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FILE - Dr. Steve Jason Chingwaru [File photo: The Zimbabwe Mail]
PhD recipient Dr Steve Chingwaru’s groundbreaking research in geomatallurgy is turning heads. At just 26, he’s uncovered potentially the world’s largest invisible gold resource, valued at R450 billion.
Obtaining a PhD at 26 is already a massive achievement, but what makes Dr Steve Chingwaru’s graduation from Stellenbosch University (SU) even more remarkable is his groundbreaking geomatallurgy research that has garnered interest from mining companies around the globe.
Chingwaru has uncovered what is potentially the world’s largest invisible gold resource.
Originally from Zimbabwe and growing up in Johannesburg with his aunt, the gifted prospector George Nolan who discovered lithium in Zimbabwe and even wrote a book, Road to Lithium Lodge, about his adventures looking for precious metals in the wilderness of what was then southern Rhodesia.
Although his grandfather lost most of his fortune, Chingwaru’s future looks bright. His findings could help unlock gold to the value of R450 billion that is hiding in plain sight within the unsightly mine dumps around Johannesburg.
Uncovering a hidden gold mine
Historical mine waste from the Witwatersrand called tailings, contains over six billion tonnes of material with significant gold content, Chingwaru explains. The research for his Master’s degree, which was upgraded to a PhD along the way, aimed to calculate and characterise these gold reserves. He also explored ways to extract the gold efficiently while addressing environmental concerns related to the tailings, such as the release of acid mine drainage due to pyrite oxidation.
“Invisible gold” – minuscule particles locked inside other minerals – is nothing new. But Chingwaru is the first scholar to calculate that the six billion tons of tailings around Johannesburg’s mines contain up to 460 tons of gold.
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