Physical Separation '19 and Computational Modelling '19 are back in Cornwall

In the posting of 18th May I spoke about the "Renaissance in Cornish Mining". It is all happening here now, and because of that, we decided to bring Physical Separation '19 and Computational Modelling '19 back to Falmouth next June. Originally they had been scheduled to take place in Cape Town. Dave Goldburn, the Business Development Manager at Cornish company Holman-Wilfley, world recognised manufacturer and supplier of Holman and Wilfley gravity separation tables, immediately tweeted: "I personally think that is the right decision! #physicalseparation19 being held in the historical home of physical separation!"

And we have a brand new venue for the two conferences, Falmouth's Maritime Museum, in the heart of old Falmouth and its wonderful restaurant area.

Maritime Museum (photo Bob Berry)

Although chemical methods of concentration and extraction dominate the industry, the physical separation methods are ubiquitous. Whether it be gravity concentration, classification or dewatering, the principles of separation are essentially the same, and there is no mining operation in the world which does not make use of the density differences between solids and liquids somewhere in the flowsheet. Magnetic and electrical methods also have important roles to play when methods such as flotation fail.

With the need to reduce energy and water consumption, sensor based automatic ore sorting is becoming increasingly important in comminution circuits, in order to remove waste and sub-marginal grade material and produce a coarse upgraded preconcentrate early in the flowsheet, and reduce the volume of final tailings.

MEI's 5th Physical Separation conference will therefore bring together researchers and operators who have common interests in:

•Gravity concentration methods - single and multi-G separators and dense medium separation
•Classification techniques - hydrocyclones, air classifiers etc.
•Solid-Liquid Separation - thickeners, clarifiers etc.
•Electronic Sorting
•Magnetic and electrostatic separation
•Microwave technology. There are many aspects of mineral processing where the use of microwaves has potential and papers dealing with the enhancement of physical processes by microwaves are encouraged.

Computational Modelling is MEI's most specialised conference, and Computational Modelling '19, which immediately precedes Physical Separation '19, will be the 7th in the series, and is aimed at the full spectrum of people involved in computational modelling in minerals processing and materials handling, from model development, validation and all the way through to application. The specific areas include:

•Model development and computational techniques
•Modelling of minerals processing and materials handling unit operations
•Optimisation of plant and circuit operation and design
•Experimental validation including novel experimental techniques.

International Mining is a media partner for both conferences, and CEEC is an industry advocate for Physical Separation '19. The latest updates can be found at #PhysicalSeparation19 and #ComputationalModelling19.

Physical Separation '17 delegates by the River Fal estuary

Twitter @barrywills