Comminution '18: Day 1

Another beautiful sunny day in Cape Town today for the opening of Comminution '18, where I welcomed our 200 delegates from 24 countries.

Following my opening remarks, it was a great pleasure to present the 2017 MEI Young Person's Award to Dr. Grant Ballantyne, of Australia's JKMRC.

Grant with three of his award supporters, Marcelo Tavares, Dee Bradshaw and Aidan Giblett

A very welcome visitor this morning was Prof. Dee Bradshaw, although she had some very sad news. She was joined later by another old friend from UCT, Prof. J-P Franzidis, now retired and also an Emeritus Professor. It was great to see them together again, as they were our original consultants for the flotation series of conferences.

There was a buzz of activity in the exhibition area during the coffee break, and the atmosphere is captured in this YouTube video.

Vongani Nkuna, seen talking to Metso's Charles Ntsele and Kiangi Kiangi, is our first ever delegate from Ivanhoe Mines (formerly Ivanplats Ltd). Based in Johannesburg, Vongani is involved with Ivanhoe's Platreef Project, which is on the path to becoming Africa’s lowest-cost producer of platinum-group metals, and is also expected to become a significant producer of nickel and copper for the electrical vehicle revolution.

Charles, Vongani and Kiangi

Xhanti Mfazwe and Nombuso Mbatha, of Anglo American Platinum, are also attending an MEI Conference for the first time. Xhanti is Plant Production Manager, and Nombuso is a metallurgist, at the Mototolo platinum concentrator in Mpumalanga, South Africa.

Xhanti and Nombuso

After a long day it was good to relax and enjoy a few drinks on a very balmy evening  in the Vineyard gardens for the first of our late afternoon sundowners.

A Camborne School of Mines reunion: Gaynor Yorath (1985), Mark de Geus (2012), Simon Bailey (2008),

Felicity Wilshaw (1978-79), Nick Wilshaw (1980), Adam McElroy (2010), Barry Wills (1974-96)

Twitter @barrywills