Conference memories- Minerals Engineering '93

Two weeks today is the conference dinner for Process Mineralogy '10 at Groot Constantia, South Africa's oldest wine estate.

Seventeen years ago we held the first, of what was to become many, conferences in Cape Town.  Minerals Engineering '93 was held at the Cape Sun Hotel, in collaboration with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and the Western Cape Branch of the South African IMM, and the conference dinner was held at Groot Constantia.

Minerals Engineering '93 Organising Committee: Jannie van Deventer, Frikkie Cloete, Unknown, Leon Lorenzen, Meg Winter, J-P Franzidis, Jan Cilliers, Geoff Hansforth and me

Cyril O'Connor, in his opening remarks, noted that this was the first international mineral processing conference to be held in South Africa for many years- how things have changed!  Over 140 delegates attended the conference, many from overseas, and Cyril extended a special word of welcome to them and showed his appreciation of their attendance at a time when the country was going through the birth pangs of an emerging democracy. Since then many of the delegates present have been regular attendees at conferences in Cape Town and in Falmouth.


Some of the delegates at Minerals Engineering '93: Ian Jackson, Richard Pascoe, Kirsty Walker, Gareth Brown, me, Paul Hodgkinson, Keith Atkinson, Gaynor Yorath and Chris Martin

 We were very fortunate in having the late Prof. Peter King deliver the keynote lecture on reducing energy in comminution.  The minerals industry was really becoming aware of environmental aspects and sustainability around that time, and the last day of the conference included a parallel session for those interested in environmental issues.

The Proceedings of the conference, which includes the delegate list, is available on ScienceDirect as Volume 7 Nos. 2/3 and Volume 7 nos. 5/6, 1994 of Minerals Engineering.