MetPlant 2019 - Day 1

The 11th AusIMM Metallurgical Plant Design & Operating Strategies (MetPlant 2019) event was held from September 9-10, 2019, at the Crown Perth in Western Australia. MEI was a Media Partner.

Janine Herzig

Following the GD Delprat Distinguished Lecture, given by J-P Franzidis, and Welcome Reception held the night before, Monday morning began with a welcome from the conference convenor, Janine Herzig of Metval Pty Ltd and the current President of the AusIMM.

Janine informed us that this year's MetPlant had welcomed a record number of delegates, over 400, a record number of sponsors and a record number of exhibitors. 32 papers had been accepted for presentation, allowing the event to maintain a single stream, posters had been accepted for the first time, and an Innovation Award had been implemented (sponsored by MEI's Comminution '20 sponsor, Russell Mineral Equipment) for the first time.

Stephen Durkin

Janine also paid tribute to David Pollard, the original MetPlant convenor, who sadly passed away last year.

The event was then officially opened by Stephen Durkin, CEO of the AusIMM. Stephen also emphasised the record numbers and stated that these included over 50 international delegates from 18 countries.

Talking about the decision to hold MetPlant in Perth, we were told that 1 in 10 working people in Western Australia work in the mining industry, with the industry contributing billions of dollars to the economy every year, making Perth the perfect location to hold such an event.

Stephen went on to give a brief history of the AusIMM, which was founded in 1893 and has 13,000 members in 100 different countries.

Session 1: Transformational case studies began with a keynote presentation by John Vagenas of Metallurgical Systems entitled, The Stages of Digital Transformation, followed by two more papers and then a 15 minute Q&A discussion on the three presentations.

Richmond Asamoah of the Uni. of South
Austrailia with his poster Effect of cyanide
concentrations on leaching of Jarosite-Bearing
bio-oxidised flotation gold concentrates

We then had a half hour coffee break in the exhibition hall, where the eposter sessions were also being held. This was an interesting new technology which I have not experienced before. Two screens were set up at the back of the hall, on which electronic posters were displayed (see photo). Each poster presenter then had a 10 minute slot in which to present his poster to whoever had gathered to watch.

Whilst this is very technologically advanced, and I'm sure the authors appreciated not having to print their posters or risk losing them on a plane, it did mean that you needed to be very organised with your time in order to view a poster you were interested in.

Session 2: Plant Design I kicked off with the second keynote of the day, Lessons Learnt from Smaller Projects Applied to Big Projects - Surely it Must be Easy? by Greg Lane of Auscenco.

There then followed three more papers and a 20 minute Q&A discussion before breaking for an hour for a delicious buffet lunch, again in the exhibition area, and another eposter session.

I had the opportunity to explore the exhibition area at this point and chat to new faces and old.

Randolph Pax of Rap Innovation and Development - a frequent visitor to MEI Conferences

Nicola Semler of South32, with whom I
had an interesting chat about future proofing mines through digitisation

Hanging out at the Magotteaux booth were Mike Battersby (Maelgwyn Minerals), Alan Hitchiner (Evonik Australia), Christopher Greet (Magotteaux), Alison Keogh (CEEC) and Chris Ypelaan (Anglogold Ashanti Australia)
Magotteaux are sponsoring MEI's Flotation '19 & Comminution '20, Maelgwyn Minerals are sponsoring Flotation '19, and CEEC are Industry Advocates for Comminution '20 and Sustainable Minerals '20.

The Eriez Flotation booth, Eriez Flotation are another sponsor of Flotation '19

Session 3: Plant Design II began with a third keynote presentation, this time from Joe Pease of Mineralis Consultants, entitled Mining Silicon Valley. Three more papers followed plus a 15 minute Q&A discussion, before stopping for a half hour coffee break and more networking.

A selfie with Graeme Jameson, one of the winners of this
year's CEEC Medal

Darryl Harris (Outotec) & Bruno Sceresini (Australian Mining Advisors)
Outotec are sponsoring MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20

Chih-Ting Lo (CEEC) & Joe Pease (Mineralis
Consultants)

The last session of the day, Session 4: Flotation and Surface Chemistry, began with a keynote presentation from John Ralston of the University of South Australia entitled Interfacial Science - a Critical Enabler in Hydrometallurgy and Mineral Processing.

Following John were 3 more papers, plus the 15 minute Q&A before Janine Herzig rounded off the day with some closing remarks. Then it was straight back into the exhibition area for some networking drinks before the Conference Dinner.

Edoardo Sommacal (Matec Pacfic), Michael McMaster (Clariant), and Tony Thompson (InterChem)
Clariant are sponsors of Flotation '19

Tom Gibbons (Veritas Metallica), Dave Wiseman (David Wiseman Pty Ltd), and
Stephen Flatman (Maelgwyn Minerals)

Tryphena Mitchell (Solvay) & Simon Loro (Evolution Mining)
Solvay sponsored the evening's Conference Dinner and are sponsors of Flotation '19

The Conference Dinner was held in the Astral Ballroom at the Crown Perth and was sponsored by Solvay, and Stuart Emery, Regional Sales Director at Solvay gave a short speech to start the night off, after which we were treated to a delicious menu, with a choice of mains, complemented by quality wine - or at least the red was in my opinion!

The Conference Dinner rounded off Day 1 at MetPlant 2019

Amanda Wills @MEI_Conferences