Professor Rosemary Falcon recently retired as DST NRF SARChI Chair of Clean Coal Technology and is now Professor Emeritus at Wits in the Engineering Faculty. 

She has been involved in coal for over 40 years, in corporate, consulting, academic and research positions.  She graduated with a PhD from Wits followed by advanced training in coal science and technology for trade and utilisation at the Berbau Forschung in Germany and the National Coal Board in the UK.  She established a coal research group in Wits in the late 1970s followed by her own consulting and research company where she working with industry for the following 20 years.

After a brief spell as Programme Manager at the CSIR (Enertek) and three years in the Eskom Research Facility in Rosherville, she joined Wits once again in the late 1990s.  From that time she has  led fundamental and applied coal research in the Faculty of Engineering, supervised over 80 doctoral and Masters students and taught coal science and technology to over 2 000 industrial personnel and postgraduate students for application in a broad spectrum of industries.  

She has received a number of national and international awards, has written over 80 publications, co-authored two books, contributed to a number of other books and produced more than 2000 technical reports on applied industrial investigations, research and development.  

She attended meetings in the UN-ECE Coal Working Groups in Geneva as the South African technical representative for several years, was Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Centre for Carbon Capture and Storage of South Africa for a period and is currently Director of the Fossil Fuel Foundation of SA.  She now consults to industry, is an expert witness in various coal-related legal matters and is promoting clean coal technologies and policies specifically applicable to Southern African coals and conditions.

Puneet Gupta has a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from I.I.T. Delhi. He has more than 10 years of experience in domestic and international commodity trade. He has been associated with several global events in his capacity as an international expert in coal and petcoke. He has been quoted several times by international media for his views on Indian policy decisions and price movements in the energy sector. Puneet is the founder of CoalShastra.com, a pioneering B2B marketplace for coal trade where buyers and sellers deal in a secure environment. With around 2,500 member companies across India, CoalShastra is successfully used by end users to exploit cost and fuel type arbitrages and by suppliers for easy liquidation of cargoes.

Tycho Möncks is a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group, Johannesburg office. Since joining BCG in 2007, Tycho has supported mining clients across a broad range of topics including strategy, operations, and organization.

Tycho has many years of on-site, hands-on mining experience. He brings deep insights into global commodity markets and understands the intersect of global developments with South Africa specific dynamics. Tycho has extensively worked with clients, and written about, opportunities derived from commodity strategy with a specific focus on coal.

Xavier has a MSc in Engineering Geology UMSA; Diploma in Mining and Exploration from the Montan University, Leoben, Austria, Graduate Diploma in Engineering and M. Eng. degree from Wits.
He has been in coal since 1977, established the Geological Survey’s National Coal Database (NCDB); was Genmin IT Exploration Manager and joined the Minerals Bureau, DME in 1995, as Chief Mineral Economist; Coal and Hydrocarbons. He was appointed Coal Senior Analyst, Wood Mackenzie, Southern Africa and since 2009 is consulting privately with XMP Consulting. He promotes South Africa’s coal mining industry within government and industry groups, lectures at Universities as well as companies on coal science, i.e. coal reserves, economics, quality control, marketing and clean coal technologies. He has extensive experience in reserves and resources. His main tasks are optimisation of coal utilisation and marketing, economic empowerment in coal, evaluation of coal reserves, implementation of clean coal technologies (CCTs) and impact of the use of fossil fuels. Xavier belongs to several local and international coal committees and groups involved in coal science and technology.

A qualified Mining Engineer with 24+ years’ experience in mine development, mining finance and mining operations in energy minerals, base metals, precious metals and industrial minerals. He started his career with Iscor Mining in coal, iron ore and titanium mining operations and mine development. He was part of the part of the team that developed the mining portfolio of Iscor Heavy Minerals, now owned by Tronox. He consulted to major mining companies in Africa, South America, North America and Europe in mine turnaround and optimisation including Newmont, AngloGold Ashanti, Kaiser Aluminium, Outokumpu and RAG Coal. He co-founded a mining contracting company that mined 1.5 million tons of coal per annum for Anglo Coal for 6 years and was a co-founder of ASX listed Universal Coal, where he developed the Kangala Coal Mine and coal project portfolio. He is a Director of MX Mining Capital Advisors, which advises mine developers, mine owners and mining investors on financing of mining projects. He is a board member of Maatla Energy, which is developing the Mmamabula coal mine and coal-to-liquids project in Botswana. Mike is currently working on the financing of mining projects for clients in energy minerals, base metals, precious metals and industrial minerals in Africa, Asia, America and Europe.