Prof. James Finch - a real star of Flotation '17

Jim Finch is a man who does not undertake tasks in half measures. I discovered this when he was asked to act as coeditor of Minerals Processing Technology. He put together a small but dedicated group who threw themselves wholeheartedly into the project, and the 8th edition of the book is a fine testament to their endeavours.

It was an exciting and informative time at Flotation '17 last week in Cape Town, thanks to the fine blend of 260 researchers, operators and suppliers who attended, of which our flotation consultant Jim Finch played no small part.

As well as presenting one of the 75 papers in the technical sessions, co-chairing a session, and preparing and presenting a very succinct summary of the event, he and his wife, Dr. Lois Finch also judged the 46 posters, 25 in the fundamentals symposium and 21 in the applications symposium.

Jim hard at work judging the posters

The posters in the fundamentals symposium on the first two days varied in their relationship to flotation from the broad topics of surface coverage, kinetic models and columns to more specifics of flotation of scheelite from calcite and use of water glass in moly flotation. The applications symposium on the next two days was equally stimulating. The wide-ranging topics from effects of clay on froth flotation to the use of Savaasi’s method to minimize errors in flotation recovery.

Evaluation of the posters to provide a prize for the best student poster from each symposium was extremely challenging. The quality of each was based not only on the content of the work -the purpose, the relevance to flotation, if the methods were repeatable, if the results were interpretable, if the figures and tables were adequate, and if the conclusions followed from the purpose, but also whether the authors could discuss their work effectively. Jim spent hours talking to the poster authors, obviously enjoying every minute. He said that all the authors discussed their work very impressively, and that he also learned a few new things! Deliberating on the best was complex to say the least.

Many thanks Jim and Lois, it's hard to imagine a flotation conference without you!

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