Office: SD 69

Extension: 2076

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

Qualifications
PhD (Wits, South Africa), Quality Assurance (London, Uk), MSc (UWC, South Africa), BSc Hons (NUST, Zimbabwe)

Research
Environmental research, which focuses on the speciation of inorganic and organic pollutants, their transport and fate, biogeochemical cycles of heavy metals, determination of bioavailability and bioaccessibility of heavy metals, health and environmental risk assessment studies due to exposure to pollutants, and application of new materials (adsorbents) for pollutant extraction of remediation studies. To achieve these research objectives, routine analytical techniques are employed to generate data, chemometric and statistical evaluation are used to validate the data, and geochemical modelling (predicting elemental speciation, solution equilibria, and secondary mineral formation) to understand and explain the transportation, mobility, fate of pollutants, and predict the outcome and fate of pollutants when environmental conditions change.

Publications by Dr. Bongani N. Yalala

Anita Etale; Bongani N. Yalala, Hlanganani Tutu; Deanne C. Drake (2014). Adsorptive removal of mercury from acid mine drainage: a comparison of silica and maghemite nanoparticles. Toxicological & Environmental Chemistry, 96:4, 542-554. ISSN Number: 1029-0486.

Yalala B., Petrik L., Balfour G., Vadapalli R., and Hendry B. A. Comparative adsorption of major cations from brines by ion exchange process using Amberlite 252 RFH resins and Amidoxime fibres, 9th  International Mine Water Conference, 19-23 October 2009, Pretoria, South Africa, pp 657-665. ISBN Number: 978-0-9802623-5-3.

Yalala, H. Tutu H, L. Chimuka, and E. Cukrowska. Spatial distribution of total mercury in particulate matter (dust) affected by gold mining in Johannesburg. Environmental Assessment and Monitoring(Submitted).

B. Yalala, H. Tutu, L. Chimuka, and E. Cukrowska. Assessing the bioavailability of mercury in urban road dust affected by gold mining in Johannesburg, South Africa, Environmental Science and Technology (Submitted).