Flotation '19: Applications Symposium Day 1

Yesterday we said goodbye to the 16 delegates registered only for the fundamentals symposium, and this morning MEI's Jon Wills welcomed the 29 new delegates for the applications symposium.

More than a century after its adoption and adaptation as a major mineral separation technology within the mining industry, significant new developments in flotation continue to appear. A number of important contributions have come from Canadians and a selection of these were highlighted by Jan Nesset, of NesseTech Consulting Services Inc, Canada, in his keynote lecture this morning.

Jan's keynote was followed by 19 presentations, which will be covered in more detail in the conference final report in a few weeks time.

The sun was shining today, and the two representatives from Bindura Nickel's Trojan mine in Zimbabwe, Chawo Nkhoma and Itayi Marufu, were enjoying the view of Table Mountain from the conference centre. I was interested to hear that Chawo was a student at the University of Zimbabwe in 1988 when I presented a guest lecture! 

Chawo and Itayi

Delegates also made use of the improving weather during the long lunch break and, as in the last two days, there was a lot of interest in the poster displays, the fundamentals posters having been replaced by applications. 

The exhibition was also a hive of activity during the coffee and lunch breaks, and also at the evening sundowner where wine was substituted for coffee and tea around the exhibits. 

I looked in on the Process IQ booth, where Brian Whitehead and Adrian Paine were describing their products to Nora Schreithofer and Laurianne Le of Aalto University. Process IQ is an Australian Mining Equipment and Technology Services company focused on Advanced Process Solutions. Several of Process IQ’s technologies include the MillSlicer (Advanced Mill Measurement Instrumentation), MillStar & FloatStar Advanced Control Systems, and MillROC – Milling Remote Optimisation Consulting.

Brian, Adrian, Nora and Laurianne

It was good to welcome a number of visitors today. Diana Drinkwater is over from Australia as a representative of the International Mineral Processing Council, which is meeting in Cape Town this week.

Diana with Virginia Lawson and Stephen Johnson of Glencore

We had two sundowner visitors from nearby UCT. Megan Becker is MEI Consultant to Process Mineralogy '20, which will be held at the Vineyard next October, immediately prior to the Cape Town IMPC.

Aubrey Mainza is much involved with the IMPC organisation, and is consultant to Comminution '20 in April at the Vineyard.

Aubrey (3rd right) at the sundowner

And visiting the Outotec booth were the company's biohydrometallurgy specialists, Jan van Niekerk and Waldemar Olivier, photographed in the Outotec booth with Angie Voges. Jan was a keynote speaker at Biohydromet '16 in Falmouth, and both he and Waldemar hope to be at Biomining '20, also in Falmouth.

Outotec's Waldemar, Angie an Jan

@barrywills