First Announcement- Biohydrometallurgy '16

The recent Biohydromet '14 was a superb conference with a fairly small but very distinguished audience from academia, research institutions and industry, with a wide range of different disciplines.

Some of the delegates at Biohydromet '14

Prof Sue Harrison, of University of Cape Town (UCT), summarised the conference, which covered innovative technologies and the challenges for existing processes, including important trends, such as expanding the range of minerals treated by biohydrometallurgy. The biotreatment of tailings and WEEE is also becoming more important, as are remediation and water issues. One of the great challenges is transferring scientific developments from academia into industry, concerns which have been expressed at other recent MEI Conferences. She also felt that in future conferences we must address not only technological, but also social issues.

So there is much to look forward to in this rapidly evolving field, and we are pleased to announce that Biohydromet '16 will be held in Falmouth in June 2016. Once more MEI will be assisted by our three consultants, Prof. Sue Harrison, of UCT, South Africa, Dr. Chris Bryan, of University of Exeter, UK, and Dr. Patrick D'Hugues, of BRGM, France.

Chris Bryan, Sue Harrison and Patrick D'Hugues

Immediately following Biohydromet '16 will be Sustainable Minerals '16, and as there is some common ground between the two conferences, we will be offering discounted rates to those attending both conferences.

Cornwall is one of the world's most beautiful areas, so plan ahead to spend a few days here after the conferences. There is much to see and do, as can be seen in the Cornwall section of the blog.

Falmouth Bay

Regular updates on the progress of the conference will be published on the conference website and on Twitter (#Biohydromet16 @barrywills).