CEMTEC and Eirich combine grinding technologies to optimise the comminution circuit

The continuing drive to improve the energy efficiency of mineral processing is encouraging equipment manufacturers to think increasingly in terms of the whole comminution circuit, rather than individual pieces of equipment. A new partnership between CEMTEC and Eirich is a good example of this trend.

The collaboration brings together CEMTEC’s expertise in primary grinding with Eirich’s experience in fine and ultrafine grinding. CEMTEC has a long history in the design and supply of tumbling mills, while Eirich’s TowerMill technology is designed for fine and ultrafine grinding. The companies believe that combining these complementary technologies will enable them to offer more comprehensive grinding solutions for mining operations.

The significance goes beyond the partnership itself. As ore grades decline and increasingly complex ores have to be processed, achieving adequate liberation often requires finer grinding. At the same time, grinding remains one of the largest consumers of energy in a mineral processing plant. The challenge is therefore to achieve the required liberation at the lowest possible energy and operating cost.

This makes the choice and integration of different grinding technologies increasingly important. Rather than regarding primary, secondary and fine grinding as separate duties, there is considerable potential in considering how the stages interact and where different technologies can deliver the greatest benefit.

The CEMTEC–Eirich partnership reflects this approach, with the companies proposing to assess complete grinding circuits and develop configurations according to the characteristics of the ore and the required product. It is an approach that also highlights the increasingly important role of stirred mills in circuits where very fine grinding is required.

For those of us involved in comminution, the development raises some interesting questions. Where is the optimum point in a circuit to introduce stirred milling? How should the transition from tumbling to stirred milling be designed? What role can ore characterisation, modelling and advanced process control play in optimising the overall circuit? And, perhaps most importantly, how much energy can be saved by designing the circuit as an integrated system rather than optimising individual mills in isolation?

These are very much the issues that will be explored at Comminution ’27, which will bring together researchers, plant operators and equipment manufacturers to examine the latest developments in the science and practice of size reduction.

The CEMTEC–Eirich collaboration is therefore a timely reminder that the future of comminution is unlikely to depend on a single “best” grinding technology. Instead, it will increasingly be about selecting and integrating the right technologies for each stage of the circuit—and optimising the system as a whole.

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Critical Minerals: The World Wants Them, But Who Can Process Them?

The world is scrambling for critical minerals. The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence, data centres and the energy transition is driving unprecedented demand for copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements. Governments are responding with a flurry of international agreements designed to secure supplies and reduce dependence on increasingly vulnerable mineral supply chains.

A recent Global Trade Review article, drawing on research by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, highlights the scale of this activity. Of 211 trade and economic agreements signed between January 2025 and September 2026, 139 involved critical raw materials, spanning 79 countries and blocs. Significantly, many of these agreements seek not simply to secure mineral supplies, but also to encourage local processing, skills development and greater participation in mineral value chains.

This is particularly important for mineral-rich countries in Africa, which have long exported ores and concentrates while much of the processing and economic value has been realised elsewhere. The current critical minerals boom offers an opportunity to change this, but it will require more than political agreements and investment. It will require the development of processing expertise and technology capable of turning increasingly complex mineral resources into valuable products.

And this is where mineral processing becomes so important. Many critical minerals occur in low concentrations, in complex mineral associations, or as by-products of other mining operations. Their economic recovery depends on advances in mineral liberation, flotation, physical separation, hydrometallurgy and process mineralogy. Increasingly, artificial intelligence and digital technologies are also helping to optimise processing operations and improve resource efficiency.

The challenge is not simply to find more critical minerals, but to recover them more efficiently, sustainably and economically.

This is why the international mineral processing community has such an important role to play. MEI Conferences bring together researchers, academics, mining companies and technology developers to share advances, discuss challenges and explore new opportunities. Conferences covering flotation, physical separation, comminution, process mineralogy, hydrometallurgy and AI in mineral processing provide opportunities for the exchange of ideas that can ultimately translate into improved industrial performance.

As countries seek to develop their own critical mineral value chains, these international forums also offer valuable opportunities for collaboration, capacity building and the development of technical expertise.

The critical minerals boom is often portrayed as a geopolitical contest for access to resources. But there is another, equally important contest underway: the race to develop the technologies and expertise needed to process them. The world may be negotiating for critical minerals, but it is mineral processing that will ultimately unlock their value. And this makes it an exciting time to be involved in mineral processing.

These issues will be very much in the spotlight at Critical Minerals '26: Processing & Recycling, taking place at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on 19–20 November. The conference brings together an international community of researchers and industry professionals to explore innovative approaches to processing and recycling critical minerals.

With the conference now just one week away, this is your final call to register. Join us in Cape Town for two days of technical presentations, discussion and networking with the international mineral processing community.

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Memories of Reagents' 06, Cape Town

MEI's 3rd International Symposium on Reagents in Minerals Engineering (Reagents '06), was held in Cape Town, South Africa on the 16 and 17 November 2006. The conference was sponsored by Akzo Nobel, Cytec, Senmin Pty Ltd, SNF FloMin and Axis House and organised in consultation with the late Dee Bradshaw (obituary 8th June 2018).

Attended by over 70 delegates, this was the last of MEI's reagents conferences and the last of our conferences to be held at the Mount Nelson Hotel. In 2007 we discovered the Vineyard Hotel at Newlands, which has been our Cape Town venue ever since. Reagents were merged into the flotation series, and the inaugural Vineyard event, Flotation '07 was held in the following year.

Photos from Reagents '06 are shown below.

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Memories of MMME '06 in Cape Town

MEI's first International Symposium on Material, Minerals, & Metal Ecology (MMME '06), was held at the Mount Nelson Hotel, Cape Town, South Africa on the 14 and 15 November 2006, and was organised in consultation with Prof. Markus Reuter and sponsored by Arecelor Research, Umicor, CSense Systems, Boliden Mineral AB and Hatch. This was the only MMME conference, which evolved to Sustainability through Resource Conservation and Recycling in 2009, 2011 and 2014 and then to Sustainable Minerals in 2016.

Forty eight delegates attended the conference and forty papers were presented, in oral and poster sessions

Photos from the event are shown below:

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October summary: Cape Town and a successful IMPC

Amanda returned to Cornwall on October 5th after her week in Orléans, France, reporting on the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium (posting of 9th October).  On the same day Jon flew from Luxembourg to Spain for two nights in a storm-ravaged Catalonia, to assess potential conference venues in Barcelona and Sitges.

Jon in a very wet Barcelona

The following week Amanda, Will, Barbara and I left Cornwall for Cape Town and the International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC). MEI was a media partner and from our perspective this turned out to be one of the best IMPCs for many years (posting of 23rd October). It was a great opportunity for our new recruit, Will, to bond with people in our industry.

The social events were outstanding, particularly the cultural evening and it was great to see our 2020 Young Person's Award winner, Ahmad Hassanzadeh with his young family. Ahmad will be presenting a keynote lecture at next year's Flotation '27.

The Congress Banquet was also a great occasion, with fine food and entertainment.

There were many awards presented at the Banquet, to young researchers, and to elder statesmen who received the highest awards in mineral processing, the IMPC's Lifetime Achievement and Distinguished Service Awards. I was honoured to be asked to be photographed with the winners of these awards Zenghe Xu (posting of 22nd October) and Robin Batterham (posting of 22nd October), as we were the only delegates out of the 850 in attendance who held the awards, my DSA being presented at the IMPC in Chile in 2014.

On the day after the IMPC Amanda, Will and his girlfriend Liv relaxed with a cage-diving shark experience on the False Bay Coast at Gansbaai (YouTube), and a day later we all met up for dinner in Camps Bay to celebrate Will's 22nd birthday.

Beautiful Camps Bay

Birthday dinner at Hussars Grill

And another day later Amanda flew back to UK, while Will, Liv, Barbara and I remained in Cape Town for the 3 weeks prior to our November conferences.

Last Monday Will and I visited the Cape Town Aquarium, as a potential venue for an MEI conference dinner.

And then a relaxing couple of hours at  the Waterfront, with a fine late lunch at the City Grill.

MEI's conference venue, the Vineyard Hotel, is only a 20 minute walk from Newlands Cricket Ground, regarded as one of the most beautiful of the world's test match arenas. We have been lucky enough to catch five international matches on our many visits to Cape Town, and three days ago spent a day watching day 2 of the test match between South Africa and Australia, which South Africa won today on Day 5.

First-time visitors to Cape Town should seriously consider the Red Bus City Tour, perhaps the easiest way to get your bearings in a city where the major sights are spread out across mountains, coastline, and city centre. The hop-on, hop-off format lets you see highlights such as Table Mountain’s cable car station, the V&A Waterfront, Camps Bay, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, and the Bo-Kaap’s colourful streets. Open-top upper decks offer sweeping views of Table Mountain and the Atlantic seaboard, and the audio commentary adds useful history and context that otherwise would be missed. We have done it in the past but a couple of days ago we spent a few hours relaxing on the tour, enjoying the amazing scenery and hopped off at Hout Bay for "ye olde fish 'n chips" at the Wharf Grill.

Barbara and I have hiked up Table Mountain a number of times, often with conference delegates (YouTube). Yesterday we took the cable car to the summit, to meet Will and Liv, who had hiked up via the popular Platteklip Gorge. They have had a good week, with long walks and a visit to the penguin colony at Boulders Beach.

Cape Town is blessed with two world class international sporting stadiums. Apart from Newlands Cricket Ground, in the city centre is the DHL Green Point Stadium. Originally known as Cape Town Stadium it was built specifically for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is the home stadium of the DHL Stormers and a major venue for international and Western Province rugby. Barbara, Amanda and I first visited this magnificent stadium 16 years ago to watch the USA beat South Africa 1-0 in a poor football match.

November 2016

I strolled across the road today, from our apartment in Green Point to watch the DHL Stormers playing Ulster Rugby in the United Rugby Championship, a long way for the Northern Ireland team to travel for a rugby match, especially to lose 33-7!

It's been a fine week here in Green Point and two more weeks to go before we move to the other side of the Mountain, to Newlands and the Vineyard Hotel, for Process Mineralogy '26 and Critical Minerals '26.

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Luleå research highlights the real challenge for AI in mineral processing

Artificial intelligence can help predict when mining machinery is likely to fail, potentially reducing unplanned downtime, improving equipment availability and lowering maintenance costs. Yet a recent systematic review by researchers at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, suggests that the mining industry is still some way from realising this potential.

The study, Data-driven prognostics and health management for mining processing machinery, reviewed 74 studies selected from 1,285 research articles. It found that research has focused mainly on fault diagnosis and detection, with much less attention given to predicting remaining useful life and translating AI predictions into practical maintenance decisions. Only around 16% of the reviewed studies used real industrial data, while just 27% explicitly connected their findings to decision-making. The challenge, therefore, is not simply developing better AI models, but making them reliable and useful in operating plants.

These findings are highly pertinent to MEI’s inaugural AI in Mineral Processing '27, which will explore how AI can advance mineral processing through improved monitoring, optimisation and decision support. The Luleå review highlights an important question for the conference: how can promising research be translated into robust, industrially proven solutions that deliver measurable operational benefits?

One of the conference’s keynote speakers, Prof. Saeed Chelgani of Luleå University of Technology, will present Mining the pixels: AI image processing for mineral processing. Although his focus on computer vision is distinct from the machinery-maintenance research, both areas face shared challenges around data quality, model reliability and performance under changing industrial conditions.

The other keynote, Dr. Osvaldo Bascur’s AI, the next giant leap in innovation, may offer an especially complementary perspective. His work on digital twins, integrated plant data and AI-enabled decision-making addresses the broader challenge of connecting information and predictive insights to operational performance. This is precisely the gap highlighted by the Luleå review: moving beyond identifying problems towards using AI to make better decisions.

Together, these perspectives underline a central theme for AI in Mineral Processing '27: the real measure of progress will not be how sophisticated the algorithms become, but how effectively AI is integrated into everyday plant operations.

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