A Tribute to Professor Emeritus Horst Wagner: Researcher, Administrator, Mentor and Academic

While Horst Wagner was born and educated in Austria and has also spent the last 20 years working at his Alma Mater, he is also remembered for the 25 remarkable years he spent in South Africa. This paper attempts to trace his meteoric rise from Junior Researcher in 1969 to his appointment in 1986 as the Director General of the Chamber of Mines Research Organisation and concurrently Research Advisor to the Chamber of Mines of South Africa. In addition, during the period 1988 until his return to Austria in 1993, Professor Wagner was the Senior General Manager (Operations) of the Chamber of Mines and played a pivotal role in reshaping the Chamber and its subsidiary companies.

Twenty years after his departure from South Africa Professor Wagner is still remembered for his clarity of thought in identifying industry problems, his foresight in predicting how those issues would impact the future and in the specification of the research and remedial actions necessary to address the problems. These attributes are illustrated by looking at the South African mining industry Professor Wagner served from 1969 to 1993 (the past), what has happened to that industry in the intervening years and, in particular, its present state. Finally some thoughts are included on what drives the future of the industry. While much of this paper is based on the South African situation, where appropriate, parallels are drawn with the global mining scene.