Saturday 25 May 2019

ALTA 2019 - Thursday May 23rd

ALTA split into parallel sessions today, with two 1-day conferences: Gold-PM and Uranium-REE.

Uranium-REE began with an opening address from Dr Brett Moldovan, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "What will Future Uranium Mining Projects Look Like?".

Using information which was mainly sourced from the IAEA/NEA Red Book, Brett lead us through a summary of the global uranium demand forecast, the supply forecast, an overview of global assured resources, a geological summary of uranium resources, the forecast of global uranium production capability, key considerations for mines of the future and innovation opportunities in the uranium industry.

Dr Karin Soldenhoff, Technology Manager - Minerals at ANSTO, delivered the keynote, entitled "Uranium IX - Past, Present and Future" - a challenge indeed for a 35 minute slot!

Over in the Gold-PM session, Prof Jacques Eksteen, Director of the Gold Technology Group  and Chair of Extractive Metallurgy at the Western Australia School of Mines, Curtin University, delivered the keynote address, "Fit-for-Purpose Precious Metals Leach Systems: Matching Leach Strategies to Source Characteristics".

Both sessions were busy days, with Uranium-REE containing another 14 presentations, culminating in the Developments in IX Forum with a Panel Discussion and Q&A led chaired by Alan Taylor, whilst the Gold-PM session contained another 15 presentations and included the Fit-for-Purpose Leaching Systems Forum with a Panel Discussion and Q&A chaired by Prof Jacques Eksteen.

CSIRO were well represented at this year's ALTA, with around 17 delegates attending over the 5 days.  Today they had 3 presentations in the Gold-PM session, including "Demonstration at Scale in the Field of a Non-Toxic Reagent System to Recover Gold", presented by Dr Paul Bruer, Principal Research Scientist - Gold Processing.

Gay Walton, Kevin Quinlan and Danielle Hewitt, all of CSIRO

Dane Platyes and Matthew Kiem 

Daya Dallakoti and Santo Varghese of Flowrox 

Frank Trask, Technical Director at Mining and Process Solutions

Joan Taylor (ALTA Metallurgical Services) with Greg Mann (Koch Knight)
Koch Knight are celebrating 15 years of support for the ALTA conference

Pete Smith, General Manager of MOGAS Australia


Joe Zhou (Joe Zhou Mineralogy), Jianqiao Kang (Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy (BRICEM)), Ziying Li (Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology) and Li Boping (Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology)
Joe presented "Geometallurgy and Process Mineralogy of Gold Ores: Methodologies and Applications in Process Selection and Plant Optimization" in the Gold-PM session today, whilst Jianqiao presented "The Research of Cladding Technology for Acidic Uranium Tailings and the Control of Radon Exhalation" in the Uranium-REE session.
Conference sponsors EKATO drew visitors to their booth with their virtual reality experience

The day ended with a Happy Hour, with drinks and snacks provided courtesy of sponsors Ausenco.

Happy Hours are regular occurrences at MEI Conferences, as they provide an excellent way to wind down and network with fellow delegates.

I was lucky enough to chat to Julia Garside of AusYGN (below) who was at the conference for the day to promote the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC), which is being held in Sydney, Australia on 8-13 March 2020, and co-hosted with the Australian Young Generation in Nuclear (AusYGN). Under the theme Diversity in Nuclear, the mission of IYNC2020 is to promote and enable the diversity of people engaged in the many peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.

Julia Garside (AusYGN)
I was also pleased to meet Murdoch Mackenzie, of JMW Mackenzie, who has attended every ALTA conference!

Allison Taylor with Murdoch Mackenzie

 Outotec (sponsors of Physical Separation '19, Flotation '19, and Comminution '20) were well represented
Lukasz Szwancyber (left) and colleagues from KGHM Polska Miedz

Dwight Van der Meulen from SGS Australia (left) and colleagues with Ben Sipos (AngloGold Ashanti)

Justin Ridley (Matec Pacific), Martin Viera (Matec Pacific), Cathy Cheng (CPC Engineering), George Butjor (Electric Metals) & Edoardo Sommacal (Matec Pacific)

1 comment:

  1. Apart from noting the technical aspects as reported, I am happy to read "young generation;Youth" --hope some" out of the box new aspects "would emerge on critical atomic minerals and their proper utilisation particularly in health sector.

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