer one-year internships to those learners who are required to complete work-integrated learning before they can graduate.

The emphasis of the graduate and internship programme is to identify high potential young historically disadvantaged candidates and give priority to candidates from our local communities. Once these learners have completed the internship programme, South Deep exercises its option to offer the candidates permanent employment.

In a given year, South Deep offers opportunities to approximately:

15 bursars

40 interns

10 learners for vacation work

University of the Witwatersrand School of Mining

South Deep is one of the major sponsors of the Wits University’s School of Mining. Its current 3-year, R8m sponsorship is focused on supporting final year, Honours and Masters students as well as the school’s staff in funding mechanised mining related research. The research work should benefit the mine in that it provides learnings for the mine’s current or future operational and other programmes. The researchers will be provided a contact person at South Deep to support their work.

Bursaries and scholarships through the South Deep Education Trust

The South Deep Education Trust (SDET) is a major vehicle through which labour sending communities are supported with financial and experiential assistance for people wanting to pursue careers in mining related roles.

Our people on the move

New appointments in 2023

We extend a warm welcome to Rebecca Sebelebele, who has joined South Deep as Chief Mine Planner. She says that in the next five years, she sees South Deep being the pioneer of sustainable transformation in the gold mining industry.

Find out more about Rebecca here

We extend a warm welcome to Vincent Mc Master, who has joined South Deep as Mine Overseer. He says his philosophy in life is that there are no secrets to success but there are keys to it – determination, perseverance, sacrifice, motivation and drive.

Find out more about Vincent here

We extend a warm welcome to Tselane Mashilo, who has joined South Deep as Assistant Engineer: Business Partners. She says that her philosophy in life is “someone did it, it can be done. The question is how?”

Find out more about Tselane here

We extend a warm welcome to Mvuzo Datini, who has joined South Deep as Superintendent Materials Management. He says that in the next five years, he sees South Deep as a leading mining operation and an industry benchmark for safe, stable, sustainable, cost effective and inclusive operations.

Find out more about Mvuzo here

Collaboration to enhance deep-level mining skills and expertise

The University of the Witwatersrand and Gold Fields have a common commitment to education, research and innovation in the field of mechanised mining in South Africa. The Gold Fields/Wits School of Mining Engineering partnership was established to further the academic knowledge of mechanised mining and rock engineering in South Africa.

The partnership aims to expand the scope of tertiary mining education as it relates to technical, operational, and organisational aspects of mechanised mining and rock engineering in order to promote mechanised mining in South Africa. With recent advances in digital mining being a key component of the partnership, there is a specific focus on South Deep’s challenges and opportunities to build the skills and expertise required to optimise mine production.

One of the four students who participated in the partnership graduated in 2020, while three students are expected to graduate in 2021. Currently there are three additional MSc projects earmarked to start early in 2021 and students are being shortlisted for these projects.

Through this collaboration six undergraduate students spent their vacations at South Deep Mine in 2018 and 2019, where they were exposed to mechanised mining and completed projects on the mine. These projects were used in their final year projects for their BSc (Engineering) degrees. This year, six undergraduate students will be invited to spend their vacation at South Deep Mine to expand their knowledge of mechanised mining and rock engineering.

“These partnerships between academia and industry can make our deep-level mines safer and more sustainable, continuing their vital contribution to the economy.” Professor Cuthbert Musingwini, Wits School of Mining Engineering Head Professor

Gold fields Operations Limited and GFI Joint Venture Holdings (PTY) Limited entered into this partnership (collaboration agreement) with the University of the Witwatersrand in 2017. This partnership is one of a kind. It focuses on developing the young professionals with the skills and knowledge required to support a fully mechanized deep level gold mining in South Africa and skills beneficial to advancing South Deep to its full production. Another critical component of this partnership and collaboration is the DigiMine Lab within the Wits Mining Institute (WMI). This will supplement South Deeps digitization and modernization drive and efforts. The topics selected by the students are aligned with our improvement themes and upon implementation, will contribute towards a vision of operating South Deep as a Safe, Low Grade, Bulk Mechanised, Profitable Gold Mine and drive the mine towards being a beacon of pride for our people, our communities, our stakeholders and our shareholders.

Projects

Application of multiple point statistics for resource estimation and mine planning under geological uncertainty

Adapting multiple point statistics methods used in oil and gas (where the data is usually sparse) to carry out stochastic resource estimation and then quantify the uncertainty around the estimates.

These uncertainties are then integrated into decision-making in the mine planning process. Closely spaced grade control data are used to create a training image. This training image, together with sparsely spaced samples from extension areas, are used to simulate grade in these areas with more confidence than traditional methods. The proof of concept is currently being tested with Tarkwa data and will be applied to South Deep.

The uncertainty qualification project will help South Deep improve estimation at the South of Wrench. Uncertainty quantifications can be incorporated in the mine planning process to provide more realistic and achievable mine plans together with geological risk.

The project will provide a framework for resource modelling and mine planning that will allow for:

Modelling of areas of lower sample density with more confidence

Reduce uncertainty and improve resource classification through alternative models for geology and grade settings

Characterise uncertainties on planned volumes to deliver predictable business outcomes

Define and manage risk for Projects, Strategic, Business and LoM Operational plans

Improved technical and financial risk assessment, and therefore improved decision making

Optimise drilling including associated cost and time

Analysis and mitigation of risks

Improved utilisation of mineral resources

Student involved:

Mahlomola Isaac Mabala has a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering and is currently completing his Master’s in Engineering (Geostatistics).

Mahlomola is an associate lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand. He has industry experience as a miner and shift supervisor in the PGM industry. Having strong interests and aptitude for mathematics, statistics and related fields such as machine learning, Mahlomola decided to follow a career in mining research, a field that he is passionate about.

Gold Fields has supported Mahlomola’s research and studies with research costs and technical advice. “We are excited to see how Mahlomola’s research can improve our mine planning in the future.

“ As our available mineral deposits get deeper, and commodity prices become increasingly volatile and unpredictable, we need to find and leverage innovative technologies, systems and organisational thinking that would improve our efficiencies and productivity. Mining will always have a future: the new world we live in requires even more minerals that need to be mined ,” says Mahlomola.

Local ground support and corrosion life cycle to improve long-term cost-effectiveness

Assessing the local ground support and corrosion life cycle to improve long-term cost-effectiveness at South Deep.

The project seeks to assess the environmental conditions associated with groundwater encountered at the mine, and identifying the main environmental factors leading to corrosion, providing quantitative corrosion rates and a corrosion classification system for the mine.

The project will inform the costs, timing and budgeting for rehabilitation.

Rachidi Dineo has a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand. Mining has been a part of Rachidi’s life since he was a child growing up in a mining village in Limpopo, with both his parents working in the industry.

Rachidi’s knowledge of mining and its processes made his career choice an easy one when paired with his high aptitude for analytical and numerical analysis. With a specialisation in corrosion quantification and impact on support integrity, Rachidi would like to contribute towards improved occupational health and safety and the philosophy of zero harm within the South African mining industry.

Gold Fields has supported Rachidi through its partnership with the Wits School of Mining Engineering, contributing to funding and access to the underground mine for project data acquisition.

“The mining industry strives to remain sustainable through automation. With the increasing volumes of data in the industry, we need to improve our understanding, interpretation and manipulation of data. This will contribute to the industry’s profitability and sustainability.”

Backfill optimisation

Identifying factors contributing to the variability of backfill and their effect on the backfill strength.

The project focusses on mine backfill which comprises soil, overburden or mine tailings, and is used to replace excavated zones created by mining operations in order to provide support to the surrounding rock mass. At South Deep the backfill strength is variable, which, along with the mixing of the tailings with the binder, presents an engineering challenge.

The factors causing variability need to be investigated and identified to maintain consistency. Maintaining consistency of the backfill strength will help to optimise backfill quality, reduce binder costs for the mine and enable safer extraction of ore.

Mosebudi Esther Matlou has a Master of Science in Rock Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. Being in a leadership role and representing the Wits School of Mining at South Deep, Mosebudi has been able to work with various teams which has further moulded her strong communication and interpersonal skills.

As an undergrad Mosebudi was inspired by a young female mining engineer she once met at a career exhibition.

The woman shared her experiences and challenges in the industry, along with her approach to overcome them.  Although the career path she chose tested her, it was pivotal key to her personal and professional development. This inspired Mosebudi to study mining engineering and follow a similar path.

Through the partnership with the Wits School of Mining Engineering, Gold Fields has supported Mosebudi’s tuition, subsidised a living allowance and has provided the practical work required for the MSc research project.

“I am hoping to secure a position in a reputable organisation like South Deep that will enable me to fully utilise my research, and apply my creative and innovative skills to achieve my career goals while I make a significant contribution to the company’s success.”