Two great figures in the world of mineral processing, who both passed away in 2011, will be inducted into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame at a gala dinner in the Brown Palace Hotel, Denver on February 16.
Professor Klaus Schönert (see obituary of 1st October 2011) developer of High Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) will be inducted in the comminution category.
The acceptance of HPGR has verified the claim from the original research that high pressure comminution improves energy efficiency. The patents which covered his work were for a high pressure comminution process, not a high pressure roller mill by itself. The advance he claimed was for a two-step process of stressing a bed above 50 MPa followed by deglomeration. This was challenged in courts in Germany, USA and Denmark but his patents were approved in every case.
The high pressure grinding rolls which were part of the patents were licensed to ThyssenKrupp Polysius and KHD for use with cement and minerals. There have been more than 700 installations by Polysius and KHD, and many installations by Koppern and FL Smidth. HPGRs are now an accepted part of comminution technology for minerals as well as cement (see full story on MEI Online).
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| With Byron Knelson in 1992 |
Although I never met Prof. Schönert I did know Byron Knelson very well, and I am pleased to hear that he will be inducted into the concentration category. Byron developed the Knelson concentrator almost 40 years ago, a device which would revolutionise the application of gravity separation in the gold mining industry. The machine has become a fixture in many of the world's most prominent gold mines and the technology is now owned by FL Smidth (see full story on MEI Online).
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I raise both hands for these people!
ReplyDeleteI would add in the Hall of Fame:
1. Fred Bond. He founded the modern theory of communition.
2. Inventors of vertical mill ( Vertmill). I do not know the author, but it seems - Japanese specialists.
3. Authors of Heap leaching. I think that is USA specialists.
4. Authors of Bioxidation. I think that is Russian specialists (Pol'kin and Adamov).
5. The authors of frequency converters for motors. Who first applied them in mineral processes?
At Hall of Fame can be included authors:
1. Ejection flotation.
2. Deep thickener.
For young colleagues, I want to mention the likely significant invention in the future:
1. Microwave separator.
2. Hight pressure centrifugal separator ( HPCS).
4. Biogravitation.
5. Quick leaching.
Hvan Alexander, Uzbekistan
I also salute the Greats getting into Hall of Fame.
DeleteHvan rightly shown the exciting work the youngsters can take up. After reading this curtain raiser,how can any one say that Mineral Processing is not challenging?
Rao,T.C., India