Calls for Abstracts for Biomining '20 and Sustainable Minerals '20

MEI invites abstracts for two of its conferences which are of particular importance as we move into the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Biomining, formerly our Biohydrometallurgy series, reflects the increasingly important role of biotechnology, not only in the treatment of primary ores and concentrates, but in the quest for the circular economy, and is likely to have a major role in remediation, treatment of tailings, electronic and other wastes, and as a potential aid to processes such as flotation.

In this respect MEI's Biomining conferences are now intimately linked to the Sustainable Minerals series, which was very evident in Namibia last year, where over 60% of the Biohydromet '18 delegates also attended Sustainable Minerals '18.

Biomining '20 and Sustainable Minerals '20 will run back to back in June 2020 in the beautiful Cornish town of Falmouth. The venue will be the National Maritime Museum, in the heart of old Falmouth, overlooking the world's 3rd deepest natural harbour.

If you would like to present papers at either, or both, of these events, please submit your short abstracts by the end of December. Accepted papers will be published in draft form in the proceedings of the conferences, and then after the conferences authors will be invited to submit final papers for peer-review, with a view to publication in Virtual Special Issues of Minerals Engineering.

Dr. David Dew, of Dewality Consultants, UK, will present a keynote at Biomining '20 on the limitations to the commercial application of biohydrometallurgy for the treatment of base metal sulfide ores, and Dr. Anna Kaksonen, of Australia's CSIRO, will present a keynote on the environmental applications of biotechnology in mining.

This will complement the keynote lecture on the following day at Sustainable Minerals '20, when Dr. Anita Parbhakar-Fox, of the University of Queensland, will discuss how the mining industry might respond to the 'war on waste'. The second keynote at Sustainable Minerals '20, on the use of process simulation for improving life cycle assessment in the minerals industry, will be presented 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.

Cornwall is one of the world's most beautiful areas, but as well as stunning coastal scenery it also has a rich mining heritage, so we always advise delegates to stay on for a few days to explore this unique and remote part of England. The Cornwall section of the blog might whet your appetite!

Regular updates on the two conferences can be found at #Biomining20 and #SustainableMinerals20

Recent Comments

There have been comments on the following postings since the last update:

The evolution of mineral processing: thoughts from 40 years ago
Is zero carbon by 2050 attainable?
Electric vehicles are not that new
Is the peer-review system creaking?
Are these WASET conferences just a scam?
Just how energy efficient are wind turbines?
Sad farewell to one of Cornwall's most impressive tin dressing sites
Tunnelling, then and now: Cornwall's Great County Adit and the London Super Sewer
Back in Cornwall after our brief visit to Leeds
European Symposium on Comminution & Classification (ESCC '19)
AusIMM 2019 Welcome Reception
World Gold 2019- day 3

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Memories of Minerals Engineering '99, Falmouth

Twenty years ago today Minerals Engineering '99, the 9th in the series, began in Falmouth. This was the first MEI Conference to be held at the Falmouth Beach Hotel, which was destroyed by fire in 2012. The event was sponsored by Baker Process and Technomag, and was in collaboration with CSMA Ltd.

Over 90 delegates, representing 22 countries from as far as Australia, North and South America, Europe and Asia, attended the conference, which included 56 high quality presentations, both oral and poster, which were selected from among the over 100 abstracts submitted.

I'm sure that you will recognise many of the people in the photos below.

Overlooking Falmouth

Camborne-Redruth Mining area

At the West Wheal Bassett Stamps

Land's End

By the Crowns Engine Houses, Botallack

The Botallack arsenic calciners

@barrywills

New faces at the final Cornish Mining Sundowner of the summer

Last night's Cornish Mining Sundowner was the last of the summer sundowners at Falmouth's Chain Locker before we go indoors for the winter.

Attended by around 30, there were a few regulars missing, but it was good to see some new faces. Camborne School of Mines (CSM) lecturer Pat Foster was accompanied by a few of his final year mining engineering students, eager to get back on their course, fresh from their vacation experiences in several parts of the world.

Pat Foster (2nd right) with final year mining students

There was also a welcome reunion of former CSM staff and students, including a couple of sundowner debutants, Paul Benjamin, who graduated in 1985, and who is now with Ocean Partners, UK, who trade in base metal concentrates and by-products, and Charlie Northfield, a 1980 graduate. Charlie was Process Plant Manager at the ill-fated Drakelands tungsten-tin mine at Hemerdon in Devon, and is now based in Malaysia on a gold mine.  Also good to see Metso's Andy Wilkinson, a 1991 graduate, making a rare appearance.

CSM Mineral Processors BW, Malcolm Hooper, Steve Barber, Nick Wilshaw, Andy Wilkinson,
Charlie Northfield, Tony Clarke, Paul Benjamin and Dave Goldburn

Also in the photo above is Nick Wilshaw (CSM 1980), Managing Director of Comminution '20 sponsor Grinding Solutions Ltd (GSL). Nick has kindly offered to host the next sundowner, which will be held on Thursday October 17th, commencing 5.30pm. The venue will be GSL's new Unit 21 at Tresillian Business Park, Tresillian, Truro, TR2 4HF and drinks and snacks will be provided.  So see you there if you are down in Cornwall on that date.

@barrywills

Let's have your views on MetPlant and World Gold

Amanda is back in Cornwall now after a very busy week in Perth, meeting new people and catching up with old friends- networking, the essence of conferences.

She speaks very highly of MetPlant 2019 and World Gold 2019 and her excellent daily reports and photos capture the atmosphere of these events.  If you were in Perth last week we would now like to invite you to submit your own views to this posting.

MetPlant 2019 was hosted by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) and Amanda's reports are at Welcome Reception, Day 1 and Day 2.

World Gold 2019 was a joint venture between the AusIMM, the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). Reports are at Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.

We look forward to hearing from you, your comments will be most appreciated.

@barrywills

World Gold 2019 - Day 3

Leon Lorenzen (Lorenzen Consultants and Mintrex) began the last day of World Gold 2019 by welcoming us and introducing the presenter of the third Plenary Presentation, Elizabeth Lewis-Gray (Gekko Systems) who spoke to us about Accelerating innovation in the gold mining sector.

Elizabeth was followed by Jacques Eksteen (Western Australian School of Mines) with Keynote Presentation 5: Fit-for-purpose gold leach systems.

Jacques Eksteen (Western Australian School of Mines)

Then we broke for the usual half hour coffee break where I caught up with some more delegates.

Walter Valery (Hatch Australia)

Kristian Monteiro, David Willoway and Harley Davies at the Metallurgy stand 

The ALS stand 

Then it was back in for Technical Session 7a: Process flowsheet optimisation II and Technical Session 7b: New developments in comminution (crushing & grinding) & Pre-concentration and coarse particle gangue rejection, each with 5 papers presented. It was then time for an hour's lunch and networking.

James Tickner (Chrysos Corporation), Mike Adams (Lifezone & KellTech), Stephen Flatman (Maelgwyn Minerals) and Kinga Galka (Chinova Resources)

Grant Small (Magotteaux) and Jacques Eksteen (Western Australian School of Mines)
Magotteaux are sponsors of Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 

Juan Carrillo and Barrie Watson at the ConSep stand 

Tryphena Mitchell (Solvay) who won the Magotteaux 'Guess the weight of the grinding ball' competition 
Solvay are sponsors of Flotation '19 while Magotteaux are sponsors of Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 

After lunch, we were back to one stream for Technical Session 8: Gold Mine optimisation (mining, processing and exploration) IV.

Kicking it off was Daniel van der Spuy (Process IQ) with Keynote Presentation 6: The story of digital. Daniel was followed by a short presentation from Scott Wotherspoon (Alcoa of Australia) about the AusIMM's Health and Safety Society.

There then followed 3 papers before another half hour coffee break.

Ashleigh Collins and Bjorn Dierx at the Weir Minerals stand 

MinAnalytical stand

Rod Price, Oscar Vasquez and Giehard Nebre at the Molycop stand 

After coffee, the remaining delegates gathered for the hour long Panel Session, chaired by Peter Lind (Newmont Goldcorp). The panel discussed some of the key takeaways from the conference, which included how to attract and retain talent into the industry.

Many thanks to the AusIMM for the smooth running of this event and allowing me to come and report on it. I had a great time catching up with new friends and old.

Amanda Wills @MEI_Conferences

World Gold 2019 - Day 2

Day 2 at World Gold 2019 began at 7.30am with a workshop, Mental Health - managing risks, supporting employees and maximising productivity. 

Then at 9am Leon Lorenzen (Conference Chair, Lorenzen Consultants, & Mintrex) once again welcomed us before introducing the session chair, Fiona Morgan (Mintrex) who introduced Jim Beyer (Regis Resources) who presented the Plenary Presentation 2: Securing Australia's Golden Future.

Next Fiona introduced Keynote Presentation 3: Technology in the gold industry: why the future will still need people, presented by Vanessa Guthrie (Minerals Council of Australia).

Then it was time for a half hour coffee break for networking and an eposter session, where I caught up with more delegates.

David Roberts (CiDRA Mineral Processing)

Richard Bearman (Bear Rock Solutions)

Stephen Johnson, Virginia Lawson and Adam Price at the Glencore Technology stand, demonstrating their latest VR technology, where I took a walk around a Jameson Cell.
Glencore Technology are sponsors of MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 events.

Following on from coffee, as with yesterday, we split into two streams with four papers in each. Technical Session 4a: Innovative mining practices and developments II and Technical Session 2b: Digital transformation/Industry 4.0, Exploration of new gold deposits & Geology on Oroenic Gold Deposits.

Then it was time for lunch and another eposter session.

Guy Deschenes (BBA) 

Teresa McGrath (Curtin University Gold Technology Group) and Rolf Andreas Lauten (Pionera)

Sergio Vianna (Hatch), Grant Small, Marco Lombard, Michael Myllynen, and Christopher Greet, all of Magotteaux at the Magotteaux stand. Magotteaux are sponsors of  MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 events

Adrian Singh at the Gold Ore Ltd stand

After lunch, we all headed back over to the Astral Ballroom for Keynote Presentation 4: Mineral resource estimation technology and challenges in the 21st Century - when will the robots be taking over? presented by Ian Glacken (Optiro).

This was followed by a short presentation on the AusIMM's Social and Environment Society by Georgia Manning (BHP).

We then split into Technical Session 5a: Gold mine optimisation (mining, processing and exploration) III and Technical Session 5b: Sensors, monitoring and control II, again with four papers in each and followed by a half hour break for coffee, networking and an eposter session.

Jeremy Neal at the Bureau Veritas Minerals stand

Ajay Sihota and David Williams at the FLSmidth stand
FLSmidth are sponsors of MEI's Flotation '19, Comminution '20, Sustainable Minerals '20 and Process Mineralogy '20 events

Kevin De Jonge and Sunny Das at the PFWA stand 

The afternoon continued with Technical Session 6a: Process flowsheet optimisation I and Technical Session 6b: Geology on orogenic gold deposits, with four papers in each.

Then it was back over to the exhibition area for an hour of networking drinks.

At the same time, Outotec ran a Technical Briefing: Innovations in Gold, covering innovations in flotation, automation and BIOX technologies, followed by their own networking drinks.

Outotec ran a Technical Briefing on Innovations in Gold
Outotec are sponsors of MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 events

Some photos from the networking hour: 

Peter Papa and Malcolm Paterson of Green Gold Technology

Amanda Wills (MEI) and Craig van Buuren (Outotec)

Stephen Algie (Algie & Associates)

Warren Bruckard (CSIRO), Kinga Galka (Chinova Resources), Danielle Thompson-Hewitt (CSIRO Mineral Resources, and Yves van Haarlem (CSIRO)

Networking drinks hour before the Conference Dinner

The Conference Dinner was held in the Astral Ballroom at the Crown Perth and was sponsored by Mintrex. After a speech by Fiona Morgan (Mintrex) welcoming us all and giving a brief overview of Mintrex, Fiona introduced the guest speaker for the evening, Mick Colliss.

Mick is an author, writer, rugby commentator, emcee, guest speaker and modern day poet. He was also the vice-captain of the first ever Australian Sudoku team and travelled to India to compete at the World Sudoku Championships. He definitely had a way with words and soon had the room laughing along with him.

The Conference Dinner was held in the Crown Perth's Astral Ballroom

Robert Cooper (Green Gold Technology), Rolf Andreas Lauten (Pionera), Simon Tyrrell (Northern Star Resources), Malcolm Paterson (Green Gold Technology) and Peter Mellor (Green Gold Technology)

The Australian Sudoku team, with Mick Colliss (left) as Vice-Captain

Amanda Wills @MEI_Conferences

World Gold 2019 - Day 1

World Gold 2019 was held from September 11-13, 2019, at the Crown Perth in Western Australia. MEI was a Media Partner.

Day 1 began with a welcome to Western Australia in the Noongar language from Richard Walley, a Noongar elder. The Noongar are the original owners of the lands of south-west Western Australia.

Richard Walley welcomed delegates to World Gold 2019 and gave a performance of didgeridoo music

This was followed by a welcome from the conference chair, Leon Lorenzen of Lorenzen Consultants and Mintrex. Leon informed us that World Gold 2019 is the 8th in a series, and is a joint venture between The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (The AusIMM), the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM) and the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). However, last night a new agreement was signed, which also included the China Gold Association and the Society of Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME). So from 2023 these 5 bodies will be involved.

Leon also told us that World Gold 2019 had 448 delegates registered, over 100 of which were from overseas, with 55 papers to be presented in parallel sessions. As well as the usual proceedings, the MP&EM journal will be publishing a selection of the best papers in January 2020.

Amanda Wills (MEI) and Leon Lorenzen (World Gold 2019 Chair)

Leon then introduced Janine Herzig (AusImm President & MetVal). Janine welcomed delegates, particularly those from overseas and informed us that over 100 delegates had stayed on from MetPlant 2019, which ran for the previous two days, as had three quarters of the exhibitors.

Janine Herzig (AusIMM President)

Janine pointed out that World Gold 2019 came at the perfect time to take advantage of the gold market, and that it had something for everyone, covering all aspects of gold mining, including exploration, geosciences, mining (including geotechnical aspects), metallurgy (processing), environment and related themes.

She then gave a brief introduction to the AusIMM, thanked the conference partners, the SAIMM and the CIM, on behalf of the AusIMM and let us know that the AusIMM 2020 awards nominations are now open.

Leon then introduced Bill Beament (Northern Star), who presented Plenary Presentation 1: Underground mining: We are just scratching the surface. Bill was joined on stage by Mike Erickson (AngloGold Ashanti) after his talk to discuss issues brought up during his presentation, after which questions were invited from the floor.

Next up was the first keynote presentation of the conference, Unlocking sustained value from gold megaprojects, presented by Simon Hille (Newmont Goldcorp).

Then it was time for a half hour coffee break, where I was able to catch up with some of the people I'd met at MetPlant 2019, as well as some new faces. There was also the opportunity to view some eposters.

Peter Munro (Mineralis Consultants) and Sergio Vianna (Hatch)

Hollie Fursey (RPMGlobal) and Leesa Collin (SRK Consulting)

Amanda Wills (MEI) and Adrian Paine (Process IQ)

After coffee, the technical sessions split into two streams, Session 1a: Gold mine optimisation (mining, processing and exploration) I and Session 1b: Sensors, monitoring and control I. Each session consisted of four papers.

There followed an hour's break for lunch, eposters and networking.

Stephen La Brooy (Ausenco) and Danielle Thompson-Hewitt (CSIRO Mineral Resources)

Richmond Asamoah (Future Industries Institute, Uni. of South Australia) and Mike Adams (Lifezone & KellTech)

Carrie Sheng and colleague at the ChangChun Gold Research Institute stand

WPE Process Equipment stand

Jordan Horsell and Andrew Harris at the Sepro Mineral Systems stand

After lunch, Steve Morrell (SMC Testing) presented the second keynote, Modelling approaches and their application in comminution circuit design. Steve was followed by Adrian Gibett who spoke to us about the AusIMM MetSoc.

After which we split into two streams again, each with four papers. Session 2a: Innovative mining practices and developments I and Session 2b: Pre-oxidation of refractory ores I. There then followed another half hour coffee break with eposters.

Outotec stand. Outotec are sponsors of MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 events

Outotec delegates and Michael Darby (SAS Consulting Group): Marko Latva-Kokko, Mikko Vanska, Stefan Brauner, Matti Talikka, Chris Ormston, Laura White, Alan Dennis & Wing Siu

Glen O'Malley (Mining & Process Solutions) and Elsayed Oraby (Curtin University)

After coffee, there were two more sessions, Session 3a: Gold ore characterisation approaches for a new era of processing and mineralogy and Session 3b: Gold mine optimisation (mining, processing and exploration) II, with four papers in each.

Then it was time to board a bus to the Perth Mint, where the Welcome Reception was being hosted. The mint treated us to drinks and canapes outside in the courtyard, whilst a jazz singer entertained us, and we were given the opportunity to look around the mint and witness a gold pour.

Welcome Reception at the Perth

Scott Doig (FloCEP), Dave Wiseman (David Wiseman) and Sergo Vianna (Hatch)

Elizabeth Lewis-Gray and Sandy Gray of Gekko Systems

Peter Fraser (Hydro Power Equipment), Richmond Asamoah ((Future Industries Institute, Uni. of South Australia) ) and Scott Ferguson (Thermo Fisher Scientific)

Amanda Wills @MEI_Conferences