MEI's Barry Wills: September 2018

Friday, 28 September 2018

MEI Online Update #427

Hello Everyone,

In case you didn't see the last newsletter, here is a reminder of what's happened: Our subscriber list host, Topica, seems to have disappeared from the face of the internet with no warning. This means that we did not have time to retrieve our most current subscriber list from their servers.

Rather than risk spamming people who are on our old list, we have taken the decision to build up our subscriber list from scratch. If you wish to be added/re-added to the list, please email amanda@min-eng.com with the subject line: email list.

Whilst we build our list back up, the newsletter will be posted on the MEI Blog, MEI's LinkedIn page and anywhere else I can find for it!

For those of you reading who weren't subscribers, MEI Online Update is produced every 2 weeks and contains links to every new item added to MEI Online since the last issue - apart from jobs, which are listed in a separate email.

And in other news, there have been new additions to the Process Mineralogy '18 and Hi-Tech Metals '18 programmes, and there are only 3 booths left at the Process Mineralogy '18 exhibition. Please email Jon@min-eng.com for more details.

I mentioned in the last newsletter that Wolf Minerals would be running a trip to their Drakelands Mine following Physical Separation '19, and am happy to say that Barry will be blogging the details on Monday.

Barry's Blog:
* The Opening of the Newly Expanded Mineral Processing Facilities at Wardell Armstrong
* ‘The war on waste’: How could the mining industry respond?
* International chemical company Clariant to sponsor Flotation '19
* Last of the summer sundowners
* Major IMPC Awards to two distinguished American Professors
* How were your first two days at the Moscow IMPC?
* Conference nostalgia: Minerals Engineering '98 in Edinburgh
* The Starkeys call in en route to Moscow
* Exploring Cornwall's mining heritage with the Julian Baring Scholarship Fund

Best regards,
Amanda
amanda@min-eng.com
http://www.linkedin.com/amandawills
http://www.facebook.com/MEIConferences
https://twitter.com/MEIchat

*********************************
* Call for Papers: Physical Separation '19
*********************************

Analytical Techniques & Applied Mineralogy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Technical Programme: Process Mineralogy '18

* Register Now: Process Mineralogy '18

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Analytical Techniques & Applied Mineralogy is sponsored by FEI

Biotechnology
~~~~~~~~~

* First Announcement: Biomining '20

Comminution
~~~~~~~~~

* First Announcement: Comminution '20

* Recently Refereed Publications:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125
Powder Technology Vol.337

Comminution is sponsored by Russell Mineral Equipment

Computer Applications
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* First Announcement: Computational Modelling '19

* Recently Refereed Publications:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125
Powder Technology Vol.337

Environmental Issues
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Technical Programme: Hi-Tech Metals '18

* Register Now: Hi-Tech Metals '18

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Froth Flotation
~~~~~~~~~~

* First Announcement: Flotation '19

* Commencement of Flotation Commissioning at the Hellyer Polymetallic Project, Tasmania

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Froth Flotation is sponsored by FLSmidth

General Minerals Engineering
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Technical Programme: Hi-Tech Metals '18

* Register Now: Hi-Tech Metals '18

* Conference Report: 2nd Young Nonferrous Metals Scientists & Engineers Forum

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Gravity Concentration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Call for Papers: Physical Separation '19

* Tempo Mineral Processing Offers DMS Cyclone Refurbishment Service

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Hydrometallurgy
~~~~~~~~~~~

* First Announcement: Biomining '20

* Lithium Ion Exchange Provides a New Source for Battery Materials

* Recently Refereed Publications:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125
Chemical Engineering Science Vol.191
Journal of Cleaner Production Vol.197

Magnetic/Electrical Separation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Call for Papers: Physical Separation '19

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Magnetic/Electrical Separation is sponsored by SLon Magnetic Separator

Reagents
~~~~~~

* Recently Refereed Publication:
Minerals Engineering Vol.125

Reagents is sponsored by Axis House

Sizing, Classification & Sorting
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Call for Papers: Physical Separation '19

Thursday, 27 September 2018

The Opening of the Newly Expanded Mineral Processing Facilities at Wardell Armstrong

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Things are happening in Cornwall's mining sector. Yesterday Barbara and I were two of the invited guests celebrating the opening of Wardell-Armstrong's extended mineral processing facilities on the Wheal Jane site between Falmouth and Truro. It was great to see so many representatives from the major Cornwall Mining Alliance companies all pulling together for the common good of this ancient mining county.

Cornwall is the headquarters of Wardell Armstrong International, with its historical mining links, sixty-strong team and well established technical resources. The firm’s London offices are located in Chancery Lane, Holborn, to be within easy walking distance of City clients and contacts. Wardell Armstrong International also has established offices in Moscow and in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to service Russia and Central Asia, as well as specialist mining teams operating out of Wardell Armstrong’s ten UK offices.

Wardell Armstrong's impressive metallurgical team

Managing Director Dr. Phil Newall and Head of Mineral Processing Phil King have been with WA since it acquired CSMA Consultants in 1999. Before the acquisition they were both with CSMA for several years, and have memories, as do I, of their tiny office on the School of Mines campus, with no testwork facilities of their own.

A warm welcome from Phil Newall.......

.......and from Phil King

Phil Newall and I go back a long way. Prior to CSMA he was a lecturer in mining geology at Camborne School of Mines, and Phil and I organised the first of the international conferences to be associated with CSM and CSMA, Comminution '89.

With Phil Newall at Comminution '89

This was followed in 1990 by Gravity '90, and then in 1991 our first overseas event, Minerals Engineering '91 in Singapore. Phil was also involved with Minerals Engineering '92 in Vancouver, before he and fellow geologist, Process Mineralogy '18 keynote speaker Alan Butcher, diversed into Mineral Exploration conferences, which were held in parallel with the annual Minerals Engineering conferences in 1993 and 1994, in Cape Town and Lake Tahoe respectively.

It was good to catch up with Phil yesterday and reminisce about the old days at CSM.

Twitter @barrywills

Tuesday, 25 September 2018

‘The war on waste’: How could the mining industry respond?

This is the question that Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox will ask at her keynote lecture at Sustainable Minerals '20 in Falmouth. Anita is the leader of the Geometallurgy, Geoenvironment and Mining program at the Centre for Ore Deposit and Exploration Science, University of Tasmania, Australia. Her research is focussed on mine waste characterisation to facilitate environmental conscientious mine planning and improved waste management practices. She is committed to improving mine closure practices and in 2018 became a member of the Victorian Government’s Technical Review Board for Mine Rehabilitation.

According to Anita an international ‘war on waste’ is waging whereby industries and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental impacts our linear ‘take-make-dispose’ economy facilitates. The promotion, and in some cases adoption, of circular economy principles has grown in recent years but how has this impacted on the mining industry, and more specifically, mine waste characterisation and management practices? Fundamentally, we mine waste, not ore. The large tonnages of waste rock handled at mine sites, particularly open cuts, illustrates this, and we will continue to mine in this manner to meet the metal demands of our growing global community. Therefore, it is imperative that the waste we produce is thoroughly characterised to determine: i) if it can be further utilised i.e., following circular economy principles; or ii) if it truly is waste how can it be disposed of so that the environmental risk is minimised?

Traditionally mine waste characterisation involves the integrated use of geochemical static tests with mineralogical tools used only where classification conflicts arise. However, with new tools becoming available to the mining industry (e.g., portable technologies, hyperspectral infrared and XRF platforms for drill core analyses, machine learning algorithms for image processing) the opportunity has arisen to improve waste characterisation protocols to better understand their properties, in particular their mineralogy, which is the key to improving waste management practices.

Once produced, mine waste materials are stored in piles or other designated repositories and are engineered to minimise environmental risk. However, if detailed waste characterisation is not undertaken then determining if it has any functionality is challenging. Performing geometallurgical studies on existing waste, including the use of mineral chemistry tools, could resuscitate operations on the brink of closure by identifying commodities not originally sought. Therefore, searching in our mine waste presents an opportunity to identify and market ‘green metals’ with the very real benefit of environmental de-risking (i.e., if the waste contains fertile sulphides prone to generating acid drainage).

If mine waste properties are understood, then these materials can be carefully engineered to assist with managing other industrial waste products, for example, carbon dioxide emissions. Recent studies have discussed the role of mine tailings in carbon sequestration and by using new technologies during early life-of-mine stages the industry can rapidly identify if their tailings have amenable mineralogical properties to enable this. More opportunities lie in blending or co-disposing of mine waste with alkaline wastes generated by a range of industries including paper milling (green liquor dregs), aluminium refining (red-muds) and even fisheries (spent shells). By marrying waste from two industries, the overall waste footprint (and associated management costs) can be reduced, and the risks associated with both minimised.

Anita will show that whilst pilot studies have demonstrated the application of these research endeavours, how this translates into routine practice remains a fundamental challenge.

Updates on Sustainable Minerals '20 can be found at #SustainableMinerals20.

Monday, 24 September 2018

International chemical company Clariant to sponsor Flotation '19

Good to hear that Clariant, a world leader in specialty chemicals, is sponsoring Flotation '19, as their representatives always have something interesting to say.

At Flotation '15 Jacques Bezuidenhout of Clariant Germany, showed how Clariant collectors can be used as alternatives to xanthate collectors in traditional sulphide flotation applications. Xanthates, first used in flotation in 1924, are reported to be the most widely used of the thiol collectors. They are therefore widely considered to be the most important collectors for sulphide mineral flotation applications. It is nevertheless Clariant’s experience that there is an increasingly strong push against using xanthate collectors in both new and existing flotation plants. Clariant Mining Solutions, in order to address this unmet need, therefore developed a series of liquid collectors, soluble in water, which are able to completely replace various xanthate collector types in practice.

At Flotation '17 Linda Mahlangu, of Clariant Southern Africa, reviewed the potential of phosphoric acid esters for the flotation of oxidised copper minerals. Low grade oxide copper mineral flotation dates back almost 70 years. In the 1960’s the process involved 2 basic flotation methods (i) fatty acid flotation of oxide copper minerals and (ii) sulphidization of oxide copper minerals followed by flotation using sulphydryl collectors such as xanthates. Over the years the use of fatty acids to concentrate the copper oxides lost its popularity, with most operations preferring the controlled potential sulphidisation method. Linda showed how phosphoric acid esters, which have proven effective in selectively floating carbonates in the reverse flotation of phosphates, can be used as alternative collectors for oxide copper mineral flotation, particularly for carbonates such as malachite.

I'm sure that we can look forward to more innovative solutions at Flotation '19.

Current Flotation '19 sponsors

The latest conference updates can be found at #Flotation19.

Twitter @barrywills

Saturday, 22 September 2018

Friday, 21 September 2018

Last of the summer sundowners

Summer has ended. Last night was the last of the summer sundowners at Falmouth's Chain Locker pub. Despite gusty winds and heavy rain, around 20 regulars were in attendance, and it was good to welcome a few new CSM students, recently enrolled on the MSc courses.

As always, there was a strong contingent from Cornish Lithium. The company is well on the way to the development of commercial extraction of lithium from naturally occurring hot springs deep below the surface of Cornwall. The question always asked is how will the lithium be extracted from the brines? There are several new technologies now available including ion-exchange, as reported a few days ago on MEI Online, and Cornish Lithium plan to make use of such innovative methods.

At the May sundowner our thoughts were with one of the great Camborne School of Mines characters, Ron Hooper, who had died the previous day. Today we toasted the memory of fellow nonagenarian John Shrimpton, who commenced his lecturing duties at CSM in 1955 and retired as head of mining in 1985. He was a colleague of mine for exactly half my time at CSM, a true gentleman who had served with distinction in the RAF in WW2. Below is a great photo, taken in 2009, of John with Ron Hooper and mineral processor Jim Turner, also no longer with us.

John Shrimpton (left) with Ron Hooper and Jim Turner

The next Cornish Mining Sundowner will be held at the Royal Oak in Perranwell on Thursday 18th October.

Twitter @barrywills

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

Major IMPC Awards to two distinguished American Professors

Over the past 15 years I have photographed the recipients of the International Mineral Processing Council's major awards. This year there is no MEI representation at the IMPC, due to visa problems, but ironically neither of this year's recipients were able to travel to receive their awards, which were announced this evening at the IMPC Gala Dinner in Moscow.

The 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award winner is Prof. Jan Miller of the University of Utah. Prof. Miller is the Ivor D. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Utah. He received his BS degree from Pennsylvania State University, and his MS and PhD degrees from the Colorado School of Mines. At the University of Utah Professor Miller has devoted over 40 years to undergraduate and graduate education. His research covers mainly the areas of mineral processing and hydrometallurgy, specializing in particle characterization, aqueous solution chemistry, and colloid and surface chemistry. He is a member of SME, TMS, and ACS. The recipient of numerous honours and awards, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993. In recent years Jan has become a world leader in the field of x-ray tomography in minerals processing, and presented keynote lectures on this subject at MEI's Process Mineralogy '12 and Process Mineralogy '17 in Cape Town.

Jan Miller (centre) with Henrique Kahn and Ben Tordoff at Process Mineralogy '17

Jan Miller with Xuming Wang and Barry Wills, IMPC 2016 Quebec

Prof. Douglas Fuerstenau has added the IMPC's Distinguished Service Award to his long list of prestigious awards- he was the first recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award in San Francisco in 1995.

San Francisco 1995, with Eric Forssberg and John Herbst

The IMPC awards are just two of very many awards that he has received during his illustrious career, and in his MEI interview 3 years ago he told me that his proudest moment was when he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976, considered the highest honour for an engineer in the United States. Now only three months away from his 90th birthday it is a shame that he was unable to make the very long journey to Russia to collect his award, as he has been a very active participant in the International Mineral Processing Congresses, starting with the 6th Congress in Cannes in 1963. Fifty years ago he attended the 8th IMPC in Leningrad, and he told me that it was a great experience meeting the major Russian mineral processing scientists and engineers of the 1950s and 60s. He last attended an IMPC in 2014 in Santiago, where he congratulated me on receiving the Distinguished Service Award, and I hope to reciprocate soon, possibly in Denver next year for the International Symposium in his honour.

Santiago 2014 with Doug Fuerstenau and Eric Forssberg

Twitter @barrywills

Tuesday, 18 September 2018

How were your first two days at the Moscow IMPC?

The XXIX International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC) began on Monday at the Congress Center of World Trade Center Moscow, Russia. Although MEI was not represented, I have received a number of updates from various people, and I thank them for their input, and invite further comments.

Congress Chairman Valentin Chanturia and his wife Elena, with Maria Okhvat of
Congress Management Mako, and IMPC Council Chairman Cyril O'Connor and his wife Nanette

Although the Congress began on Monday, the exhibition opened on Sunday, and bizarrely closed Tuesday afternoon. Sunday started with a bus tour around Moscow, taking in Red Square and the Kremlin, the last stop being the exhibition centre. The exhibition is not very big, but there is a good range of suppliers, especially from Russia and Scandinavia. The reception consisted of a generous spread of wine and beer and finger food and entertainment, and was an opportunity for the suppliers to promote themselves.

Expo welcoming ceremony

Early updates on Monday were unfortunately not too positive, with reports of papers being rescheduled to other days, which is not good for people, particularly authors, who have planned their own agendas. One of Prof. Kristian Waters' students from McGill University had his paper moved from Thursday to Monday at the last minute, while his colleague was scheduled for the same presentation in two different time slots. Canada's John Starkey found that the paper he had submitted was dropped from the programme because the person doing the final programme could not find his manuscript write up! John managed to sort that out with the help of Arkady Senchenko of TOMS, but instead of speaking on the scheduled Tuesday, he will now present on Wednesday.

However, later reports were more positive. Prof. Kevin Galvin, of University of Newcastle, Australia, said that things looked chaotic to begin with but once the conference settled down it worked quite well and everything "ran like clockwork". He said "the hotel/conference venue works. There are several key rooms close together and a couple a little further away - nothing too unusual. The WiFi is the best I have seen - the same code from your hotel room to the lobby to the conference venue - and it does not drop out. The big negative is that the exhibition is far removed from the activities of the delegates. We have the coffee, etc outside the conference rooms and the meals in the same area. I have not been back to the exhibition today".

The conference commenced in Russian with Chairman Prof. Valentin Chanturia, of the Russian Academy of Science, welcoming more than 800 delegates to Moscow, the first IMPC to take place in this city, and the second in Russia after 50 years, IMPC 1968 being held in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). IMPC Council Chairman Prof. Cyril O’Connor praised in his opening remarks the Russian mining industry and especially the great achievements of Russian Scientists. He highlighted especially the polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, the father of physical chemistry and chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, the founder of the periodic table of elements.

Congress opening session

The Opening Ceremony was followed by a Plenary Lecture by Prof. Nikolay Bortnikov of the Russian Academy of Science. He presented perspectives of modern seafloor hydrothermal systems and the sustainable exploitation of massive sulfide deposits, discussing critically whether these could be future mineral resources or whether there are unjustified expectations.

Kevin Galvin felt that "they could have done more with the keynotes - some were good, others terrible - one only lasted 10 minutes out of the allocated 25 minutes and I think this area lacked forward thinking. Jinrong Zhang (FIPR) gave a nice keynote on the challenges of concentrating rare earth elements, and Martin Rudolph (Helmholtz-Institut Freiberg) gave an excellent impromptu talk on the atomic force characterisation of hydrophobic minerals. Francisco Reves, of Imperial College, gave an interesting talk on resolving the 2D interpretation of surface liberation via their X-Ray Microtomography. There were a good few talks on iron ore from the Russians and Chinese, and a couple of talks on scheelite beneficiation, including rare earth minerals. There is a good mix of delegates, with a good range of research leaders, so I have certainly enjoyed my time so far".

After a coffee break and poster session the delegates had to choose from seven lecture halls where on this first day 86 papers were presented in 7 parallel sessions covering the whole areas of mineral processing and extractive metallurgy. Monday ended with a cultural celebration with food, drink, and dancing and the food was said to be excellent.

Tuesday was the final day of the Expo. It would appear that the IMPC in Quebec two years ago may have set a precedent for the exhibition to terminate half way through the Congress. I hope not, however, as the exhibition provides a focus for networking, and I hope this trend does not continue into the next Congress in Cape Town in 2020.

The Expo (photo Martin Rudolph)

At the main Congress, Kevin Galvin reported that fellow Australian "Prof. Robin Batterham gave an excellent plenary in the morning on the case for in-situ mining, pointing our that we are failing to discover new copper resources so will need to go deeper, coming to the conclusion that in-situ mining will, within the next 20 years, highly affect the field of mineral processing and replace processes such as flotation. Prof. Cyril O’Connor gave a nice talk on the application of Gibbs Excess as a parameter for describing hydrophobicity and hence contact angle. Prof. Janus Laskowski talked about flotation in sea water. So, many of the best talks came from those who have been significant contributors over past decades. We need some young people to come through for the future". In this respect it was great to hear that Dr. Pablo Brito-Parada, of Imperial College, UK, and one of the editors of Minerals Engineering was today elected to the IMPC Council. Well done Pablo!

It was also announced today that Australia will hold the IMPC in 2022 and USA in 2024, following Cape Town in 2020.

Many thanks to all those who have shared their experiences of the first two days in Moscow. I now invite all you others who are in Russia this week to also share your views on the Congress. The exhibition is now closed , and I would particularly like to know how you who have been exhibiting view the fact that the Expo was remote from the Congress, and that it all ended abruptly today.

Hopefully another update, on the final two days of IMPC later this week.

Twitter @barrywills

Sunday, 16 September 2018

Conference nostalgia: Minerals Engineering '98 in Edinburgh

The XXIXth International Mineral Processing Congress begins today in Moscow, and we wish them well.

Barbara and Amanda at registration

Twenty years ago today Minerals Engineering '98 drew to a close at the Stakis Grosvenor Hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. I organised this with CSM Associates, the consultancy wing of Camborne School of Mines, and it was also the first of these conferences attended by Amanda, who was working on her PhD at Birmingham University - 4 months later we formed MEI.

The 8th Minerals Engineering conference was sponsored by Eimco Process Equipment and Knelson Concentrators, now both merged with MEI's regular conference sponsor FLSmidth. The third sponsor was Australia's CSIRO. There were 123 registered delegates, representing 25 countries, and Prof. Jim Finch gave the opening keynote lecture on "Innovations and future trends in flotation cell design".

I am sure you will recognise many of the faces in the photos below, taken at the social events, which included a golf tournament at the St. Andrews Jubilee Course, and Highland Malt Whisky tasting at the Glenturret Distillery.

Peter Radziszewski, John & Cindy Herbst and Barbara

Dinner at Prestonfield House

Conference golf tournament at St. Andrews

With keynote lecturer Jim Finch

Hylke Glass, Mark Sampson, Amanda, Leon Lorenzen and Pauline Veasey at Falkland Palace

Visit to Scotland's oldest distillery, Glenturret

After the conference Barbara and I took a brief tour of this amazingly beautiful country:

Urquart Castle, Loch Ness

Glen Affric

Glencoe

Friday, 14 September 2018

The Starkeys call in en route to Moscow

It's a long journey from Ontario to Moscow, and John and Donna Starkey, of Starkey & Associates Inc., wisely broke it up by spending a few days in Cornwall, and we were pleased to see them today to show them a little of Falmouth and to lunch at the Greenbank Hotel overlooking the Penryn River.

The MEI family with John and Donna Starkey

Starkey & Associates, sponsors of Comminution '20, recently joined forces with Sacré-Davey Engineering (posting of 4th August), John now heading the office group as Chief Metallurgist.

John and Donna head back to London tomorrow to fly on to Moscow for the XXIXth International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC). I attended my first IMPC in 1988 in Stockholm and have missed only one since then, the Rome IMPC in 2000, where MEI was represented by Amanda.

Moscow will be the first IMPC at which MEI is not represented. Unfortunately the Russian Embassy has made it very difficult (and expensive) to obtain visas, necessitating a long journey from Cornwall to the Embassy to be fingerprinted, and then a wait of up to several days for the visa to be processed. Basically it has not been worth the hassle, so we will rely on the 'grapevine' to feed us information on the progress of the week. If you are going to be there, and would like to share your thoughts, I would be very pleased to hear from you (bwills@min-eng.com), and if you are tweeting, please use #IMPC2018.

Thursday, 13 September 2018

Exploring Cornwall's mining heritage with the Julian Baring Scholarship Fund

Established in 2000, the Julian Baring Scholarship Fund was created in the name of well-known gold fund manager, Julian Baring, in celebration of his two great passions - mining and Africa.

The advisors to the fund, with the support of the industry and those in it, endow annual scholarships for talented, but financially disadvantaged, African students to continue their studies and pursue a career in the competitive mining industry.

The Fund has come a long way in the thirteen years since inception thanks to the hard work and support of both trustees and friends. In 2006, the Fund was given a major boost when it was generously awarded 1% of the initial equity in WitsGold. This has provided a fantastic base and security for the Fund’s future and means that it can begin to look at expanding its scope, both in terms of numbers of students supported and at different levels of their education and potentially its geographical spread.

The JBSF has undertaken several fundraising events since its inception in 2000. Some of these have involved the trustees and friends of the Scholarship putting their physical fitness to the test. This week, over three days, and with the help of Cornish Lithium, the team is walking along the old tramways and coastal paths that cover the county made famous in the TV series of Poldark.

I took part in today's event, also sponsored by Strongbow Mining, who are reviving the famous South Crofty Mine, and who hosted a visit to their operations. South Crofty is a very old mine, which finally closed in 1998, but is scheduled to reopen and go into full production again in 2021. Well known as a deep tin mine, South Crofty was formerly worked in its shallower depths for copper, and we had a fascinating tour of the ancient stopes, some dating back to the 16th century.

Up "to grass" today, and in the 1890s

Following lunch at South Crofty, the afternoon was spent walking part of the Great Flat Lode Trail. The Great Flat Lode is an enormous ore-body dipping at an angle of between 10 and 45 degrees, situated in the Camborne-Redruth area. The mines in this area, including South Crofty, helped to provide employment at a time when the rest of the Cornish mining industry was in decline. As the copper ores became exhausted in about 1870, the mine owners explored deeper, finding high quality tin concentrations underlying the copper. This gave the mines of the Great Flat Lode a new lease of life. After some of the companies amalgamated in the late 1890's the mines continued producing until about 1918. The Great Flat Lode Trail encompasses all the major mines of the Camborne-Redruth area, running in a 7.5 mile circular trail around the granite hill of Carn Brea. It includes the site of Cornwall's greatest mine, Dolcoath (posting of 3rd August 2015), once the world's biggest producer of copper. As with most of the mines, in the late 19th century it became a tin mine, becoming, at 3000ft, the world's deepest tin mine, but modern development has left little trace of this mighty operation.

At South Wheal Frances Marriot's shaft

It was sad to see the site of the West Basset Stamps almost impenetrable now due to recent years of neglect. This was always a favoured visit for MEI Conference delegates, but no more alas. Hopefully some local society might take it upon themselves to restore this site, probably one of Cornwall's most important archaeological sites.

Nature has virtually taken over the West Basset Stamps

West Basset Stamps a few years ago

Jeremy Wrathall and Richard Williams,
CEOs of Cornish Lithium and Strongbow Mining

After a great afternoon in the Cornish sunshine it was back to Falmouth to relax in the evening with dinner sponsored by Cornish Lithium at MEI's former conference venue, the St Michael’s Hotel. Many thanks from everyone to Cornish Lithium and Strongbow Mining for sponsoring an unforgettable day.

Twitter @barrywills

Tuesday, 11 September 2018

MEI Online Update #426 - the one where our subscriber list disappears