Over the past 30 years, he has worked on, and led engineering teams involved in the design of open pit mines, railway cuttings, box cuts for adit portals and in-pit crushers, other surface excavations, slimes dams and waste rock dumps, civil engineering tunnels, large hydropower caverns including large diameter surge shafts and chambers, mine tunnels, access and ventilation shafts, ore passes, and other underground mining excavations including crusher chambers, workshops, and main dewatering sumps.
He has led an investigation into the root causes of a 2020 slope failure accident at a large open pit in South Africa and has also been involved in several mine closure studies.
Gerhard has been involved in projects in South Africa, Botswana, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, as well as projects in Australia, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Panama, and Russia.
Gerhard has published 22 technical papers and his presentations at symposia and conferences include 2 invited keynote lectures. He has been the recipient of several industry awards, the most notable being the SA Institution of Civil Engineering Geotechnical Division’s 2023 Distinguished Service Award for a substantial service contribution made to the geotechnical engineering industry in South Africa.
