Rebecca Campbell

https://staging1.creamermedia.com/

Rebecca Campbell

Rebecca Campbell is Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor for Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

Is the era of the flying taxi finally about to dawn?

1st March 2024 The concept of small, usually unconventional, aircraft, carrying small numbers of passengers, weaving their way through towering skyscrapers and speeding over suburbs, has been a staple of especially visual science fiction – films, comic books (now pompously called ‘graphic novels’) and TV series... →

Is the era of the flying taxi finally about to dawn?

1st March 2024 The concept of small, usually unconventional, aircraft, carrying small numbers of passengers, weaving their way through towering skyscrapers and speeding over suburbs, has been a staple of especially visual science fiction – films, comic books (now pompously called ‘graphic novels’) and TV series... →

Photo by Wisk Aero
Mockup of the Wisk Aero Gen 6 UAM vehicle

IATA reports significant improvement in African aviation safety, but more needs to be done

29th February 2024 The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has reported that Africa’s aviation safety performance last year was a significant improvement over that for 2022. The association has released its 2023 Annual Safety Report. African... →

Commercial aviation achieved unprecedentedly high safety levels last year

29th February 2024 Last year saw aviation safety, in several parameters, record its best-ever results, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. IATA, which is the global representative body for the airline industry, has released its 2023 Annual Safety Report. There was not a single fatal... →

IATA director-general Willie Walsh

Zero carbon aviation company demonstrates its complete system for the first time

28th February 2024 US zero carbon-emissions aviation company Universal Hydrogen has announced that it has used one of its proprietary modular liquid hydrogen storage and transport ‘capsules’ to successfully power its megawatt-class fuel cell powertrain. The test was run on the company’s ground-based ‘iron bird’... →

South Africa, Germany sign agreement on labour issues

28th February 2024 The South African Department of Employment and Labour announced on Wednesday that it had signed a Joint Declaration of Interest (JDI) with Germany’s Labour and Social Affairs Department. The JDI coveres four main areas: exchanges regarding general labour market practices, exchanges regarding... →

South African food inflation continued to decelerate in January

27th February 2024 In January, for the second month in a row, South African food and non-alcoholic beverage (NAB) inflation (hereafter to be referred to as food inflation, for short) declined, in year-on-year terms, the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) has reported, in its latest ‘Food Inflation... →

Global aviation’s IT company celebrates 75 years of innovation

27th February 2024 Specialist air transport industry information technology (IT) group SITA is currently celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary. It should be noted that the first controlled flight of a powered aircraft, by the Wright brothers, had taken place only 36 years earlier (December 1903) than SITA’s... →

Australian scientists make progress in dealing with hydrogen embrittlement of steel

26th February 2024 Australian researchers have made a step forward in addressing perhaps the biggest single obstacle to the large-scale roll-out of the hoped-for hydrogen economy: hydrogen embrittlement. This is the process whereby hydrogen causes high-strength materials, not least steel, to become brittle and... →

Rolls-Royce highlights its African presence, and delivers record results for 2023

23rd February 2024 UK-based global major propulsion and power systems group Rolls-Royce has highlighted its presence in Africa. It did so in parallel with the release of its full-year results for 2023. The group’s businesses active across the country are Power Systems, Civil Aerospace, and Defence. “We have... →

Transformed AECI to go big globally

23rd February 2024 JSE-listed South African multinational AECI aims to be the global number three company in its core market segment of mining explosives and mining chemicals, by 2030. Of the company’s business, 80% is already outside South Africa and 30% is outside Africa, CEO Holger Riemensperger emphasises to... →

AECI CEO Holger Riemensperger

Transition to the green economy offers great opportunities for women, but problems remain

22nd February 2024 The move to a green economy is a move to a more feminine economy, affirmed KD Strategies founding director Katnisha Singh on Thursday. She was participating in a panel discussion at the Women in the Green Economy breakfast, a function of the Africa Green Economy Summit 2024, being held in Cape... →

Cape Town driving forward with renewable energy, climate resilience programmes

22nd February 2024 Last year, Cape Town paid out R25-million to businesses which sold their surplus renewable energy to the city. And, starting this year, private citizens will be able to do the same. These developments were highlighted by Cape Town Executive Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis in an address to the Africa... →

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis

World Bank agency guarantees are supporting green energy transition in Africa

21st February 2024 The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank had so far supported 16 renewable energy projects in South Africa, with a total generating capacity of 1.4 GW, reported MIGA VP operations Junaid Ahmad on Wednesday. He was speaking to the 2024 Africa Green Economy Summit,... →

Western Cape already being hit by climate change, seeking to make itself resilient

21st February 2024 The Western Cape is already feeling the effects of climate change, provincial Premier Alan Winde highlighted on Wednesday. He was addressing the Africa Green Economy Summit 2024, in Cape Town. The region’s economy, and so jobs, were being impacted, he said. This is especially so in the... →

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde

MeerKAT radio telescope a beacon of technological development in South Africa

20th February 2024 More than 260 scientific papers have so far been published, using data gathered by South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope array, with 40% of them being published in the past year, highlighted Higher Education, Science and Innovation Mininster Dr Blade Nzimande, in Stellenbosch, on Tuesday. “This... →

Major solar power project in the DRC is now set to start development

19th February 2024 The Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and SkyPower Global have signed a joint development agreement to implement the first phase of an ultimately 1 000 MW capacity solar power project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). AFC is a multilateral pan-African development finance institution... →

Western Cape agency identifies key aviation trends during 2024

13th February 2024 Western Cape trade, tourism and investment promotion agency Wesgro has identified five key air travel trends for this year. These are, in the agency’s terminology and order, “the race to meet demand”, “promoting the African agenda”, “air cargo’s stabilising trajectory”, “a shift towards tangible... →

Durban’s Dube TradePort air cargo terminal sees demand spike because of harbour issues

13th February 2024 Air freight through the Dube TradePort cargo terminal, at King Shaka International Airport, at Durban, spiked sharply during the last quarter of last year, in quarter-on-quarter terms. This quarter-on-quarter increase was 57%, driven by issues at Durban harbour. “This significant increase in... →

South African satellite control systems company secures venture capital funding

13th February 2024 South African spacecraft attitude determination and control systems (ADCS) developer and manufacturer CubeSpace has secured R47-million in venture capital funding, to allow it to expand its international markets. CubeSpace is a spinout company, from Stellenbosch University, which specialises in... →

CubeSpace CEO Mike-Alec Kearney

Mining’s focus switching to critical minerals, with ESG pressures increasing

12th February 2024 The need to transform the global energy system and to cut carbon emissions, to counter the danger of climate change, is shifting the mining spotlight away from traditional high-value resources, such as gold and diamonds, to what are now being called “critical transition minerals”. So stressed... →

Aviation firm announces inverter technology breakthrough

9th February 2024 UK-US zero carbon emissions aviation company ZeroAvia has announced that the initial testing campaign for its in-house developed 200 kW continuous power inverter has been successfully concluded. Inverters take direct current (DC) power supplied by an electric power source (whether batteries or... →

Proposed underground lab in South Africa moves into project stage

9th February 2024 A proposal to build South Africa’s and Africa’s first underground science laboratory has now moved into the project stage, with the launch of the Paarl Africa Underground Laboratory (PAUL), following a recent science symposium on the concept. Although South African scientists have set up... →

Mining services companies facing climate conundrums

8th February 2024 The need to counter climate change is raising a whole range of important issues for mining services companies, which, in comparison with the mining groups they served, are small in scale. This was highlighted at a function, hosted by environmental consultancy Digby Wells on the fringes of the... →

Barrick highlights importance of socioeconomic development in poor countries

8th February 2024 The need to counter climate change and protect the environment should not distract attention from the need to achieve socioeconomic development in poor countries, Barrick Gold corporate sustainability executive Grant Beringer has cautioned. He was speaking in Cape Town, at a side event of the... →

Global Reporting Initiative formally launches new biodiversity, mining standards

8th February 2024 More than 50% of global gross domestic product was moderately or highly dependent on biodiversity, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) vice chairperson Bola Adeeko highlighted in Cape Town on Thursday. Adeeko, who was also the special projects director for Flour Mills of Nigeria, was speaking at... →

Threat of climate change has transformed the image of mining

7th February 2024 The need to reduce global carbon emissions, to counter climate change, has transformed the public image of the mining industry, because of the urgent need to ramp-up the production of clean energy metals. So highlighted International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) CEO Rohitesh Dhawan,... →

ICMM CEO Rohitesh Dhawan

Transformed AECI to go big globally

7th February 2024 JSE-listed South African multinational AECI aims to be the global number three company in its core market segment of mining explosives and mining chemicals, by 2030. Of the company’s business, 80% is already outside South Africa and 30% is outside Africa, CEO Holger Riemensperger emphasises to... →

AECI CEO Holger Riemensperger

Procurement extortion, copper theft serious issues for South African miners

5th February 2024 One of the major crime problems facing South African mining companies is that of the so-called “construction mafias”, or perhaps more accurately (as far as mining is concerned) “procurement mafias”. That is, organised crime gangs seeking to extort procurement contracts from mining companies,... →

Werner Duvenhage, Dr Mashego Mashego and Stephen Bullock

Harmony Gold highlights the fight against illegal mining

5th February 2024 Effectively dealing with the problem of illegal mining operations really needs the recreation of specialised units by the South African Police Service (SAPS). So highlighted Harmony Gold executive director stakeholder relations and corporate affairs Dr Mashego Mashego, on the first day of the... →

No-emissions transport companies team up to analyse new hydrogen technology for aviation

2nd February 2024 US-UK zero carbon emissions aviation company ZeroAvia and US hydrogen storage and refuelling technology startup company Verne have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the evaluation of opportunities to employ cryo-compressed hydrogen as an aircraft fuel, and for refuelling... →

South African food inflation decelerated in December

1st February 2024 After three consecutive months of moving up, South African food and non-alcoholic beverage (NAB) inflation (henceforth to be referred to simply as food inflation) decelerated again in December. This was highlighted by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP) in its latest “Food... →

IATA reports that the air cargo sector regained lost ground during 2023

1st February 2024 Global total air cargo demand in December was “exceptionally strong”, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. (IATA was the representative body for the worldwide airline industry.) It was 10.8% up, year-on-year, with the increase in international demand being 11.5%. Total... →

IATA reports that total air passenger traffic is now very close to pre-Covid levels

1st February 2024 Total air passenger traffic in December, worldwide, reached a level very close to that recorded before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reported. IATA is the global representative body for the airline industry, and it has released air... →

Embraer reports significant increases in its aircraft deliveries and services business

31st January 2024 Brazil-based major aerospace and defence group Embraer has announced that its commercial and business aircraft deliveries last year were 13% higher than in 2022, reaching a total of 181 aircraft (as against 160 in 2022). However, the 2023 figure still fell short of the company’s guidance for last... →

IATA welcomes release of some blocked airline funds by Nigeria

31st January 2024 The International Air Transport Association (IATA), which is the global representative body for the airline industry, has welcomed the announcement by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it has released another $64.44-million in blocked airline funds. The association was, however, consulting... →

Three of Africa’s five youngest airliner fleets are in East Africa

30th January 2024 The five African airlines which currently have the youngest airliner fleets are, in order from youngest to less young, Uganda Airlines, Jambojet, Air Tanzania, Air Cairo and Air Austral. This was highlighted by airline data and news company ch-aviation, in its “World’s Youngest Aircraft Fleet... →

Stellenbosch, Western Cape universities receive muon detector from France

30th January 2024 Research into cosmic rays by scientists at Stellenbosch University (SU) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) has been energised by the delivery, from France, of a muon detector. The detector is on loan from the French Institute of Physics of the Two Infinities (IP2I), located in the city... →

NNR approves the separation of the operating timelines of Koeberg’s nuclear reactors

29th January 2024 The National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) has announced that it has approved the request of national electricity utility Eskom to separate the operational timelines for the two reactors of the Koeberg nuclear power plant (NPP). Koeberg, located on South Africa’s west coast, near Cape Town, is the... →

Airline association and European regulator agree on global threat posed by GNSS jamming

29th January 2024 The global representative body for the airline industry, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), have agreed on the dangers posed to aircraft by the jamming or distortion (“spoofing”) of global navigation satellite system (GNSS)... →

A prototype dish for the SKA has started early science work in the Karoo

26th January 2024 Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) has announced that a prototype dish for the SKA-Mid radio telescope array has commenced initial astronomical observations, known as “first light observations”. The SKA-Mid will be one of two instruments operated by the international... →

Photo by MPIfR
The SKA-MPIfR telescope

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