A week of intensive flotation in Cape Town

Whether or not flotation is modern society’s most important technological development (posting of 6th June), it is certainly the area of mineral processing which attracts the most interest.

November’s Flotation ’11 looks like being the biggest yet, with 15 major sponsors already weighing in with their support.

The four-day Flotation ’11, split into two symposia, fundamentals and applications, is just part of a whole week of intensive flotation at Cape Town’s Vineyard Hotel.

Immediately prior to the conference, Australia’s JKTech will be running two of their short courses. On Friday 11th and Saturday 12th November, Dr. Norman Lotter, Manager of Business Development at Xstrata Process Support, Canada, will present “Useful Information for Sampling Mineral Processing Plants”. The specific objective will be to introduce aspects of Pierre Gy’s sampling theory and the methods used in surveying operating concentrators.

This will be followed, on Sunday 13th November by “Flotation Process Optimisation” with the JKTech’s Dr. Sarah Schwarz and Dr. David Collins. This workshop is designed for metallurgists and other plant personnel who are interested in operating their flotation circuits to obtain the best metallurgical performance. The end of the course will coincide with the start of the pre-registration wine reception for the Flotation ’11 conference.

Flotation ’11 includes two keynote speakers, Prof. Jim Finch, of McGill University, Canada, and Dr. Dan Alexander, Director of the JKMRC. The conference dinner will be held on the evening of Tuesday 15th November, at the GOLD restaurant in the centre of Cape Town.

Immediately following the conference, on Friday 18th November, Prof. Tim Napier-Munn, former JKMRC Director, will present a one-day short course “Useful Statistical Methods for Flotation Engineers”. Success in optimising plants depends critically on collecting and analysing the data in the right way. This workshop presents the key principles of experimental design and data analysis, with particular reference to flotation processes.

Full details of the courses, details of fees, and registration forms are available at the JKTech website.

There is a final call for abstracts for Flotation ’11, the deadline being the end of this month. Registration at the moment is open for exhibitors only.