A state-of-the-art mobile soils laboratory will be launched on 26 October 2023 at the Engineering 4.0 complex on the Hillcrest Campus of the University of Pretoria in collaboration with Anglo American. Prof SW Jacobsz, a lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Pretoria in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and IT, collaborated with Mr Anton Bain, Head of Residue Facilities at Anglo American, and his team to establish this facility. This mobile laboratory will enable sensitive soil samples, such as mine tailings, to be subjected to a range of sophisticated soil tests where they are recovered.

Sample disturbance associated with long-distance transport to laboratories is avoided by the use of this mobile laboratory. The soil testing capability brought about by the new mobile laboratory is especially important to the mining industry, which is under intense pressure internationally to manage the stability of tailings dams to the highest standards possible. 

The laboratory, housed in an eight-ton truck, is equipped with four advanced triaxial test systems, two dynamic cyclic simple shear systems, an automated oedometer system and ancillary equipment. In addition to allowing the state of tailings dams to be assessed from the highest quality samples, the availability of state-of-the-art equipment will significantly advance research into tailings behaviour at the University of Pretoria.

Prof Jacobsz states that” tailings engineering is currently a rapidly advancing field of research around the world. In addition to existing research facilities, such as the only active geotechnical centrifuge on the African continent, this mobile laboratory places the University of Pretoria in a unique position to contribute significantly to advance the state-of-the-art in the important field of tailings engineering”.