Twenty years ago today Minerals Engineering '91 commenced at the Marina Mandarin Hotel in Singapore. This was pre-MEI, and I organised the event with CSMA, the consultancy branch of Camborne School of Mines. It was the first of our overseas conferences.
The conference was attended by 61 delegates, which did not reflect the interest shown originally. Early expressions of interest showed a potential of more than double this number. The sole cause of the drastic reductions was the middle-east Gulf War. The impact was most evident for USA delegates, where many minerals industry employees were prevented from attending by company or university dictate.
The lower than anticipated numbers did not, however, detract in any way from the technical excellence of the presentations, and the 41 papers presented can be seen in the special issue of
Minerals Engineering, Volume 4 Numbers 7-11 (1991), which also includes the delegate list.
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| The ill-fated dinner on the Singapore River |
One of my abiding memories of the conference was the dinner on the Singapore River, which was an excellent evening, but even more memorable was the following morning when over half the delegates failed to show, due to a mass bout of food-poisoning! I think I co-chaired most of the sessions on that day!
Some of the people photos taken during the 3-day conference are shown below:
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| Marina Mandarin: Glen Dobby, Phil Newell, Jim Finch, Keith Atkinson, Adele Newell and Barbara Wills |
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Sentosa Island with Jan Cilliers, Cyril and Nanette O'Connor and Keith Atkinson
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| Phil Newell, me, Paul Mitchell, Dave Osborne, Keith Atkinson, Andy Stradling and Lucky Amaratunga |
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| Ladies' outing to Orchard Road |
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Hey Barry,
ReplyDeleteThe photos in this old post from your First Minerals Engineering Conference in Singapore brought back many happy memories. The Mandarin was a very elegant mix of oriental and colonial. The staff were wonderful, it was a superb venue for a conference.
However, I do recall being one of the many victims of the food poisoning incident on the harbour cruise, and regretted missing several good papers the following morning.
I do remember hearing amongst others, excellent presentations by two Canadian Professors: Jim Finch and Glenn Dobby. I was indeed fortunate to meet Jim and Glenn at your conference, and following it when they visited the JK Mineral Research Centre in Brisbane. I was just completing my doctorate studies there.
It was Glenn and Jim who put in a good word for me with a large Canadian Mining Company, Cominco. Their research centre in Trail, BC was looking for some bright young metallurgists to help start up their new Red Dog mine in Alaska.
I owe a debt of thanks to you Barry for providing me with the networking opportunity that led me to a rewarding 20 year career with Cominco, now Teck.
Thanks,.
Andy Stradling.
Great to hear from you Andy, it is a while since we last caught up. Not surprising as I see that you have been retired for some time. That makes me feel very old (which I am), as I remember recruiting you for CSM via a talk that I gave at your school (was it in Bournemouth?). You had a great career in Canada, and I would like to thank you retrospectively for the reviews that you did for Minerals Engineering when I was looking after the journal. I was unaware that the Singapore conference led to you moving to Canada.
DeleteBest regards
Barry