Tuesday at Physical Separation '26

A cold and wet morning again, with a late start due to a number of withdrawals because of travel restrictions. So only five presentations this morning, with long breaks for lunch and time to mingle with the exhibitors.

Mintek is South Africa’s national mineral research organisation and is always well represented at MEI Conferences. Their four representatives, Nichole Maistry, Ashan Singh, Getrude Marape and Tebogo Mokgomola are picture below, talking to Christina Ramotsabi, of Multotec Process Equipment.

Consulmet, a private South African company that designs and builds processing plants, also has four representatives: Quinton Phillips, Nico Van Vuuren, Ryno Pieters and Johan Bezuidenhout.

Paterson & Cooke Consulting Engineers have become regular exhibitors at MEI Conferences and we will be featuring them on April 27th, as next year they will be sponsoring MEI Conferences for the first time, at Hydrometallurgy '27 in June and Flotation '27 in November. Jon called at the booth to thank their representative Albert Du Toit.

And a short afternoon with five presentations after which we at last broke free from the conference environment for the conference dinner at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens.

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Monday at Physical Separation '26

MEI's Jon Wills opened the first day of Physical Separation '26, the 9th in the series, thanking our sponsors, Promet101, Comex Group, Gravity Mining, Steinert, TOMRA, Capstone Copper, and Mineral Technologies and media partners International Mining and Minerals Engineering. 

Jon welcomed the 76 delegates from 15 countries, a number unfortunately depleted by travel restrictions due to the war in the Middle East.

Jon then had the pleasant task of presenting the 2024 MEI Young Person's Award to Arjun Pukkella of Metso, Finland (posting of 14th April 2025).

The first session began with a keynote presentation from Kristian Waters of McGill University, Canada, who discussed the resurgence of physical separation. This was followed by six presentations in the morning session, dealing mainly with sensor-based sorters for pre-concentration of a variety of ore minerals. Three of these presentations were from conference sponsors Steinert, TOMRA and Comex. 

Priscila Esteves, Technical Director at Steinert Latinoamericana, presented recent developments and operational trends in sensor-based-sorting, focusing on the increasing need for flexibility, higher throughput and robust integration within modern mining flowsheets. In line with these developments, Steinert has released the company’s latest development for improved operational flexibility and enhanced performance for high-capacity mining environments. The new generation platform reflects the continued evolution of combined sensor sorting technology toward separation flexibility and higher throughput capability, supporting its application across a wider range of mining conditions and processing circuit requirements. 

John Knouwds, Priscila Esteves and Jean Makola, of Steinert,
talking to David Goldburn, of Holman-Wilfley, UK

Kai Bartram, Global Sales Manager at TOMRA said that he had looked forward to speaking about one of his favorite topics: AI in sorting technology. He said that he probably understands the technology itself only at a high level, without going deeply into every technical detail. But he looks very closely at what it actually changes in practice, feeling that many people still ignore or underestimate this development. At the same time, we all use tools like ChatGPT or Copilot every day to make our work easier. In comparison, the impact of AI in sorting technology has so far only been analysed in a very basic way. The future will be very exciting!

Steve Chingwaru, of University of Queensland, with Corne de Jager and Kai Bartram, of TOMRA

Comex has developed a triple product sorting machine, where the material identification process is carried out by a complex multisensory system, and where a two-threshold separation system allows for triple product separation. Particle ejection is the main novelty of the sorting system, where the separated particles can be ejected to three fractions/products. Difficult particles can be separated to the third fraction, which can represent middlings. Such material can then be processed separately, increasing accuracy and the reducing overall cost.

With Jakub Progorowicz, of Comex Polska

It was also good to catch up with Arjun Pukkella during the long morning coffee break, for a photo with the MEI team and his award.

Following the lunch break, the afternoon session focused on sizing and classification, including a paper from Derrick Corporation, specialists in fine screening equipment.

John Tran and Wynand Erasmus, of Derrick, with Niel Lourens, of Multotec

Dabmar Screens, represented for the first time at an MEI conference, are also screening specialists. They are represented by Gregor Martin, from South Africa, and Josef Martin from USA.  Dabmar was founded in 1966 in KwaZulu-Natal, and CEO Josef is the son of the founder, Otto Martin. his son Gregor being Operations Manager.

Gregor Martin, with his father, Josef

And at the end of a great day, for the first time in our long history at the Vineyard. the evening sundowner had to be held indoors due to the continuing inclement weather. Hopefully we will be able to venture outdoors tomorrow!

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A wet weekend in Cape Town

Amanda, Barbara and I left a wet, cool Cornwall on Thursday and, 24 hours later, arrived in an equally wet and cool Cape Town.

Very wet Cape Town airport and Vineyard Hotel

Jon arrived a day later from Luxembourg, to find the rain still falling over an even colder city. That evening, we broke with tradition, skipping the Waterfront in favour of the nearby Constantia wine region, where we enjoyed a superb meal at Steenberg Wine Estate.

Saturday evening at Steenberg

Sunday dawned wet and windy as familiar faces began to gather at the Vineyard Hotel for Physical Separation ’26 and the late afternoon welcome reception, which was thankfully indoors.

And still the rain comes down!

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Designing and Assessing the Performance of AG/SAG and Ball Mill Discharge Systems

Tumbling mills have been a core technology in the comminution stage of ore processing for the mining industry for over a century. The efficiency of any comminution device depends on how effectively it converts input energy into particle breakage and how quickly the product sized particles are removed from the system.

Transport of the particles through the charge and their discharge from the mill are among the key factors that determine both energy usage and capacity. To exploit the cost advantage of economy of scale, the processing of low-grade ores has seen the design of larger tumbling mills to meet the required throughput demand. As the tumbling mills become larger, the limitations in most discharge designs become more pronounced.

To address these shortcomings in the discharge capacity, many studies have been commissioned. Studies have shown that conventional pulp lifters experience significant flow-back and carry-over, limiting overall discharge performance. To address the issues that were observed in AG/SAG and ball mills, different discharge grate designs were developed and tested. Some of the designs focused on spiral pulp lifers with apertures positioned in the areas that results in minimal flowback. The development of the dual-chamber pulp lifter, followed by the traditional and enhanced/enclosed designs, resulted in significant improvements in discharge capacity for tumbling mills. 

In a keynote lecture at Comminution '27, Sanjeeva Latchireddi, of EEMS Australia will discuss the evolution of discharge designs and their influence on the performance of tumbling mills. Case studies showing how improved designs have led to significant energy savings as well as increased throughputs will be presented and recommendations for a holistic approach to designing and assessing tumbling mill performance will be provided. 

Dr. Sanjeeva Latchireddi is the Founder and Director of EE‑Mill Solutions USA and EEMS Australia, and serves as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Utah, USA, and the WA School of Mines in Kalgoorlie, Australia. His work focuses on developing energy‑efficient solutions to de‑bottleneck and enhance the performance of AG/SAG and ball mills, delivering significant reductions in electrical energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Dr. Latchireddi earned his PhD from the JKMRC, Australia and received the 2004 MIOTA (Mineral Industry Operating Technique Award) from the AusIMM for inventing the Twin Chamber Pulp Lifter (TCPL). He holds five international patents, including the latest advancement, the Energy Efficient Pulp Lifter (EEPL), and has authored more than 80 papers in international journals and conferences.

This will be Sanjeeva's first time at a comminution conference in Cape Town. He represented Outotec USA at Comminution '08 in Falmouth, and we first met in 1989, when he was one of the students at the Indian School of Mines, where I taught a course in mineral processing!

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Hitachi High-Tech Joins Process Mineralogy '26 as a First-Time Sponsor

We are pleased to welcome Hitachi High-Tech Corporation, USA, as a sponsor of Process Mineralogy '26, the first time the company has sponsored an MEI conference. Hitachi High-Tech Corporation is a global science and technology company within the wider Hitachi Group, focused on advanced measurement, analysis, and industrial solutions

Hitachi is in partnership with Bruker for automated mineralogy software for minerals, oil and gas and the two companies will have adjacent booths at the exhibition at Process Mineralogy '26. Hitachi also exhibited at Process Mineralogy '17 and Bruker has sponsored six of the eight conferences in the series. 

The adjacent Hitachi and Bruker booths at Process Mineralogy '17

Each company focuses on its core expertise, Hitachi microscopy hardware and Bruker spectroscopy and detectors. Hitachi builds electron microscopes while Bruker provides EDS detectors and software so that structure and composition are provided in one workflow, a much more powerful tool than either alone.

Their booth placement at Process Mineralogy '26 is basically a physical representation of how modern mineralogy works. No single instrument is enough. Integrated imaging and chemistry and software is required, and together Hitachi and Bruker are that integrated stack.

The deadline for abstract submission to Process Mineralogy '26 is the end of next month, as it is for Critical Minerals '26, which runs immediately afterwards.

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AI the next giant leap in innovation

Recent advances in artificial intelligence are transforming industrial operations by enabling deeper integration between engineering knowledge, real-time data, and decision-making processes. MEI's inaugural AI in Mineral Processing '27 will examine the latest developments in AI technologies, and the keynote lecture from Dr. Osvaldo Bascur, who I interviewed in 2017, will review Digital Twins, Large Language Models, machine learning tools, agentic AI embedded in web browsers, and advanced big data visualisation platforms, with a focus on industrial applications. The proposed framework will integrate data from field instrumentation, edge devices, cloud platforms, and enterprise business systems to support asset performance, sustainability, autonomous operations, operational excellence, and operational resilience.

A central case study will be the AI-driven Digital Twin for mineral processing plants, which represents a significant step forward in hybrid intelligence by combining physics-based process models with data-driven learning. This approach enables integrated optimisation across rock, mineral, and water sub-systems, overcoming traditional operational silos. Real-world implementations, including a deployment at a copper operation in Chile, will be introduced to demonstrate measurable benefits such as increased water recovery, higher metal production, and improved process stability without capital investment. Beyond technical performance, the Digital Twin fosters organisational transformation by empowering operators and engineers with predictive insights, natural-language AI copilots, and a shared, real-time view of plant performance aligned with sustainability and ESG objectives.

With Gaudin Award, 2014

Osvaldo A. Bascur is Principal and Consultant Fellow at OSB Digital, LLC, USA. He is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering, USA, for applying phenomenological and artificial intelligence modeling techniques in mineral and industrial plant performance optimisation. He is a Member of the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering, Science and Technology, USA, and in 2014 was the recipient of the  SME Antoine Gaudin Award. 

He is co-author, with Dr. Fernando Concha of The Engineering Science in Mineral Processing: A Fundamental and Practical Approach, and author of Digital Transformation in the Process Industries: A Road Map.

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