Download - Mintek

particularly in the areas of PGMs and non-ferrous metals,has focused on the smaller companies, who do not have thebelieve that our ongoing efforts in this regard have made aconsiderable contribution to increasing the competitiveness ofof industrial minerals is usually fairly low-intensity, owing to therelatively small size of the market. However, this year therewas considerable activity in our new diamond characterisationfacility.Mintek is growing its capacity to lead and support multipleemployment in mining, manufacturing, and agriculture at the localand rural levels. Substantial growth was experienced in the areaof sustainable development, due to strong support from the DME,although this activity is expanding rapidly off a low base, and theremust be some caution in future years regarding the potential forcontinued increases.Mintek is playing an increasingly important role in developing the mineralsbased organisation, it is important for Mintek to grow sustainably bythe development of future technologies. In this regard, our biggest challengeis attracting and retaining experienced scientists and engineers in the face ofMintek also initiated a programme to recruit a small number of highly-skilled,experienced engineers from overseas.growth will depend on upgrades to existing technical and pilot-plant infrastructure.Perhaps the most critical bottleneck in operations is our analytical capacity, whichservices the pilot-plant operations as well as external contract work. During the yearbut still approximately twice that of preceding years.annual report 2007 6