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