July 15, 1999 MEMO TO: Ronald J. Turner and Jeanie H. Smallwood FROM: Richard D. Hagni RE: Report on UM-UWC exchange visit to South Africa and Namibia This report covers my teaching exchange visit to the University of the Western Cape (UWC) from June 22 to July 8, 1999 and my research visit to the Okorusu fluorspar mine at Okorusu, Namibia from July 9 to July 20, 1999. At UWC, I taught a short course on ore deposits during the week of June 24-28, and another short course on ore microscopy during the following week (June 31-July 4), both to a group of honors students in the Department of Earth Sciences at UWC. I was pleased with the quality of the students, thought that they worked diligently throughout the course, and I have encouraged all of them to consider the University of Missouri-Rolla for their graduate studies (the UMR Department of Geology and Geophysics currently has one M.S. graduate student, Louise Frazer, from UWC, and has another M.S. student, William Baugaard coming from UWC to UMR this fall semester). All of the students responded well to the materials being taught in the courses, and they became especially enthusiastic as the laboratory techniques were introduced in the second-week ore microscopy course. The Earth Sciences Department at UWC does a remarkable job of taking students with limited background and bringing them up to a level where they can compete with students from any other university. In fact, it was my perception that the students currently at UWC are significantly better than those I had taught previously in 1993. Both of the above short courses had been taught by myself at UWC in 1993. At that time, I had prepared (at UMR) an excellent suite of about 160 polished sections of ore minerals from classical ore deposits around the world, and I had left those sections for subsequent use at UWC. The presence of those sections at UWC greatly facilitated the teaching of the ore microscopy course this summer. Although the sections had been left for UWC use, almost of those sections were again used in this summer’s short course. During the course of the UWC visit, I also had a conference with Drs. Johannes van Bever Donker (department chairman; geohydrologist), Charles Okujeni (exploration geochemist), and Reginald Domoney (structural geologist) regarding long range plans for the exchange between the Department of Earth Sciences at UWC and the Department of Geology and Geophysics at UMR. The results of that discussion were that it was decided that the two departments should focus on two areas of geology and geophysics, and those areas are: 1) exploration, and 2) environmental. The exploration emphasis will involve geochemistry, geology, and geophysics. The environmental emphasis will involve sedimentology and basin analysis, structural, igneous petrology,
and metamorphic petrology. Those two emphasis areas will be discussed by the faculty of Geology and Geophysics at UMR this fall, and subsequently formalized into a proposed long-range plan of interaction and exchange between the two departments at UWC and UMR. The selection of these two focus areas will provide maximum interaction between the two departments and should serve to be mutually beneficial for both departments. One UMR undergraduate student, Cory Pettijohn, accompanied me at UWC, and he also spent some of his time in collaboration with three UMR graduate students at nearby Stellenbosch. After the conclusion of the UWC short courses, both Cory and I visited two geology professors at Stellenbosch to initiate some geochemical research with them on the Okrousu fluorspar deposit, the subject of the subject of the second two-period of my South Africa-Namibia visit. One professor was Dr. Wilhelm Vorwoerd, the expert on South African carbonatite occurrences, and he was consulted regarding our research at Okorusu. The other professor was Dr. Dieter Hallbauer, a geochemist who has agreed to run capillary electrophoresis analyses (a new technique that determines many elements in parts per trillion) on ore and rock samples collected by us from Okorusu. The results of the research visit at Okrousu were spectacular. There I was accompanied by Cory Pettijohn and Purnima Shivdasan, a Ph.D. candidate in Geology and Geophysics at UMR. Approaching the new exposures of ores and rocks in the two open pits from the standpoint of multiple working hypotheses led to many new important geological observations and a completely new interpretation of the character of the host rocks replaced by the fluorite ores. For the first time, it was recognized that most of the fluorite orebodies have replaced magmatic pegmatitic carbonatite, and that the locations of those orebodies are a function of that replacement process. Three abstracts reporting those results were prepared for national and international meetings during the airplane ride back to the United States. A written paper detailing the results was prepared for publication during the first two weeks after returning from Africa. At the end of the research period, Cory Pettijohn said that he had learned much about the scientific approach to studying geological problems by being involved in the multiple hypothesis discussions primarily between Purnima and myself. Both portions of the South African-Namibian visits were very enjoyable, fully active, and especially productive. I feel that the UM-UWC exchange program is one of the most fulfilling programs available to faculty and students at the University of Missouri and the University of the Western Cape. Other exchange activities between the two departments (Earth Sciences at UWC and Geology and Geophysics at UMR) that have occurred during this summer included visits to South Africa by three UMR undergraduate students (Elizabeth Morris, Shauna Oppert, and Jeremy Strohmeyer) in geology and geophysics to undertake undergraduate research experience in connection with the graduate research in South Africa by Louise Fraser (mentioned earlier in this report). Future exchange activities between the departments will include: 1) Reginald Domoney from UWC will spend the
fall, 1999 semester at UMR teaching two courses in geology, and 2) Paul Schlotfeld will spend the Spring, 2000 semester at UMR teaching courses in geophysics. The two departments have initiated a very high degree of interactive exchange, and I am pleased to have been able to again contribute to those cooperative activities.