By Brenda Musemwa
The Zimbabwe School of Mines (ZSM) is committed to bridging the gap between production and technical expertise in mining by rolling out short courses that will equip participants with full knowledge of modern mine planning and design and gold processing. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the courses will be conducted online.
The first course, Certificate in Basic Mine Design and Feasibility, will be held from July 22-24.ZSM said the course will equip participants with an in-depth knowledge of modern mine planning and design.
“This course is a comprehensive study of principles and practices involved in surface or underground mining, starting with drill hole data, following through with a mine feasibility study ( based on financial returns on investment and sensitivity analysis) covering ore reserve calculations, and selection of mining methods and equipment.
“It is ideally suited to those from the industry, who wish to gain a more in-depth knowledge of modern mine planning and design theory.”The course, according to ZSM, will cover areas such as mine feasibility studies, mineral resource and reserve estimation, mine shaft and infrastructure layout design, surface and underground mine design principles.
The second course, Gold Extraction Techniques, will run from 3 to 24 August 2020. The course is designed for those working in a gold processing plant or those interested in gold processing. “This course will teach you the fundamentals and practical applications of major hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical unit operations for golf processing.
” The programme is designed to give each participant an insight into the mineral processing of gold, from discovery and recovery through reclamation.” It covers areas such as communation and size control, concentration techniques, dewatering, gold leaching and adsorption, elution, electro winning and smelting, metallurgical accounting tailings disposal. ZSM is one of the best mining institutions in Southern Africa.