Pre-conference weekend

Saturday 6th November
The MEI team met up for breakfast at the Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town, this morning. Barbara and I had arrived yesterday at midday via the BA flight from Heathrow, Jon and Amanda late evening by Emirates, having missed their connecting flight in Dubai, and then arriving, via Johannesburg, without luggage!

A few of the conference delegates have arrived early, including Dean Eastbury, publishing manager for Minerals Engineering, and this morning I met Rory Cameron from University of Ottawa, who will be presenting the first paper at Biohydromet '10. Jon bumped into John Webster and his wife Renata, also all the way from Cornwall.

In the evening we were the guests of Elsevier, with Dean Eastbury, at the excellent Karibu Restaurant at the Waterfront.

Sunday 7th November
Hot and sunny! Luggage eventually arrived at 2.30pm just in time to prepare for wine reception for Biohydromet '10 at 4pm.

Jochen Petersen and Dean Eastbury

Over half of the registered delegates were at the wine reception, where old and new acquaintances were made as the sun set behind Table Mountain. Even at this stage Sue Harrison and I were discussing the possibility of running Biohydromet '12 over three days in Falmouth in two years time. Sue's colleague at UCT, Jochen Petersen, the new co-editor of Hydrometallurgy, was obviously bonding well with Dean Eastbury, his publishing manager at Elsevier.