Gold producer Harmony Gold’s jewellery design and
manufacturing school is seeking to emphasise the role of technology
in product development, following its technology workshop in
computer-aided design (Cad) and casting at this year’s Mining
Week.
In an exclusive interview with Mining Weekly, Harmony Jewellery
School project manager Alta Wessels says that the workshop
demonstrated the ability to “fast-track basic skills and turn
educated people into productive people”.
The Harmony Jewellery School, which was established in 2000, forms
part of Harmony’s greater social plan and coincides with
South Africa’s plans for increased local beneficiation. It is
part of a coordinated and integrated process supported by national,
provincial and local government and focuses ore crushing machine small scaleon creating a jewellery
hub in Virginia, in the Free State.
The main focus of the programme is to increase the availability of
skilled workers that would be employed in the
jewellery-manufacturing sector. Students will receive training to
prepare for work in jewellery factories or for entrepreneurial
business enterprises. This will include training in rapid
prototyping systems, Cad training and Computer numerically
controlled (CNC) machinery. The programme is linked to experiential
training and will takcorrect feed zenith cone crushere place in close association with the gold and
platinum producers and manufacturers.
The recent workshop included 21 student participants from around
the country and offered training on Cad Rhino Module One in basic
jewellery design as well as training in platinum-casting methods
using platinum-casting company Hotplat’s casting
machine.
Students were sourced from Har-mony Jeweller School, Kgabane
Vukani-Ubuntu Imfundiso, as well as the University of Johannesburg,
Durban Institute of Technologimportance of gyratory cone crushery, Tshwane University of Technology
and the College of Cape Town.
Wessels explains that the workshop hoped to enable these students
to use basic Cad towards improving their skills in the job market
or enabling them to start their own small, medium-sized and
microenterprises.
Through new technology, jewellers can design the product on the
computer, show it to the client and send the image file to a CNC or
rapid prototyping service provider, who will make a cast from the
design. The jeweller will be able to complete the ring for the
client without wasting extra gold. In addition, the jeweller does
not need to stock gold.
Wessels comments that the workshop also emphasised the research
that has been done through the Toropele trust, or Harmony Jewellery
School, and the Tech-nology and Human Resources for Industry
Programme’s (Thrip’s) innovation and product
development project. She says that the extensive research that has
come out of the project needs to be nurtured and must be made
available to other projects and industry. “The idea is to
develop a centre of excellence – to train people in Cad and
design problem solving,” enthuses Wessels.
She adds that such an entity will render a service to the industry
as a whole. “The DME and the DTI received the concept plan
for the proposed centre and are cooperating to see that it is
placed either at the innovation centre in Tshawane or at Mintek, to
ensure that all will benefit,“ says Wessels.
At present, the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) and the
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) are assisting Wessels to
build an innovation and tech- nology service unit that will be able
to train and assist jewellery projects and businesses, while
ensuring their sustainability. She estimates that such a project
would cost about R6-million over a five-year period.
Wessels comments that the Cad students did extre-mely well in
rendering their designs, with the best design receiving a Rhino Cad
package from the Jewellery Manufacturing Association. The best cast
produced during the workshop was awarded a jeweller’s toolbox
by Goldsmith & Jewellery Supplies.
The week-long workshop cost an estimate R90 000 and was sponsored
by mining houses Lonmin, Implats, Amplats and Aquarius. Coordinated
by the DME, the project was facilitated by Kgabane, the Harmony
Jewellery School, the Thrip project, Imfundiso and Vukani- Ubuntu
and Hotplat. It also benefited from the assitance of the Harmony
Jewellery School, Goldsmith & Jewellery Supplies and the
Jewellery Manu-facturing Association.
“I believe that this workshop made it evident that we need to
ensure that this knowledge will become part of all businesses and
projects to ensure future self-sustainability as well as for the
industry to compete in an ever-developing world,” concluded
Wessels.