I thank Jan Drzymala and Przemylaw. B. Kowlaczuk of the Wroclaw University of Science & Technology, Poland for this contribution, the XXVIIIth IMPC from a Polish perspective.
"For people working in the mineral processing area each International Mineral Processing Congress is a great event. It is also our holiday. The 2016 IMPC, held in Quebec, Canada was such a great event. For several reasons. The first one is a great number, 1487 participants from 58 countries. The second reason is the number of presentations, while the third one is the beauty of Quebec City and its surroundings. The IMPC 2016 was great also because of the pleasant venue and discrete safety measures undertaken by the organizers. The general chairman of IMPC 2016 was Prof. James Finch.
There were 10 registered participants from Poland. We were very happy to have the chance to meet many people we are already personally known as well known only from publications. Also meeting with people of Polish origin and sharing with them opinions about latest developments in the home country was very pleasant. The photos below show smiling faces of participants of such meetings.
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| Polish delegation with friends, from the left: M. Holuszko (Canada), Przemyslaw B. Kowalczuk (Poland), Maria Holuszko (Canada), Marek Pawlik (Canada), Jan D. Miller (USA), Jan Drzymala (Poland), Jaroslaw Drelich (USA), Adam Manka (Poland) |
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| Top from the left: Adam Manka (Poland), Rene del Villar (Canada), Inna Filippova (France), Janusz Laskowski (Canada), Marek Pawlik (Canada), Barbara Laskowska (Canada), Jan Drzymala (Poland), Maria Holuszko (Canada), Jaroslaw Drelich (USA), Tamara Matveyeva (Russia, MEC2018), Przemyslaw B. Kowalczuk (Poland), Lev Filippov (France) |
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| Jan Drzymala with Seher Ata and D.R. Nagaraj; |
The Congress was great because the presentations covered almost all aspect of mineral processing. Most papers dealt with typical mineral processing issues from sampling and ore characterization, through comminution and particle size control, to different separations and finally dewatering and products preparation for economical selling. There were also papers on biometallurgy, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, electrometallurgy, extraction, process control, management, mineralogy as well as mineral processing teaching. Worthwhile is to mention the New Frontiers session covering harsh environment including Arctic, undersea and space. Environmental issues and iron as well as arsenic removal from solutions were also considered during the Congress.
There is still a problem in the mineral processing society with terminology and definitions of many terms. During the Congress the term geometallurgy, usually understood as issues from geology to metallurgy, was used relatively frequently. The term minerallurgy, which in our opinion is the best substitute for mineral processing, was not present. Not present was also the term holistic approach which was very much visible during the Congress in Santiago in 2014. The terminology issue requires systematization.
Educational issues were also discussed during IMPC 2016. Polish contribution was presented by Professor Daniel Saramak and was entitled Education programmes connected with mineral processing in Poland, session IMPC Commissions: Education, Mineral Processing for the Future.
An integral part of the Congress was the exhibition. It provided opportunity to get acquaintance with the latest development in mineral process technology. We also liked the booths of MEI as the great media partners for conferences and the Russian booth informing about the next IMPC in 2018, which will be held on September 15-21 in Moscow. Let us meet there.
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| Jan Drzymala with Amanda and Jon Wills from MEI |
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| P.B. Kowalczuk and J. Drzymala with two organizers of IMPC 2018 in Moscow |
During the Congress Prof. Cyril O’Connor announced that the IMPC in 2020 will be held in Cape Town in South Africa. The candidate countries for IMPC 2022 are United Kingdom, Australia, USA and of course Poland.
After the Congress there were educational and industrial trips as well as individual activities. One of the option was visiting the Laval University in the Quebec City, which we did".
Jan Drzymala and Przemylaw. B. Kowlaczuk
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The report mentions the exhibit was an integral part of the conference but it was a shame that it was only 2 days long. I'm not sure I've been to a conference before where the exhibition didn't last as long as the talks. Maybe this is an normal thing at North American conferences?
ReplyDeleteHopefully the exhibition in Moscow will last the length of the conference as it gives a focal point to the event and is where a lot of business is conducted.
No it is not a normal thing at N. American conferences. As you know I attend the SME meeting in USA each year, primarily for the exhibition, which runs the length of the congress. The exhibition provides a strong focus for networking, which was disappointingly lacking at the IMPC in Quebec. I have still not had a response from the organisers as to why they made this strange decision to run the exhibit for only 2 days.
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