History

The School of Mines and Mineral Sciences was created on 1^st September 2010, following the Senate decision of 24^th April 2008 on the restructuring of schools in the University. The School was created in the second phase of the restructuring of schools by way of reorganization of Departments in the former School of Technology to provide an enhanced opportunity for the Copperbelt University to academically develop as a tertiary Institution and conduct effective teaching, research and consultancies.  The main purpose for the School is to promote the development of science, technology and environmental studies aimed at producing professionally qualified persons to meet the technical needs of the country.  In addition, the School renders high quality service in the form of research and consultancy.

The School of Technology which was the fore-runner to the School, inherited certificate and diploma programmes.  However, in 1992 Advanced Certificate Programmes were phased out and the School continued to run diploma programmes.

In 1996 the School introduced the degree programmes, one of which was the Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering. This was later followed by Bachelor of Engineering in Mining Engineering, Bachelor of Engineering in Metallurgical Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering in Environmental Engineering.

The introduction of the Chemical Engineering and Computer Science degree programmes necessitated the split of the Academic and Industrial Science Department into the Chemical Engineering and the Computer Science Departments.

In 2009, the Senate of the Copperbelt University approved the introduction of post graduate programmes in Mining Engineering and Chemical Engineering. The Masters programmes in Chemical Engineering and Mining Engineering and also the PhD in Mining Engineering commenced in September 2010.

The Diploma programmes offered in the School include Mining, Metallurgy, Mine Ventilation, Surveying, Small Scale Mining, and Chemical Technology

The School has five Departments, namely; Chemical Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Metallurgy, Mining Engineering, and Geology & Survey.

The School has a separate unit namely; the Analytical Services Unit. This unit officially started running in November 2009 with the objective of improving the co-ordination of all the activities in the School related to the analysis of samples of various kinds, especially for commercial analysis. The unit is also responsible for the maintenance and procurement of analytical equipment. The major pieces of equipment for sample analysis that the unit has are the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS) and the Gas Chromatograph (GC). The AAS does elemental analysis of samples, while the GC is used for the analysis of organic substances such as petroleum products and pesticides.