Drilling technology solutions provider Rosond of Midrand has appointed Clement Rikhotso as its new Operations Director. This follows Clement initially joining as a project consultant in 2019 to assist Rosond with the onboarding of 27 state-of-the-art drill rigs and crew at the Kolomela and Sishen mines of Anglo American’s Kumba Iron Ore in the Northern Cape, as well as its entry into Botswana, where three rigs are currently in operation at Debswana’s Jwaneng diamond mine.

In his new role, Clement is accountable for all the company’s surface exploration drilling activities, in addition to consolidating the company’s mission as the leading mining and geoscientific solutions provider in Southern Africa.

Clement’s mining industry career spans 27 years, most of it with the Anglo American and De Beers Group, reflecting his consummate technical and leadership experience in applied project management, drilling, mineral processing, analytical laboratory, mineral resources management (MRM) and engineering geosciences. He previously served as Executive Director on the boards of four De Beers companies in South Africa, Botswana, and Angola.

Clement has been involved with multidisciplinary capital projects across the mining value chain throughout Southern Africa, and as far afield as Canada and Russia, some of which have become profitable mines. He holds a Technical and Financial Appraisal of Mineral Projects Certificate from Imperial College London, a Programme for Management Development (PMD) certificate from GIBS (University of Pretoria), and a BSc Geology Honours (UCT) degree.

“The disciplines of geology and drilling are interrelated. Drilling is carried out to discover new mineral deposits or to evaluate existing mineral resources that are being mined. This is where drilling comes into play as a technique to define these mineral resources,” explains Clement. “Both disciplines are a keen passion of mine, and I look forward to realising the synergy between the two and application thereof in my new role to ensure our clients’ objectives are met.”

Clement adds that Rosond’s new-generation automated drill rigs are assisting the mining industry to eliminate injuries and transform to Industry 4.0 as their advanced telemetry systems provide a rich source of data for further machine learning analytics and better business decision-making. “Although our services are underpinned by traditional drilling, we see ourselves more as an advanced solutions provider to the minerals industry.”

Rosond MD Ricardo Ribeiro says that Clement will play a key role in consolidating the company’s future expansion plans. “We welcome Clement to the Rosond family, and look forward to tapping into his experience and expertise as we continue along our growth path. We have a clear strategy in place that Clement will help us realise as we adapt and evolve.”