A new keynote and the first major sponsor for Sustainable Minerals '20

There were four outstanding keynote presentations at last month's IMCET 2019 conference in Turkey, and one of them was given by Prof. Luis Marcelo Tavares, who leads the mineral processing group and is head of the Laboratory of Mineral Processing at the University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Marcelo is well known at MEI's comminution conferences, as he is a founding member of the Global Comminution Collaborative.  In Turkey, however, he gave an excellent presentation on how computer simulation can be used to better quantify the role of mining and mineral processing in life cycle assessment and the move towards a circular economy.

There was a huge increase in demand for minerals after World War 2, and the Club of Rome in 1972 famously and erroneously predicted that "economic development based on continuous increase in extraction of primary mineral resources is not sustainable". Based on this, there should be no minerals now available for exploitation, but the Club of Rome took no account of improvements in technology or the discovery of new deposits.

Mining plays a crucial role in world economies, the extraction of natural resources contributing directly or indirectly to more than 45% of the global GDP, but to be fully sustainable Marcelo said that we must have a new era of growth in which developing countries play major roles and reap large benefits.

I was so impressed by his presentation that I invited him to present a keynote lecture on process simulation for improving life cycle assessment in the minerals industry at next year's Sustainable Minerals '20 conference in Falmouth, and I am pleased that he has agreed to do so.

Further good news is that FLSmidth, a regular sponsor of many MEI Conferences, has agreed to be the first major sponsor for Sustainable Minerals '20, joining our industry advocate CEEC and media partner International Mining.

#SustainableMinerals20