More developments in China

My recent visit to Changsha convinced me that China will play a very big part in the future of mineral processing. Chinese Universities are now highly ranked, and the Central South University (CSU) in Changsha, with the world's biggest mineral processing department, is particularly impressive. During my visit I was regally hosted by Associate Prof. Zhiyong Gao, who will be at Flotation '17 next month with some of his team of researchers. We are also pleased that the former Director of the University of South Australia's Ian Wark Research Institute, Prof. John Ralston, will be calling in on the first day of the conference, to catch up with Zhiyong and many other of his contacts from around the world. 

John has recently spent some time at CSU to give three lectures, which were also televised to other centres. The lectures covered a critical analysis of chemistry in all aspects of minerals processing; the action of polymers at mineral interfaces and how technology transfer works best between researchers and the minerals industry.

John Ralston in discussion with Wei Sun and Yuehua Hu at CSU

In 2013 the University of Alberta's Prof. Zhenghe Xu, now Dean of Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen (MEI Online), CSU's Prof. Yuehua Hu and Jacob Israelachvili, Emeritus Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara, and Prof. Ralston set up a National 111 Project to introduce overseas experts and talents for the discipline innovation of mineral processing at CSU. This was successful and has worked well, attracting support and catalysing other initiatives. One example is the Joint Research Centre for In-Line Chemical and Mineral Sensing for Sustainable Mineral Processing now in operation between CSU and the University of South Australia, led by Assoc. Prof David Beattie as the Project Manager. This is a joint project involving key CSU and UniSA staff in the areas of physical chemistry and minerals processing, and will run from 2016 to mid-2019 in the first instance. 

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