Zamech brought together strong and sound professionals (i.e. geologists, environmentalists, and social scientists) all with extensive technical and managerial experience within diverse sectors. The company leverages the collective wisdom and real-life experiences of its professionals in order to offer a competitive advantage to its clients.
Chris is an astute, qualified and dynamic Senior Geologist with strong technical and business management skills and experience covering almost 30 years. He started out his career and progressed to a Divisional Geologist at Amcoal (now Anglo American Thermal Coal) from 1989 to 2006. Chris then joined Shanduka Coal in 2006 until 2010 as Group Geologist and, between 2010 and 2014, he worked as a Business Development Executive at Pembani Coal. The role greatly enhanced his business acumen as he was responsible for business development strategies, product development, marketing and stakeholder management.
Since 2014, Chris has completed assignments on a freelance and contract basis to lead and assist projects and operations to achieve their realistic objectives based on his extensive exposure within the mining industry.
Chris is experienced in management solution in the geoscience field, combining technical expertise and business acumen with ability to create, drive and enhance value within the mining and geology space.
His niche and areas of competencies include:
Zach started his career with Anglo Coal as a junior geologist in 1989 and worked on several projects and collieries in the Witbank and Middelburg area as well as Standerton. He has worked in and experienced all kinds of mining methods in South Africa from drill and blast, Open cast, Long wall and continuous miner operations.
He joined Sasol Mining in 1996 as a senior geologist working on various exploration and mining projects. Zach was part of the team that prepared resources and reserves statements required for listing at the New York Stock Exchange in 2003. He was appointed Divisional Manager responsible for Sasol Geology Department in 2004. He undertook a desktop study of the Ningxia Coalfield north of Beijing, China. Zach visited several businesses in China in 2006 as part of the Leadership Programme with Stellenbosch Business School. Amongst the business visited were; Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Petro China, BASF, Standard Chartered Corporate Bank and several mining companies.
Zach left Sasol mining in 2007 and started Nathan and Lidah Consulting in the same year. Zach is the Chief consultant in the company specializing in coal resource modelling and evaluations. Since the inception of the company, Zach has worked with several clients and projects. To mention a few, he designed a selectable mining horizon for Exxaro at Matla Coal and reported resources, created databases and geological models for Shanduka Coal, created several structural and quality models in the Moatize Coalfield (Mozambique) for The Mineral Corporation’s Japanese clients and estimated resources, modelled 5 Seam in Secunda for Coal of Africa and conducted several due diligences at Optimum Mine, Mvela Resources and in Soutpansberg area.
He has also modelled the Lubimbi Coalfield in Hankano, Zimbabwe and evaluated platinum and iron ore in South Africa as well as kimberlitic pipes in Lesotho.
His work on the geological model built and the resources estimate of Moatize Coalfield was reviewed and audited by the Australian & South East Asian Mining Consultants (ASEAMCO) based in New South Wales. There were no reported discrepancies found neither with the geological model nor the estimation of resources.
Menzi Gqweta is a geologist with over 27 years of full-time working experience (five of these were spent working at Anglo American Corporation). He began his studies in geology at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW) in Durban. During his studies at UDW he undertook vocational employments at Free State Geduld Gold Mine in Welkom, summer 1987 and Finsch Diamond Mine in Lime Acres, summer 1989. During these vocational employments he was exposed to underground and field mapping, core logging, sampling and preparation of geological reports. After obtaining a B.Sc. degree in Geology from UDW (1990) he joined Amcoal, a coal division of Anglo American Corporation, and was based at New Denmark Colliery (NDC) near Standerton in the Mpumalanga Province. Whilst working at NDC he furthered his studies and completed in 1994 a B.Sc. Honours in Geology at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He therefore progressed within the coal mining industry and achieved the following.
Menzi left NDC in October 1995 in order to start his own consulting firm, Khulani GeoEnviro Consultants (Pty) Ltd (KGC), specialising in the fields of geology and hydrogeology. As a director of KGC, he developed both the management and technical skills necessary in the running of a geo-scientific company. Furthermore, his appreciation of sociological and political environments in which the geo-consulting industry operates enabled him to sustain the growth of his company.
Over the past 22 years of running KGC, Menzi had been involved as a hydrogeological project manager on a number of groundwater projects responsible for the co-ordination, control and monitoring of all hydrogeological activities with respect to programme, budget, quality, safety, reporting and client liaison.
Some of the projects in which he has been actively involved include:
In addition to groundwater projects, Menzi has been actively involved in mineral resources evaluations and explorations specifically for coal and platinum commodities. Some of these include,
After winding down KGC, he teamed up with other geologists and co-founded ZAMECH (Pty) Ltd.
Zeria holds a postgraduate degree in Environmental Science (M.Sc) from the University of the Witwatersrand. She has over 15 years of professional work experience and is well versed with various aspects of environmental processes in the agricultural, mining, oil & gas and energy sectors. Over the past years, Zeria’s professional key focus has been on strategic environmental assessment and advice; management and co-ordination of environmental projects; and the development of environmental management and monitoring plans. Consequently, Zeria’s areas of competencies include;
Zeria’s utmost aspiration is to continue contributing her knowledge and skills to promote sound Environmental and Social management in South Africa and beyond.
