Jennifer Broadhurst has 35 years research and development experience in the field of mineral’s beneficiation within various industry, consultancy and academic organisations. Since joining the Department of Chemical Engineering at UCT in July 2001, she has been involved in a number of research and capacity development activities relating to the environmental and other sustainability issues of relevance to the primary mineral resource sector. Jennifer is also currently actively involved in developing inter and trans-disciplinary research capacity and education programmes, and is co-convener of the unique trans-disciplinary and multi-institutional Masters of Philosophy programme specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, developed as part of the Education for Sustainable Development in Africa initiative under the auspices of the United Nations University. She is also involved in actively bringing together academics from different disciplines and faculties for workshops and initiating collaborative, cross-disciplinary post-graduate research projects with students from a range of disciplines, including the natural, engineering, social and economic sciences.

To date Jennifer has: supervised 16 masters and 28 honours-level graduates; published 3 book chapters, 19 accredited journal articles and 13 peer-reviews conference papers; presented/co-presented 73 papers at local and international conferences; written in excess of 100 technical reports. In 2017, Jennifer played a lead role in an international workshop on Operationalizing The SDGs in the Extractive Industries, hosted by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (21 Sept 2017), and was an invited session panel member at the Strategic Materials for a Low-Carbon Future: From Resource Scarcity to Availability conference, hosted by the Veolia Institute and the Oxford Martin School (Oxford, 2-3 November 2017). In 2018, she will be co-convening a session on Mining Water Policy and Stewardship in the Developing Context  at the Resources for the Future conference (Vancouver, 16-21 June 2018) and giving a key-note address at the CIM/UQAT Mines and the Environment conference (Rouyn-Noranda,17-20 July, 2018), focusing on the development of resource-efficient approaches for the management of sulfidic mine waste.

Current Positions

• Associate Professor: Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT
• Deputy Director: Minerals to Metals Initiative, Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT
• Theme Leader (Maximising Value): Future Water Institute, UCT
• Co-convener: Master of Philosophy programme specializing in Sustainable Mineral Resource Development, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, UCT

Previous Positions

• Chief Research Officer: Minerals to Metals, UCT (2 years)
• Contractual Research Officer: Department of Chemical Engineering, UCT (14 years)
• Consulting process and environmental chemist: JLB consultancy (15 years)
• Principal Research Metallurgist: Billiton Pty Ltd (10 years)
• Scientist: Process Chemistry Division, Atomic Energy Corporation of South Africa (4 years)

Jennifer’s research focuses primarily on the development of innovative and holistic approaches for mitigating the environmental and associated socio-economic impacts from the primary mineral extraction sector, and optimizing the efficient utilization of minerals, as well as other resources associated with their extraction (water, energy, land). Current research topics include: mine land rehabilitation and use-planning; mine dust characterisation and risk analysis; mine water accounting; mine-environment-community relationships and engagement; re-purposing and down-stream processing of gold and coal mine waste; recovery of value from acid mine drainage; development of tools and metrics for performance assessment of mineral resource systems; acid rock drainage prediction and mitigation; modelling minor-trace element deportment and environmental risk across mine-metal chains; opportunities, drivers and enablers for beneficiation of PGMs.

Broadhurst J.L. and Harrison S. Water as a catalyst for change: a shared benefit approach to water resource management. In: Caroline Digby, Dee Bradshaw, Hanri Mostert and Brian Chicksen (eds), Green Mining: Beyond the Myth, Juta Law (ISBN 978 1 48512 7055): 29-31, 2018

Amaral Filho, J.R., Weiler J., Broadhurst J.L., and Schneider I.A.H. The use of static and humidity cells tests to assess the effectiveness of coal waste desulfurization on acid rock drainage risks. Mine Water Environ, 36: 4329-435, 2017.

Munyongani, V., von Blottnitz, H. and Broadhurst, J.L. A life-cycle based review of sulfur dioxide abatement installations in the South African platinum group metal sector. Sustainability Science, Special feature: Sustainability Science for Meeting Africa’s Challenges. Available on line 19 August 2017.

Broadhurst J.L. Mine Waste: From Problem to Opportunity. In: Hanri Mostert, Cheri-Leigh Young & Dee Bradshaw (eds), Waste & Wealth: New Views on the By Products of Mining, Juta Law (ISBN 978 1 48512 010 0): 24-25, 2016.

Broadhurst J.L., Harrison S.T.L., Petersen J., Franzidis J-P and Bradshaw, D. A Research and Education Framework to Support the Development of a Sustainable and Socially Responsible Mining Industry in Africa. In: Devasahayan, Dowling & Mahaptra (eds), Sustainability in Minerals and Energy Sectors, Taylor & Francis (ISBN: 978-1-4987-3302-1), Chapter 29: 559-572, 2016.