The home-grown engineer has led a team in creating a home-grown “monster” in his home town of Nelson Mandela Bay.
20 October 2022 - 05:00Heinrich Gerber at the controls of the salt harvester, with Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Retief Odendaal. Picture: Supplied
Gerber, 31, grew up in nearby Despatch, attended a local technical high school, then went to Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to study mechatronics, a subject that combines electrical and mechanical engineering.movie franchise. It will soon be released on the salt pans of Botswana where it could help extract lithium, an element in high demand and which is found in high concentrations of salt. The price of lithium has surged recently as it is used in battery-powered electric cars.
He led a team of about 100 people from ROVD Engineering in Gqeberha to design and build the salt harvester, which is worth about R18.5m. The machine, which can harvest 600t of unprocessed salt in an hour, is the first of its kind to be built in Africa and has also attracted interest from Europe. The company is the only plant in Africa to build such harvesters. The machine is powered by diesel engines that can cope with high altitude and the high temperatures typical of salt pans.
Work began on the new harvester in September 2021 and Gerber was given the project because of his engineering background. It is the company’s 23rd salt harvester, designed to Botswana Soda Ash’s specifications and is an updated version.
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