A new year to look forward to

2012 was an interesting year for us, the Olympics contributing in no small way to the feel good factor in UK. Unfortunately the year ended with devastating floods, particularly in the south west of England, and Cornwall effectively became an island at times, with no trains in and out, and travel by road perilous.

The rains continue, and Falmouth's coastal path is now a quagmire, virtually impassable in places.

Part of the Falmouth coastal path, familiar to many MEI Conference delegates

However, looking on the brighter side, spring is only a few months away and in June we have two conferences back to back in Falmouth. Computational Modelling and Physical Separation are two conferences which always attract a loyal nucleus of delegates, and we have very interesting programmes developing. The provisional programmes will be announced at the end of this month, so there is still time to submit abstracts.

Delegates on the Falmouth coastal path in drier times!

Our main event this year is Flotation '13 in Cape Town in November. Signs are that this is going to be bigger and better than ever. Fourteen companies have weighed in with corporate support and exhibition space is now almost sold out. We have four 2m x 2m booths available, so sign up now if you wish to display your services. We have no doubt that the technical programme will once again present the state of the art of this premier concentration technique, and in Kari Heiskanen and Dariusz Lelinski we have two keynote speakers of the highest repute. Abstracts should be submitted by the end of June.

Coffee break in the exhibit area at Flotation '11

Apart from the 3 MEI conferences, there are many other events of note during the year, and I will be representing MEI at the SME Annual Meeting in Denver in eight weeks' time, as well at Metplant '13 in Perth in July, Base Metals '13 in Mpumalanga in September, and the National Meeting of Ore Treatment and Extractive Metallurgy in Brazil in October. Dependent on family commitments, Amanda will be at the Mineral Engineering Conference 2013 in Poland in September.

So, let's hope that commodity prices remain high, and that we all work together to strive to reduce energy costs and water consumption, improve existing processing techniques and seek innovation in all that we do.

Once again a happy New Year to you all.