COAL INDUSTRY REPORT | RESEARCH UNIVERSITY RESEARCH Breaking coal processing and recovery barriers Despite South Africa’s fast-track entrance into the renewable energy sector, the country’s reliance on coal to produce electricity will remain significant for decades to come. The key to ensuring the industry’s successful longevity and sustainability however is dependent on the ability to break through processing barriers and improve the recovery of uneconomical, poor quality coal, writes LAURA CORNISH. R esearch plays a pivotal role in solving the coal sector’s current and future challenges and one of the universities leading the way forward in doing so is South Africa’s North-West University. The tertiary learning institution, through its students’ masters’ degrees and doctorates, has become recognised for its forward-thinking concepts and ideas and ability to test new waters and make headway in solving industry challenges. Despite South Africa’s fast-track entrance into the renewable energy sector, the country’s reliance on coal to produce electricity will remain significant for decades to come 34 MINING REVIEW AFRICA | OCTOBER 2015 North-West university has acquired a rig which is being used to test effective stockpile angles to determine the ratio of water ingress into stockpiles and its movement across stockpiles Mining Review Africa caught up with the North-West University’s associate professors Quentin Campbell and Marco le Roux at the 2015 Southern African Coal Processing Society biennial coal conference in Secunda to discuss the latest research advancements in the coal sector – which includes four exciting, industry- breakthrough areas. Liberating ‘unrecoverable’ coal The majority of South Africa’s high (thermal) quality coal in the Witbank and Highveld coal fields is depleted and technological