Flotation '21: Nalco Water the latest sponsor, and international awards to two of our young presenters

We are very pleased to announce that Nalco Water, An Ecolab Company, is to sponsor an MEI Conference for the first time, joining the other 21 sponsors of Flotation '21. On September 20th Ecolab Inc., was named a Global Compact LEAD participant for its ongoing commitment to the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with more than 12,000 participating companies in 160 countries. Ecolab is one of only 37 companies to receive this recognition.

Nalco Water plays an important role in the management of water, from the time it enters a facility until the moment it is returned back into the environment. This is a critical area of all mineral processing operations, including flotation, and will be the subject of a number of presentations in the sessions on Circuits and Plant Practice in the Flotation '21 programme.

Two presentations in Circuits and Plant Practice will be from the Federico Santa María Technical University in Chile, one by Paulina Vallejos and the other co-authored with her colleague Prof. Juan Yianatos. We would like to congratulate Paulina for her “Young Author Award 2020”, a recognition given to the most outstanding work carried out by young people, which were submitted to the International Mineral Processing Council.

Juan and Paulina

Paulina and Juan presented work at Flotation '17. She is a graduate of the Federico Santa María Technical University  and has a Master of Science in mineral processing from the same institution. She currently works as a researcher in the University and as a project engineer in Automation and Supervision Centre for the Chilean Mining Industry, also working as a consultant for the mining industry in Chile and abroad.

Paulina said “they have been years of a lot of work, but it has become a great experience for me; it has been a period of much learning and professional growth. I am very happy and grateful to have received this international recognition, especially from the International Mineral Processing Council, which is a very important entity worldwide in the area of ​​mineral processing. Also, a few weeks ago I was invited to the annual meeting of The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), where my award was recognized. It is very gratifying to see that international institutions recognize our work. Finally, to be the only woman among the six people who received this recognition, It reminds me that there is still a lot of work to be done to achieve gender equality in mining. Personally, I try every day to be a contribution in this regard and I hope to contribute a grain of sand so that in the future we will be more and more present in this area.”

Prof. Yianatos highlighted the importance of this distinction, as it reflects the result of teamwork. “This is the first time that we have the opportunity to highlight a Chilean woman and in addition to the University of Santa Maria, it is an award for joint effort. We have been working in this area for more than 40 years, we have participated regularly in different international congresses. It is a recognition of the work that we do and in particular of Paulina, who, since she graduated from the University, has been a brilliant and outstanding researcher. From a very young age she has presented at international congresses and that naturally makes us proud, because in some way, it is the projection of the work we have done; the credit goes to her because she has been the one who has had the central participation, being at the height of the research that the main universities in the world are doing.” 

Also from Chile, Diego Mesa was another IMPC Young Author Award winner, who will present a paper at the conference on Positron Emission Particle Tracking, with co-workers from South Africa.

Diego obtained his Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Universidad de Chile in 2013 where he was also awarded his Master of Science in Extractive Metallurgy in 2015. He then worked as a metallurgical consultant in Chile for over a year before moving to the UK, where he obtained his PhD in the Advanced Minerals Processing Research Group at Imperial College London. He is now a Research Associate at Imperial College, where he continues his research related to froth flotation, collaborating with several partners associated with the FineFuture project, funded by the European Union.

Congratulations Paulina and Diego. I know that you and your co-workers will make a big contribution to the success of Flotation '21.

#Flotation21