Professor Judith Kinnaird

Judith Kinnaird is an Associate Professor of Economic Geology in the School of Geosciences and Director of the Economic Geology Research Institute, University of Witwatersrand. She was awarded an Honours BSc degree from the University of London, an MSc and PhD from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, for research on tin-tungsten and columbite-bearing granites in ring complexes in Nigeria. She has taught for the Open University in UK and University College Cork in Ireland where research studies focussed on zinc-lead and copper deposits in Ireland.

Prior to taking up a post in South Africa in 1999 she was an independent consultant for six years working on a variety of mineral deposits including on the tin-bearing potential of ring complex granites in Namibia and South Africa and vein systems in Argentina for a consortium of companies. She has worked on Li-Be-Sn-Nb-Ta and gem-bearing pegmatites in Namibia, Nigeria and Somaliland and presented lecture series on gemmology to artisanal miners and government groups in Somaliland. She has undertaken consultancy work on dimension stone deposits in South Africa, Scotland, Wales and Italy.

In 1999 she was appointed a research fellow in the School of Geosciences at the University of the Witwatersrand and after two years she joined the Economic Geology Research Institute (EGRI) to focus on ore deposits in Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, DRC and South Africa. As Director of EGRI she leads several research teams. One of these is focussed on the Bushveld Complex including studies on the Main Zone, chromite formation and composition and platinum mineralisation especially on the Platreef. Another research multidisciplinary focus team has evaluated the links between the Damaran Orogen of Namibia and the Lufilian Arc in Zambia with interpretation of the geology in Botswana under Kalahari sand cover. An extension of this project is now studying copper mineralisation in DRC, with an emphasis on structural settings and comparisons with the Zambian Copperbelt. Other special interests are on processes of uranium mineralisation, pegmatite genesis and gemmology.

She has been an Honorary Visiting Professor at Birmingham University in UK and University College Dublin in Ireland. She is a member of the UK Institution of Mining and Metallurgy since the 1970’s, is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Geological Society of South Africa and recipient of the Des Pretorius award, a Fellow of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG), was a Regional Vice President and Councillor and is current President of the SEG.