Engineering and mining advisory group DMT Kai Batla asserts the need for a continued focus on promoting environmental consciousness, and extensive research and development within its operations.

The multinational’s Africa business is run from Johannesburg and assists companies in the Southern Africa region, as well as on the rest of the continent, with drilling and exploration projects to assess target areas for critical resource minerals.

The company has conducted environmental, social and governance assessments and due diligence work in various countries on the continent, including Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, in addition to having undertaken preliminary economic studies in Namibia, Zambia and Mozambique.

While remaining committed to its core business of geological services, a decision to expand its business towards mining advisory, clean energy and renewables, serves as a natural addition, notes DMT Kai Batla sustainable development head Herman Cornelissen.

Apart from environmental, social and governance challenges, the company has also identified skills development and gender diversity as significant challenges facing the mining industry in this region.

DMT stresses the women in mining imperative across all its departments and is actively addressing gender diversity by ensuring that a sufficient number of women are included at various levels of the business.

Regarding the emergence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the company stresses the need for workers, at all levels of its business, to upskill themselves.

DMT continuously aims to involve “fresh” university graduates, and those with one or two years of working experience, into its operations, while relying on the expertise and experience of its employees who have worked in various departments of the business for an extended period.

Amid these factors, a cross-pollination of skills will be key to addressing significant challenges in the mining industry, the company adds.

DMT is a broad-based black economic- empowerment Level 2-rated company with 1 000 specialists in the field. This allows for a range of skills to be sourced in house, and the company will continue to capitalise on the experience and expertise it has acquired from working in Southern Africa.

In aiming to solidify its presence across the region, DMT aims to deliver efficient services to local people and, as a reputable technology services provider, it intends to promote and sell its equipment to address mining exploration challenges.

“While DMT is a big global brand, we believe in the potential to combine our global knowledge with local, on-the-ground expertise. The strategic partnerships that we have formalised with complementary service providers in Southern African Development Community countries are key,” Cornelissen says.

In undertaking its operations in the region, the company values marketing and branding, asserting that it would not get the necessary traction without a key marketing strategy.

Technology Focus

DMT is assessing fuel cell technology and electrolysers associated with the production of hydrogen as a way of addressing a multitude of environmental challenges and the energy needs of the future.

There is also a social element attached, owing to the need to create employment, reduce pollution and promote skills development in the jurisdictions where there is mining activity.

The company adds that an emphasis on technology – in the use of its Core Scanner, Ancorelog and three-dimensional (3D) modelling – will transform the way geological data is used.

The company is unique among mining consulting firms in that it develops its own technologies that solve real-world problems and prepare the exploration industry for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, asserts DMT mining advisory executive Sanjey Bhoowanpursadh.

“We have receptors that pick up different vibrations, and from that, we can calculate the amount of energy that is absorbed or dispelled. Based on that, we can create a nondestructive 3D model of a subsurface structure.”

He adds that this type of data is typically used in reservoir designs that entail a lot of hydrogeology and hydrological work. Bhoowanpursadh opines that using technology in mining operations to lead to a significant reduction in lead times, costs and labour.

DMT will continue to capitalise on the experience and expertise it has acquired from working in Southern Africa.