The WAIMM groups provide the relevant platform for skill enhancement and knowledge sharing where specific professionals in the core sectors of the mining and petroleum industry meet, network and discuss pertinent and pressing specific issues in their field of practice.
The WAIMM Publications Committee supervises the publication of the monthly, quarterly and annual newsletters and Journals illustrating recent events in the mining and petroleum industry as well as technological advancements over the period.
The WAIMM publication includes:
These publications are published periodically with the current trends in the mining and oil & gas industries across the West African Sub-region and beyond.
The objective of the Publication Committee is to ensure timely release of the newsletters and journals with relevant content.
The Committee is also expected to publish and distribute technical papers, research findings etc. that have been peer reviewed for accuracy.
The responsibility of the Publication Committee is to ensure publications are done in the best professional manner and ensure widespread promotion of products and services.
Our focus is to provide career and professional development to advance the knowledge and skillset of students, academia , industry professionals, and companies in the resources sector by creating the platform where they can access new and emerging advancement in industry practices.
Eric Asubonteng is the General Manager and Managing Director (MD) of AngloGold Ashanti Obuasi Mine and has worked with AngloGold Ashanti since 2013. Until this appointment as MD, Mr. Asubonteng was Head of Operations and Corporate Affairs of the Company’s Obuasi Mine and had full responsibility for managing the reputation of the company as head of Corporate Affairs.
He is a highly accomplished Finance Executive with 13 years’ experience in executive roles, both local and international, in both surface mining and underground operations. He has worked with Gold Fields Ghana and Gold Fields Australia. This has included financial management roles in the resources sector incorporating responsibility for financial and management accounting, financial management, supply chain, IT, business operations and restructuring, as well as operational management and corporate affairs.
Mr. Asubonteng is a chartered accountant. He holds a first degree from the University of Ghana Business School, an MBA from the Manchester Business School, and has a postgraduate certificate in Mining Engineering from the University of New South Wales, Australia.
Mr. Eric Asubonteng is currently the President of the Ghana Chamber of mines. He is a Fellow of the WAIMM.
JOEL BEN-AWUAH is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto and Northern Lights College, British Columbia, Canada. He is a registered Professional Geologist in the province of Ontario. He holds a BSc degree in Geology from the University of Ghana, MSc degree in Petroleum Geoscience from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and PhD degree in Petroleum Geoscience from Univeriti Teknologi Petronas. His research interests include reservoir characterization, reservoir geochemistry, basin and petroleum system modelling, hydrocarbon resource assessment, hydrocarbon distribution analysis, petrophysics, formation evaluation and ore deposit geology.
Joel has over 10 years of teaching and research experience and has held teaching and research positions in the past at Curtin University, Laurentian University and University of Regina. He also has several years of experience working in the mining and mineral exploration industry.
The results of his research have been published in several peer reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Joel is a Chartered Scientist with the Science Council (UK) and a Fellow of the Advanced Higher Education Academy (UK).
Professor Daniel Mireku-Gyimah is a chartered mining engineer and a professor of mining engineering with many years of professional and academic experience. He holds Dsc (Honoris causa), PhD (Computer-Aided Mine Design & Planning), Diploma of the Imperial College (DIC) from the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London and MSc (Mining Engineering) from the Moscow Mining Institute, Moscow.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah powered the processes that upgraded the KNUST School of Mines into the Western University College of KNUST and also spearheaded the processes that transformed the College into the full-fledged University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa.
He is a Fellow of the Ghana Institution of Engineers: Member of Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, UK; New York Academy of Sciences, USA; Ghana Institution of Geoscientists, Ghana and American Society of Mining Engineers, USA. Prof. Mireku-Gyimah joined the KNUST School of Mines, as a lecturer in 1981 and rose steadily through the ranks to become the first full professor of the University of Mines and Technology in 1999. He has over 60 publications to his credit.
He has served on a number of Committees in the University including the following: Member of Executive Committee; Appointments and Promotions Committee; Search Committee for the Appointment of Vice Chancellor for KNUST; KNUST Statutes Review Committee; Chairman of the College of Engineering Committee, Chairman of Aerospace Engineering Committee and a Member (in attendance) of the KNUST Council.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah has also served as Head of the Mining Engineering Department, the last Principal of the KNUST School of Mines at Tarkwa, the first and only Provost of the Western University College of KNUST.
He was the leader of the Panel, which drew up the computer science syllabus for polytechnics in the country; member of the National Disaster Management Organisation; the Technical Committee of the Ghana Chamber of Mines; the Editorial Board of the Ghana Journal of Science, Editor-in-Chief of the Ghana Mining Journal and Vice Chairman of the Wassa Fiase Education Fund.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah is the Chairman of Tarkwa Hospital Endowment Fund, Chairman of Takoradi Polytechnic Council and has provided professional services to a number of mining companies in Ghana and abroad which has included: AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, Obuasi, Ghana; Ghana Manganese Company Ltd, Nsuta, Ghana; Semafo Company Ltd of France, Panasqueira Mine of Portugal and Patrician Gold Resources of Canada.
Prof. Mireku-Gyimah is the originator of the collaboration between the University of Mines and Technology and other universities abroad including Penn State University and Montana Tech University in the USA. He is a member of the international Alliance for Earth Science and Engineering Development in Africa.
He is the foundation Vice Chancellor of the University of Mines and Technology and served in this role for 9 years (2004 – 2013) with a wealth of academic leadership, managerial, administrative and entrepreneurship skills as well as focused determination and dynamism to the University.
He is married to Prof. Patricia Beatrice Mireku-Gyimah, a Lecturer in Communications Skills at the University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa with four children.
Victoria Addison is a Mining engineer with about 20 years of industry experience internationally, in providing mining and mine planning engineering services in open cast gold and base metals mining. She has a Master of Law, LLM (distinction) in Mineral Law & Policy (2005) from the University of Dundee, UK, She also holds a BSc (Hons) in Mining Engineering (1996) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology – School of Mines, (now UMaT) Ghana.
Victoria has held several technical and leadership roles with multinational companies in a wide range of terrains with the commitment to continuous improvement in the safe, efficient and economic implementation of all aspects of mining, including mine planning and designing work. Her recent roles have included, inter alia, Mining Manager Position at Randgold Resources Limited, Loulo Gold Mine, Mali, from February 2010 to August 2011; Senior Mining Engineer at Newmont Ghana Gold Limited, Ahafo Project, Ghana, from March 2006 to December 2008; and Senior Mining Engineer at Goldfields Ghana Limited, Damang Mine, Ghana from May 2002 to June 2004.
Victoria has also authored and co-authored a number of technical papers, some of which have been published in the AUSIMM Bulletin (2006), CEPMLP CAR, University of Dundee (2005), and the SAIMM Symposium Series (1996).
Victoria Addison has been involved with WAIMM since 2014 and has been a member of the governing council since 2015. She currently serves on the Ethics and Professional and Publication Committees. She believes WAIMM will provide women professionals in the industry the much needed mentorship and professional development opportunities that will enhance their participation and interest and also spearhead them to greater heights. She is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy (MAusIMM).
Victoria recently served as Vice President, Mining at Galiano Gold Inc., Vancouver, Canada. She was also a Senior Consultant with SRK, Vancouver – Canada.
She is currently the Senior Engineer – Corporate Finance Division, British Columbia Securities Commission, Vancouver – Canada.
Kwame Awuah-Offei is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mining & Nuclear Engineering at Missouri University of Science & Technology and Principal Consultant at Sphinx Mining Systems LLC and holds a PhD from the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T). He has over 12 years of research and industry experience in various capacities. He has extensive experience in modelling and simulation of discrete and dynamic systems in mining. He has worked in surface gold mining and aggregate operations and has authored several publications, technical presentations, webinars and research findings to his credit.
His current research interests include simulation of mining (including aggregate) systems, mining equipment performance evaluation, earthmoving equipment-formation interactions, and sustainable mining systems. He has had diverse teaching assistantship appointments in three universities in three countries.
He has also worked as a Mine Planning Engineer and Plant Engineer at Granite Construction from January 2006 – September 2007.
Prof. Kwame Awuah-Offei recently completed a position of Mining Engineering Academic Fellow to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from February 2015 – Present, Washington D.C. Metro Area.
He has been involved with WAIMM since 2013 and has been on the governing council since 2015; serves as the Vice Chair of the Ethics and Professional Committee.
Prof Awuah – Offei believes that to enhance professionalism in the West African subregion, industry professionals will need a platform that will provide professional development and networking opportunities that are easily accessible and also in sync with international standards. He is a very active member of SME in the USA and has served on various committees within the SME. He is also registered professional engineer.
Lawrence Omari-Mensah has over 20 years’ experience working in mineral exploration, resource and petroleum geoscience in Ghana and Internationally. He holds an MSc in Applied Petroleum Geoscience from the University of Derby in the UK and completed his undergraduate education at the University of Mines and Technology in Ghana where he studied Geological Engineering.
Lawrence has held various technical and leadership roles in a wide range of geological terrains on projects from grassroots exploration to feasibility and resource. He has managed, supervised and coordinated exploration programs and project generation initiatives in Ghana, as well as other resources in both French and English speaking West African countries; has also performed other geological/geoscientific investigations and programs in the UK. He has also been involved in the discovery and feasibility studies of several gold deposits in Ghana, Liberia, Guinea and Burkina Faso
Mr. Omari-Mensah has been the CEO of K-3 Resources West Africa Ltd since 2013. Prior to that he worked for major mining companies including Ampella Mining Ltd, Coffey Mining, Goldfields Limited and Surpac Mining Software (Africa) Limited now Dassault Systems. He joined Ampella Mining Ltd, as a Senior Geologist from 2011- 2013, where he was also the Safety committee chairman after a brief stint at Coffey Mining West Africa Ltd as a Senior Project Geologist. He was the Ghana Manager and Sales/Technical Consultant for Surpac Africa Pty Ltd (2006 – 2007) where he was the first black African Technical consultant employed by the Surpac group.
Lawrence has also been involved in the provision of professional development initiatives for both engineers and other supporting services at every stage of his career. This has included conducting training and providing technical support services to geologists and mining engineers in the Surpac mining software among others.
Lawrence Omari – Mensah is the founding President of WAIMM and his resolve is that industry professionals in the West African sub region need to be provided with a platform that will enhance their career and professional development and create opportunities that will give them a transformation change by exposing them to greater knowledge in new industry trends. He believes as professionals we need to safeguard the future of those intending to practice geology, mining, hydrocarbon production, metallurgy, and related disciplines in future and let them know they have a voice and an identity; we can only do this by creating the tools that will spearhead future professionals to greater heights and save the industry. Mr. Omari-Mensah is of the firm conviction that all these issues would be addressed through first class networking, knowledge sharing and professional development.
Lawrence has attended a number of industry related programs including the ore-deposit geochemistry and geochronology course at CODES – University of Tasmania. He is also a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, a Fellow of the Geological Society of London as well as a Member of the Ghana Institution of Geoscientists.
KWASI AMPOFO is a Metals and Mining Analyst at BloombergNEF based in London. His research covers battery metals, the digitalisation of the mining industry and renewable energy investments in emerging markets.
Prior to joining BloombergNEF, he was a mining engineer at Anglo American and a management consultant at Nous Group in Australia. He completed his PhD in Mineral Economics at the University of Queensland, Australia
JOHNSON MANU is an Associate Professor of Mineralogy with specialization in gold and base metal mineralization and exploration planning at the Department of Earth Science, University of Ghana. He holds a PhD and MSc from the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany and an MBA (Finance) from the University of Ghana.
Prof. Johnson Manu has over thirty years of teaching experience as a lecturer and has authored over forty scientific articles, a book and technical reports for Government Projects and provides expert, committed and determined services related to mineral exploration programs to several local and foreign mineral exploration companies, as a consultant. He supervises student’s thesis from undergraduate to PhD levels and reviews the Ghana Mining Journal, Journal of the University of Science & Technology and Arabian Journal of Geosciences.
He received the Konrad – Adenauer Stiftung Award (1982 – 1985) and the Deutscher Akademischer Austauch Dienst, (DAAD) Award (1989 – 1993) in Germany respectively.
His research interests include Planning and management modelling for small scale gold mining concessions, Review and Analyses of available geological information on Diamond, Gold and Industrial mineral deposits of Ghana and to draft prospectuses to attract new capital investment, Constraints on fluid composition and physical-chemical factors for the formation of the Birimian gold deposits in Ghana and Development of gold exploration planning in Ghana for Ghanaians using the decision tree concept.
Prof. Manu believes that with discipline and determination, professionals can achieve whatever they set their minds to do, to enhance industry professionalism and sustainability. He is a Fellow of WAIMM and a member of Ghana Institution of Geoscientists and Ghana Science Association respectively.
TITUS NTOW OFEI is a Research Scientist at SINTEF Industri in Trondheim, Norway. Prior to that, he was a Senior Lecturer in the department of Petroleum Engineering at the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS in Malaysia.
He also held the position of PIRE Research Fellow in the department of Geoscience and Petroleum at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, under the NSF-funded PIRE project and the Research Council of Norway. He has extensive research, teaching and consulting experience in oilwell drilling and reservoir studies from Malaysia, Norway, and Canada.
He is active in teaching and research in the areas of drilling fluids technology, wellbore hydraulics, rheology of complex fluids, and process simulation of multiphase flow in wellbores. He has supervised more than 40 students on drilling-related research at both undergraduate and graduate levels and has over 40 publications to his credit; including refereed articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings.
Titus holds a MSc and PhD in Petroleum Engineering from the African University of Science and Technology, Nigeria and the Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia respectively, and a BSc (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from KNUST, Ghana. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and The Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA).
ERIC BRONI-BEDIAKO is a Senior Lecturer of Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at University of Mines and Technology, Tarkwa, Ghana. He holds PhD in Petroleum Engineering from University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana.
He holds MSc Degree in Petroleum Engineering from African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria, MPhil and BSc in Mining Engineering from UMaT. He is a member of Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) and International Association of Engineers (IAEng).
His research interests are oil and gas drilling fluids, oil and gas well cementing, environmental management, oilfield health and safety, petroleum and mineral economics.
EUGENE BEN-AWUAH is an Associate Professor of Mining Engineering at the Bharti School of Engineering, Laurentian University, Canada. He is also the IAMGOLD Research Fellow in Open Pit Mining and the Director of Mining Optimization Lab at Laurentian University. He holds a MSc from the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana and a PhD from the University of Alberta, Canada. Eugene is a Registered Professional Engineer and has extensive operational, consulting and research experience in mine design and optimization, and mine production management from Ghana, Canada and Australia.
He teaches and conducts research in strategic mining options optimization, integrated mine planning and waste management optimization, simulation optimization of intelligent and autonomous mining systems, and applications of discrete fracture network. His research activities have resulted in 7 PhD, MASc and MEng graduates, 5 research reports, and 35 refereed manuscripts. He is the Principal Mining Consultant for OptiSim Mining Solutions on mine optimization and simulation. He is a Member of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, the West African Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (WAIMM) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM).
ELIZABETH STEYN is Cassels Brock Fellow in Mining and Finance Law and Assistant Professor in Law at Western University in London, Canada. She leads Western Law’s interdisciplinary sustainable development curriculum, including the Global Sustainability Certification and the Graduate Diploma in Mining Law, Finance & Sustainability.
Originally from South Africa, she received her LLM cum laude (Council’s Award) from the University of South Africa, and graduated with a BA/LLB cum laude from the University of Johannesburg, where she served on the Faculty of Law for close on a decade.
Steyn was admitted as an Advocate to the High Court of South Africa and has practiced all over the African continent in the natural resources and energy law, corporate law, corporate governance law, commercial law, and international trade law fields.
She has twice been Visiting Fellow in Germany: the Centre for European Law at the Universität des Saarlandes, and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Steyn obtained her Doctorate in Law (LLD) at the Université de Montréal (Dean’s Honour List and mention of excellence).
Fluent in five languages, she has published in different countries and disciplines. She has delivered presentations at international conferences on four continents and has chaired a number of multilingual panels.
BERNARD KUMI-BOATENG is an Associate Professor by rank at the Department of Geomatic Engineering (Surveying), the Dean of Students and the Immediate Past Chaplain of the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana. He was born on 15th June 1978 at Bantama, Kumasi. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geomatic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He has double Master of Science degrees from the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), Enschede, The Netherlands and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, He holds a PhD from the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana.
He has been a Vice Dean of Students, Vice Dean of International Programme, Head of 3 different Departments, Senior Hall Tutor, Examinations Officer, Training Coordinator and has been on over 60 ad-hoc committees in the University within a short period of 13 years. Prof Kumi-Boateng is a visiting Professor to the University of The Gambia and serves on the Ghana National Committee of WAEC and in 2017, He was appointed to serve on the International Final Awards and Examiners’ Appointments Committee of WAEC. In that same year, he was selected by Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Programme of USA to serve as a Reviewer to evaluate project requests from higher education Institutes in African Countries.
He is a reviewer for the prestigious Newton Prize, UK National Commission for UNESCO which is a £1 million fund which recognises the excellent research and innovation the Newton Fund has invested in since its launch in 2014. He was part of a group of people sponsored by World Bank for first regional capacity building workshop on benchmarking African Universities. Prof Kumi-Boateng has 13 years University teaching experience and for the past 13 years carried out consulting assignments in the field of Land and compensation Surveys, Environment, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing. His research interest includes application of Topology in Land and Compensation Surveys, Resettlement Action Plan, Use of Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in Environmental Management and Spatial Statistics. He is member of the following Associations: American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, African Association of Remote Sensing of the Environment, Canadian Institute of Geomatics, Member Ghana Institution of Engineers, Fellow West African Institute of Mining and Professional Member of Ghana Institution of Surveyors.
James R. Dankwah is an Associate Professor of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana.
He is currently the Head of the Minerals Engineering Department and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Mineral Resources Technology, University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa, Ghana. He obtained his PhD from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, MSc (Process Metallurgy) from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and BSc (Metallurgical Engineering) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.
His current research areas include iron and steelmaking, high-temperature metallurgical processes, utilisation of end-of-life polymers as reductants in metal extraction processes, production of diesel-range liquid fuel from end-of-life polymers, corrosion and corrosion control and sustainable recycling of agricultural waste and their blends with end-of-life polymers as reductants in metal extraction processes. This has resulted in over a hundred Journal, Conference and Technical publications.
He is a fellow of the West African Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (WAIMM).
Ing. NANA SARFO AGYEMANG DERKYI is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Department of Energy and Petroleum Engineering, and Dean of School of Engineering, University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), is a Chemist and a Chemical Engineer by education, and a Renewable Energy Technologies specialist by training and practice. Prior to joining UENR, he was a Senior Research Scientist at the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. He was trained at CIRAD, France in biomass technology as well as chemometrics modeling and the applications of near infrared spectroscopy. He was also trained in renewable energy technologies at the Arava Institute of Environmental Studies, Israel and again at UNIDO – ISEC and BIOMA both in China. Nana received an award from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to use Tandem GC-MS for the determination and monitoring of emissions and other organic pollutants at the Kenyatta University in Kenya. He also received an award from the Indian Government for the process and quality analysis of food and water at Shriram Institute in India.
He is a 2010 SEED Award winner for innovations in Tetrapleura tetraptera syrup production. Nana has over twenty years of research and teaching experience, and his primary research areas include renewable energy technologies, sustainable environment, and process engineering. His expertise includes energy system design, process optimization, oil refinery, chemometric modeling, as well as strategic interventions that feed into policy. His research program is aimed at the advancement of renewable energy technologies, processing and utilization of petrochemicals and natural products, and the associated environmental consequences and policy considerations. His work has been published in referred articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings, having over 60 of such publications.
He has taught and continues to teach some courses related to energy technologies and policy over the years including Natural Gas Engineering, Oil Refinery & Petrochemical Engineering, Fuel Cells Technology, Biogas Technology, and Bioenergy System & Design. Nana has contributed to some energy policy developments in Ghana including Renewable Energy Masterplan for Ghana, Bioenergy Policy for Ghana, and Science, Technology & Innovation Policy for Ghana. He is a Visiting Professor at the Clean Energy Center of Naresuan University in Thailand. He is also a Visiting Professor at the West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) of Abdou Moumouni University in Niger, as well as Pan Africa University (PAUWES) in Algeria.
Nana is Guest Lecturer at both Hochschule fur Forstwirtschaft Rottenburg, Germany, and Policy Pathways Inc, Virginia, USA. His research interest covers petroleum refinery products and processes; characterization of hydrocarbons; remediation of oil spills; design of hybrid power plant; optimization of chemical processes; reaction engineering and reactor design; rapid analytical methods using near infrared spectroscopy; equipment and process plant design; fuel combustion, pyrolysis and gasification.
He is a member to some reputable professional associations including Association of Energy Engineers, Ghana Institution of Engineering, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Ghana Chemical Society, American Chemical Society, Society for Applied Spectroscopy, Council for Near Infrared Spectroscopy, and West African Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum.