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Solomon Ewusi

Inaugural LME Scholarships programme recipient

Solomon Ewusi is the first recipient of an LME scholarship and is currently studying for a PhD in Earth Resources at the Camborne School of Mines, part of the University of Exeter, in England.

Impressed by his academic achievements and long-term commitment to the mining sector, the Exchange awarded him £20,000 in July 2009.

“My goal is to succeed as an open pit and underground mining engineer,” he says. “Upon completing my PhD, I want to dedicate the first five years to expand my knowledge and experience in the mining industry whilst working towards achieving chartered status.”

Solomon grew up in Putubiw, a small gold mining village in the Central Region of Ghana.

His first degree was a BSc in Geomatic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST), Ghana, and it was here that he decided to pursue a career in the minerals extraction industry as a Mining Engineer.

After completing his studies he worked as teaching and research Assistant at KNUST for a year. He later won a full scholarship from the Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme to pursue a masters’ degree in Environmental and Resource Engineering at the University of Nottingham’s School of Chemical, Environmental & Mining Engineering.

"With the right support and training, I can see myself firmly established in the mining industry,” he continues. “I’d love to make a contribution to the success and sustainability of the mining industry in my country, Ghana, by teaching and conducting research in one of the mining institutions in Ghana as well as consulting on mining projects.”

Update from Solomon - April 2010

"My LME-funded PhD project has focused explicitly on blast emissions and specifically around the area of ‘identifying misfired mining explosives using an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) signature from the explosive detonation’. At the end of this project we're hoping to design new equipment to monitor EMP in both surface and underground mining operations as well as develop a means to process the measured EMP data to give information on blast performance, hole firing times and detonation duration.

"To date the project has been examining the emission of the EMP signal from an explosive shot. Initial investigations have been undertaken using pyrotechnic detonators placed into shallow horizontal drill holes with the chosen antennae fixed outside of the hole onto the rock face and measurement of the EM pulse was done using a high-speed digital scope so we are working with very high-tech equipment which is exciting!"