Memories of Minerals Engineering '91-Singapore

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.

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:

Marina Mandarin: Glen Dobby, Phil Newell, Jim Finch, Keith Atkinson, Adele Newell and Barbara Wills

Sentosa Island with Jan Cilliers, Cyril and Nanette O'Connor and Keith Atkinson

Phil Newell, me, Paul Mitchell, Dave Osborne, Keith Atkinson, Andy Stradling and Lucky Amaratunga

Ladies' outing to Orchard Road