2021 with MEI

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

Very prescient of Charles Dickens in his introduction to A Tale of Two Cities, which sums up this year, with its promises of better things to come followed by depressing set backs.

In last year's annual summary I ended by saying that we must put our faith in the amazing efforts of the scientists and their vaccines and hope for better things to come in 2021, as another highly contagious strain, emanating from South Africa, had been identified, escalating restrictions. Twelve months later restrictions have again been tightened with the emergence of another mutant strain of the awful Coronavirus, Omicron, also emanating in South Africa.

When will this ever end? We had got used to endless globe-trotting, meeting up with old friends, getting to know new people and visiting interesting places, and personally I will remember 2021 as the first year since 1979 that I have not left the UK. In fact Barbara and I have only left Cornwall once this year, for a week in beautiful Dorset (posting of 23 September)

It was a grim start to the new year with the new variants of Covid-19 threatening to spread across the country and savage the beleaguered NHS, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a complete lockdown of the UK. Travel into and out of the UK became virtually impossible as most of the travel corridors with the UK were suspended and, coupled with Brexit, Britain became, for the first time in its history, an effectively isolated nation. A month later with the vaccine roll-out initiated, and over 15 million people in UK having had their first jab, Johnson announced that we were past the peak of the 2nd wave and "the crocus of hope is poking through the frost and spring is on its way..." It's never good to predict the future! 

At the end of February twelve months had passed since I last boarded a plane, a flight from Phoenix to London Heathrow at the end of the SME Annual Meeting. This year's scheduled meeting in Denver became an online event and I missed not being in my favourite American city to see the Mineral Processing Division's award winners, three old friends of MEI, Prof. Courtney Young, Dr. Frank Crundwell and Dr. Michael Mankosa (posting of 8th March 2021). 

MEI's four conferences this year have all been online events, and I must say how immensely proud I am of Jon and Amanda who accepted the challenge of converting our scheduled meetings to virtual events. Apart from advising on the technical programmes I have had little input and I am pleased to see MEI now being slowly shifted to the next generation.

Amanda's son William recording his Uncle Jon's opening address for one of MEI's 4 events this year
- a far cry from the conference centre in Cape Town's Vineyard Hotel!

The conferences have been well received and the advantage of the online events is that the recorded presentations for Comminution '21, Biomining '21, Sustainable Minerals '21 and Flotation '21 are now available on demand.

I would also like to say that we are tremendously indebted to our sponsors, old and new, who have supported our conferences during these difficult times:

It was good to socialise again in May, with relaxing of restrictions, and the first Cornish Mining Sundowner of the year was held on a chilly evening on Falmouth's Gyllyngvase Beach, followed by further outdoor meetings in Falmouth. 

The July mining sundowner on Falmouth's Gyllyngvase beach

The super-spreader G7 summit in Cornwall in June (posting of 1st July), and a huge influx of summer visitors caused a rapid rise in Coronavirus infections in Cornwall, which soon had the country's highest infection rate, but by September with the crowds dissipating so did the infection rate and with social distancing no longer mandatory we had a welcome return to the Chain Locker pub in September and the CSM Annual Dinner in October, after an enforced break of two and a half years.

A welcome return to the Chain Locker in September

Apart from running the online conferences, Jon and Amanda have been busy with voluntary work, Jon working in a local hospice shop and Amanda as a Mabe Parish Councillor as well as a mentor for a charity supporting people affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence.

They raised money for these charities by taking part in tough long-distance cycling and hiking events.

Amanda and friend on a 25 km trek in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales and Jon after a
gruelling 104 miles, 7 and a half hour Coast to Coast Extreme Route Challenge in Cornwall

Barbara and I had some good hikes during the summer, including the challenging short walk over southern England's highest cliff, Golden Cap in Dorset (posting of 9 September), but our first hike of the year, at Coverack on Cornwall's Lizard Peninsula ended abruptly when I slipped on the very muddy coast path and fell down the cliff, fortunately tangling in painful brambles which prevented a long drop to the rocks below.

Avoid the Cornish coastal path after heavy rain!!

Conditions were much better in October for a 50 year reunion with an old friend from Zambia days, Pete Love, and his wife Pam, who stayed with us for a few days. 

Barbara with Pam and Pete Love at the Crowns Engine Houses, Botallack

And so ends another year of uncertainties, and who know what the next will bring. On behalf of the MEI team I wish you all best wishes for 2022. We had a final 2021 family get together yesterday in St. Agnes and it was great to welcome Flo (right on photo) the girlfriend of 17 year old William. Flo's grandfather, Bob Wyatt, was an international cricketer, captaining the England Test team 15 times, and was vice-captain to Douglas Jardine on the infamous 1932-33 'bodyline' tour of Australia.  The current England test team touring Australia are in need of a few batters of Bob Wyatt's calibre at present!

Happy New Year to you all.

@barrywills

Recent comments

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

Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineers to Prof. Sam Kingman
October Mining Sundowner: a brief glimpse of normality?
Unsettled: to what extent do humans contribute to climate change?
Flotation'21: Day 1 update
Malaysia: memories of Penang and the Kinta Valley
Flotation '21: Day 4 update
Flotation '21: Day 5 update
Innovative company Hudbay to sponsor 4 forthcoming MEI conferences
Prof. Jim Finch summarises Flotation '21
A quiet November sundowner, and encouraging news of an undergraduate mining degree in UK 
Prof. Raj K. Rajamani, 1948-2021

November update: Covid rages in Europe; a worrying new variant and the effectiveness of masks
Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner in Camborne
The critical need for accelerating innovation in the mining sector

  

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The Queen's address to the nation- and that magnificent sapphire brooch

It is now over 40 years since I met the Queen at Camborne School of Mines, and there was much interest then in the beautiful sapphire brooch that she wore. 

Meeting the Queen at CSM in 1980

Yesterday there was intense media interest in the same brooch, which she wore for her annual Christmas Day message. The framed photograph in view during the broadcast was taken during the diamond anniversary of her and Prince Philip, who died this year after 73 years of marriage. She also wore the same brooch, in the form of a chrysanthemum, on their honeymoon in 1947.

Her Majesty's Christmas Day message
Photo: BBC

I remember the CSM geologists in 1980 speculating on the value of the brooch, the sapphire being surrounded by 12 large diamonds, and today the brooch is estimated to be worth around £8-9 million, thanks also to its historic provenance. It dates back to the 1800s, Prince Albert giving the brooch to Queen Victoria on their wedding day in 1840. 

During her address the Queen highlighted the importance of "passing the baton" to the next generation, something relevant and ongoing at MEI since we adapted this year to online conferences. There are more baton passes scheduled for 2022 when we hope to progress to hybrid events. Let's hope that the world is a better place by then.

Season's Greetings from MEI

Photo: Tony Clarke

This time last year I wrote "By any standards 2020 has been an awful year, but as it draws to a close we hope that 2021 will lead us back along the road to normality".

Unfortunately 2021 has not done that and the pandemic still rages on.  However we must be optimistic, and whether you celebrate Christmas or not we would like to wish you all sincere best wishes for the holiday season and hopefully better things for 2022. And a big thank you to all of you who have sent us Christmas greetings by email.

The critical need for accelerating innovation in the mining sector

The mining sector is facing many challenges in delivering minerals to market given rise in demand, especially for key renewables related mineral supply. Some of the greatest challenges are reflected in the difficulties around getting permits and the social licence to operate especially given climate change and the energy intensity of the mining industry. Accelerating innovation and collaborating together has never been so critical. Open innovation systems are more important than ever to achieve this, which is why MEI has initiated a new conference, Integration, Optimisation & Design of Mineral Processing Circuits (IntegratedMinPro '22).

Australian company Gekko Systems has always had a particular focus on reducing energy intensity and increasing energy efficiency. This has resulted in a focus on new flowsheets, pre-concentration, reducing treatment of gangue/waste, utilising low energy technologies as well as being instrumental in the establishment of not-for-profit CEEC – the Coalition of Eco-Efficient Comminution, an industry advocate for IntegratedMinPro '22, and other MEI Conferences. We are therefore delighted to announce that Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, co-founder and Chair of Gekko Systems and Founder and Patron of CEEC will be presenting a keynote lecture at IntegratedMinPro'22. 

Elizabeth has been a strong advocate for innovation, collaboration and the METS Industry for almost two decades with long serving roles on the Board of Austmine (including Chair), CSIRO’s Mineral Advisory Board and the Federal Government’s Innovation Australia Board. Her own business, Gekko Systems, is a world leader in gold and silver processing technology, consulting, and energy efficient modular processing solutions.

Elizabeth is a Fellow of the Academy of Technology Science  and Engineering and the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (FAusIMM). In addition she is the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Federation University for services to mining and a recipient of Australian 100 Women of Influence Awards and the Warren Engineering Innovation Heroes Award (see also posting of 16 March 2015).

In her keynote lecture "The critical need for accelerating innovation in the mining sector" Elizabeth will show how, increasingly, mining companies are looking to reduce their energy footprint and to utilise renewable/low carbon energy sources which will place further pressure on designing low energy and flexible mineral processing facilities.

The capacity to successfully deliver new innovation is still problematic for the mineral processing sector and mining industry which still has many barriers including high capital investment risk, low risk profile of engineers by nature, influence of investors, etc. Many mineral processing flowsheet designs are designed to minimise risk not energy. Timelines/budgets no longer allow for pilot studies. 

The sector must find new pathways to accelerate collaboration, knowledge sharing and innovation and a number of new pathways to market are being trialed and established. However, it is also critical for the innovation to take place across the whole value chain of mining to eliminate waste and maximise efficiency – including accessing and sharing data across the pillars of geology, mining and metallurgy.

The keynote will truly reflect the theme of the conference which invites abstracts on new approaches to mineral processing circuits, whether through design, modelling, optimisation or operation. This includes integration of unit operations (e.g. comminution and flotation), novel flowsheets that incorporate new equipment and new approaches to optimising circuit design.

#IntegratedMinPro22

Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner in Camborne

It is two years now since our last Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner at Tyacks Hotel in Camborne, so it was good to be back there last night, despite Covid cases in UK soaring again thanks to the latest variant Omicron. Cornwall's infection rate is now below the country's average and there has so far been only one recorded Omicron case in Cornwall. The epicentre is London so we took the chance last night before the mutation crosses the Tamar into Cornwall and followed the Governments 'clear' advice to "socialise carefully".

I doubt if anyone who has been associated with Cornish mining has not heard of Tyacks, situated in the centre of Camborne, itself once the epicentre of the world's copper and tin mining industries.

Established in 1780 the hotel is only a few yards from the site of the original Camborne School of Mines (CSM), and was frequented by local miners from South Crofty and Pendarves and CSM students and staff. Once CSM moved to Pool, between Camborne and Redruth, in 1975 and CSM had its own club behind the old CSM building, students frequented Tyacks less and less and after the move to Penryn in 2004 I doubt if many of the current students have even heard of Tyacks.

The original CSM in the centre of Camborne

The old inn is steeped in atmosphere, as is our summer sundowner location, Falmouth's Chain Locker. But whereas the Chain Locker reflects Falmouth's nautical heritage, Tyacks highlights the area's rich mining history, and dotted all around the pub are pictures of Camborne's most famous mining engineer, Richard Trevithick (posting of 25 April 2015) and photos by arguably the 19th century's most accomplished mining photographer, also a Camborne man, J.C. Burrow (posting of 25 May 2015).

The Christmas sundowner is always the most popular, and despite the pandemic we had over 30 in attendance last night.

It was good to see Treve and David Mildren, of local company Gravity Mining Ltd. The company is the home of the original Mozley Multi Gravity Separator (MGS) and yesterday they agreed to sponsor MEI's Physical Separation '22 next year.

With David and Treve Mildren, and Klaas van der Wielen of British Lithium
and Nigel MacDonald of King Edward Mine Museum

The Sundowner was a great opportunity to recognise the achievements of one of our regulars, Robin Dunn. Robin has contributed 35 years in various roles at CSM but his links to CSM actually go back to 1963. He  retired in April 2020 just at the start of the pandemic so tonight was a much delayed ‘few beers in Tyack’s’  that he said he would be happy with. 

Robin played a key role supporting the Principal, Dr. Peter Hackett in 1992/93 when CSM was saved from certain closure by merging into the University of Exeter and also saving the University's Engineering in the process. 

Robin was Clerk to the Trustees of the CSM Trust  and managed the finances in a way that has allowed over £3 million pounds to be donated to support Mining and Minerals Education, an extraordinary achievement.    

The Trust was keen to maintain the links to Camborne so Robin worked to preserve the Memorial Rugby Ground, developing a relationship with Camborne Rugby Club to use and maintain the ground. Ultimately the Ground was dedicated as a Field in Perpetuity which now means that Camborne Rugby Club and the CSM Memorial Ground can never be built over.

Last night Camborne Rugby Club presented Robin with a Gold Pass in recognition of the his efforts to secure the links with CSM. The Gold Pass was presented by Bill Hussey of Camborne Rugby Club, himself an ex CSM student. CSM Trust Chairman Dr. Tony Batchelor, ably assisted by Matt Colwill, the current CSMT Clerk to the Governors, and Carol Richards  of the Camborne School of Mines Association, presented Robin with South Crofty tin cuff links, tiepin and replica Cornish coins and tokens as well a particular vintage port Robin had requested. Finally Tony announced that a fund had started to raise money for a contribution to cruising/travel, which Robin really loves, when Covid allows; over £1200 had already been pledged and the fund had not yet been announced.  Worthy recognition indeed for a true friend of CSM, surrounded by many of his old friends.

Tony Batchelor, Bill Hussey, Robin Dunn, Carol Richards
and Andy Gill, Chairman of Camborne Rugby Club

The Tyacks sundowner lived up to all its usual expectations, and we now hope that we can all get together next month for the January sundowner, which is scheduled to be held at the County Arms, Truro, on Thursday January 20th.

@barrywills 

We welcome Weir Minerals as a sponsor of Sustainable Minerals '22

Global company Weir Minerals delivers wear, corrosion and abrasion resistant engineered products for heavy duty slurry pumping, industrial processing and control applications. The company last sponsored an MEI Conference nearly 10 years ago, Comminution '12 in Cape Town.

It is great to have them involved with MEI again as a sponsor of Sustainable Minerals '22, joining ZEISS, Metso Outotec, Promet101 and Hudbay Minerals as major sponsors, and our Media Partner International Mining, and Industry Advocates the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), the Cornwall Mining Alliance and the Critical Minerals Association.

There is a call for abstracts for the conference, which should be submitted by the end of April.

And a reminder that registration is still open for Sustainable Minerals '21, which was held in July. Recordings of the presentations and the panel discussion are available on demand. Brief summaries of each day's proceedings can be found here.

#SustainableMinerals22

Things are happening at Cornish Lithium

The uncertainty regarding the Omicron variant is having a marked effect on Christmas celebrations, and tonight Barbara and I should have been in Truro for the Cornish Lithium Christmas party, which has been cancelled, as it was last year due to the pandemic.

A great pity as I was looking forward to congratulating Dr. Lucy Crane, firstly on recently becoming a mum, and on her excellent presentation on the importance of mining at last month's Conference on Critical Minerals and The UK’s Green Industrial Revolution. This forum was organised by the Geological Society Business Forum, Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (IOM3) and MEI Conferences' industry associate the Critical Minerals Association.

It would also have been good to talk to Cornish Lithium's CEO and Founder, Jeremy Wrathall on his appointment to the UK’s Critical Minerals Expert Committee, together with a select number of industry and academic experts.

The formation of the Committee is a key element of the UK Government’s Net Zero Strategy  and is the first of its kind in the UK, to provide independent advice to government on the scope and content of a critical minerals strategy. The Committee will also define and publish an updated list of these minerals to guide government investment decisions. The resulting UK Critical Minerals Strategy will be published in 2022, setting out the UK’s approach to securing the technology critical minerals and metals. Through this strategy, the UK government will seek to support the engagement of the UK’s mining sector in new and existing markets, facilitating investment and collaboration in extraction and processing opportunities.

Jeremy and Lucy at the last Cornish Lithium Christmas Party in 2019

Cornish Lithium is pushing forwards with developing a sustainable domestic source of lithium for the benefit of the UK. Last month the company secured £18m of funding from Investment company TechMet, which will help fund Cornish Lithium’s plan to establish a UK-based supply of battery metals used in EVs.

Cornish Lithium said the UK needs an estimated 75,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent by 2035 to meet growing demand. By comparison, in 2020, Portugal – Europe’s largest lithium producer – produced about 1,200 tonnes of lithium. The UK government has made the extraction and supply of minerals such as lithium a priority and Cornish Lithium called the funding from TechMet “transformational”, adding that it would “significantly accelerate” its projects.

This will allow further drilling of geothermal evaluation boreholes and developing associated direct lithium extraction sites to further demonstrate Cornwall’s prospectivity for lithium contained in geothermal waters (posting of 18 September 2020). The Company will also progress studies into the possibility of using heat from these boreholes to decarbonise local industries in Cornwall.

The funding will also aid the construction of a beneficiation and hydrometallurgical demonstration plant that will enable the Company to optimise the low carbon Lepidico processing technology for the Trelavour Project (posting of 10 December 2020) for the extraction of lithium from zinnwaldite and polylithionite mica ores in the St Austell region. Only a wek ago Cornish Lithium announced the Maiden JORC Resource Statement for The Trelavour Project.

Hopefully there will be much to report in 2022!

@barrywills

International Mineral Processing Congress 2022 is cancelled

As a media partner MEI was sad to hear that the IMPC Council, working closely with AusIMM, has announced that the XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2022 (IMPC 2022) in Melbourne will be cancelled.

In the face of ongoing uncertainties around border closures and travel restrictions, and the acknowledged impact this will have on hosting a global event, postponing the Congress honours IMPC’s commitment to driving immersive knowledge sharing across all facets of mineral processing innovation. 

With this announcement, numbering for future IMPC events will adjust accordingly. As a result, the next event in the series, to be held in Washington DC in 2024, will be titled the XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress. The last IMPC was held in Moscow in 2018, the subsequent IMPC 2020 in Cape Town also being cancelled due to the pandemic.

Recognising strong interest from industry, AusIMM, together with co-hosts CSIRO and the IMPC Council, have advised that they will instead present a regional event, the IMPC Asia-Pacific 2022. This will be the second Regional Mineral Processing Conference organised under the auspices of the International Mineral Processing Council.

IMPC Asia-Pacific 2022 will bring together delegates from Australia, the Asia-Pacific and other regions to share best practice and knowledge in mineral processing in Melbourne, Australia, in August 2022. This smaller, regionally-focused event will precede full IMPC Congresses in Washington in 2024 and Cape Town in 2026, before the full-format IMPC Congress returns to Melbourne in 2028. Preparations for IMPC Asia-Pacific 2022 are underway, with further information regarding the format, content and event logistics to be shared over coming weeks.

November update: Covid rages in Europe; a worrying new variant and the effectiveness of masks

Coronavirus is still rampant.  The World Health Organisation is very worried about Covid-19 raging throughout Europe, with protests against new restrictions taking place in many countries as cases rise, and Austria is currently in full lockdown. 

Most of the earlier restrictions have been removed in the UK, but last week flights to many southern African countries were cancelled due to a worrying new heavily mutated strain, Omicron, reportedly originating in Gauteng, South Africa. Were the UK and other rich nations morally wrong in vaccinating as many of their populations as possible, rather than distributing the vaccines to the poorer countries of the world? "We are not safe until everyone is safe" has become a mantra, and maybe Covid will be back to bite us.

Wearing a mask is the most effective way in which the public can curb Coronavirus cases, a study has found. Global research has found that masks can slash incidences of infection by 53%. The first systematic review of its kind, published in the British Medical Journal, has found that non-pharmaceutical measures, such as mask-wearing, social distancing and handwashing, are all effective at keeping infection numbers down. Researchers at Monash University in Australia and the University of Edinburgh found that wearing masks was the most effective of the three and have called for their use alongside vaccines.

Prior to the last day of the month, when face coverings became a legal requirement again in shops and public transport, they were not mandatory in England, although they were in many countries in Europe. The UK Government guidelines had stated that "Face coverings are expected and recommended in indoor spaces where you come into contact with people you do not normally meet".  Not everyone abided by this guideline, but many did, in deference to other people.

So why did our embarassment of a Prime Minister not set an example? His main contribution to COP26 (posting of 15 November) was an excruciating speech to delegates imploring them to believe that the UK was not a corrupt country, but he perhaps gained the most media coverage by sitting next to the 95-year old Sir David Attenborough, while not wearing a mask.

An alert PM with Sir David Attenborough on his left

But worse than this, in the following week he appeared maskless on a hospital visit, where the advice to visitors is to keep visits to a minimum, and wear masks when entering the hospital. It's hard to be clearer than this, and any sensible person would agree that this not only applies to the act of entering the hospital, but also of being in the hospital. So why was Johnson not wearing a mask during his visit; all the doctors and nurses were wearing masks. It’s completely incomprehensible behaviour from this bumbling buffoon, surely the most egregious (word of the year apparently) prime minister in Britain's history, leading a government of inept weaselly sycophants.

Spineless government ministers, even the health secretary Sajid Javid, defended his hospital visit, saying that he followed the rules! Even if he had followed all the rules, which seems highly doubtful, why did he not go beyond the rules, setting an example, knowing full well that he would be photographed? Johnson said that he only took his mask off for about 30 seconds, but reports from the hospital suggest that he was asked 3 times to wear a mask.  More of his lies!

Spot the bare-faced liar in the Commons

According to a report early in the month in the i weekend newspaper, there are three Whitehall scenarios for when the public can forget about Covid-19. The paper says that an optimistic prediction will see the virus become routine in late 2022 or 2023, with the likeliest situation being that the world will escape the shadow of Covid in 2023-2024. The highly unlikely and most pessimistic forecast estimates mass infections until 2026, the paper adds. But this was all before the emergence of the Omicron variant.

In view of all this, we feel that MEI has probably made the right decision in making our next 3 conferences in 2022 online events, with the hope of running Process Mineralogy '22 as a hybrid at the end of the year.

@barrywills

MEI Conferences 2022

It is now over 2 years since MEI's last face-to-face conference, Flotation '19 in Cape Town.  All our conferences were postponed in 2020 and this year we have adapted to the era of the pandemic and this month completed our 4th on-line event of the year, Flotation '21, recently summarised by Prof. Jim Finch.

Coronavirus is still very much with us so there is still much uncertainty about what awaits us in 2022. Our feelings are that we should stay online for a while, so MEI's next 3 conferences, scheduled for Falmouth, will be virtual events.

From May 9-11 MEI's 7th Physical Separation conference (Physical Separation '22) will will bring together researchers and operators who have common interests in:

• Gravity concentration methods - single and multi-G separators and dense medium separation
• Classification techniques - hydrocyclones, air classifiers etc.
• Solid-Liquid Separation - thickeners, clarifiers etc.
• Electronic Sorting
• Magnetic and electrostatic separation
• Microwave technology. 

This event is currently sponsored by Hudbay Minerals, with media partners International Mining and Imformed, and our industry advocates are the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), the Cornwall Mining Alliance and the Critical Minerals Association. Prof. Neil Rowson will present a keynote lecture on the role of magnetic separation in the development of critical and strategic metal recovery flowsheets.

A month later, from June 13-15, Integration, Optimisation & Design of Mineral Processing Circuits (IntegratedMinPro '22) is a brand new conference which invites papers on new approaches to mineral processing circuits, whether through design, modelling, optimisation or operation. This includes integration of unit operations (e.g. comminution and flotation), novel flowsheets that incorporate new equipment and new approaches to optimising circuit design.

This first conference in what we hope will be a series, is sponsored by Promet101 and Hudbay Minerals, with media partner International Mining, and industry advocates the Cornwall Mining Alliance and the Critical Minerals Association. Dr. Osvaldo Bascur will present a keynote lecture on digital disruption: a sustainability approach.

The 7th International Symposium on Sustainable Minerals (Sustainable Minerals '22), organised in consultation with Prof Markus Reuter, will be online from July 11-14 and is sponsored by Zeiss, Metso:Outotec Weir Minerals and Hudbay Minerals, with media partner International Mining, and industry advocates the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), the Cornwall Mining Alliance and the Critical Minerals Association.

The rapid growth of the world economy is straining the sustainable use of the Earth’s natural resources due to modern society’s extensive use of metals, materials and products. An astute and conscious application and use of metals, materials and products supported by the reuse and recycling of these materials and end-of-life products is imperative to the preservation of the Earth’s resources. The realisation of the ambitions of sustainable use of metals, materials and resources demands that the different disciplines of the material and consumer product system are connected and harmonised. Sustainable Minerals '22  will discuss all aspects of material and metal usage and will include a keynote lecture from Prof. Selo Ndlovu on the complexities and opportunities for gold processing in a changing environment.

Looking further ahead, we are hoping that there will be some semblance of normality by the end of next year, and, very provisionally, Process Mineralogy '22, currently sponsored by Zeiss and Bruker, will be a hybrid event, with the possibility of a new venue, in Sitjes, Spain. 

Fingers crossed for 2022!

A quiet November sundowner, and encouraging news of an undergraduate mining degree in UK

For the first time since February last year we were back indoors in the Chain Locker, Falmouth, last night for the monthly mining sundowner. I arrived at 5.30 pm to find Dr. Tony Batchelor, Chairman of Geoscience, sitting on his own. We were soon joined by Dean Eastbury, former Elsevier, and Minerals Engineering, Publications Manager, after which Nick and Flee Wilshaw, of Grinding Solutions, arrived with their newly recruited Operations & Commercial Manager, Dan Abraham, to swell the numbers to a cosy six!  Although Covid restrictions in bars and restaurants were removed 4 months ago many are still wary about meeting in pubs, considering that the Covid infection rate in Cornwall is still 468 in 100,000, slightly higher than the figure of 432 for England.

Dan, Flee, Tony, Dean, me and Nick

The sundowner was a week later than planned, as last week there was a Cornish Institute of Engineers lecture in Penryn, the 18th Annual Vic Philips Memorial Lecture, in memory of my old Camborne School of Mines friend and colleague.

Vic Phillips with CSM mineral processing students, 1984

Unfortunately I was unable to make it to the lecture "Mining is essential and the world needs to know about it" delivered by Tim Biggs, formerly Head of Mining at Deloitte, UK. The pre-lecture announcement covered basically the ground that I, and many others, have been saying for some time, that mining is essential and the sustainability agenda, and particularly the energy transition, makes mining even more essential.

Tim said that we need to change this. The industry needs the support and understanding of society so miners can most effectively get on with the task of developing and running mines and producing all the metals the world needs. Very true but it is not too easy to get the message across to the wider society. I have always felt that I am preaching to the converted on the blog, and the media is not too interested in the positive aspects of mining, while relishing its negative aspects.

The lecture also covered the need to ensure an accurate understanding of mining if we are to attract the next generation of mining professionals to this most essential of industries. This is also very true, but since the University of Exeter "paused" the mining degree at CSM (posting of 15 September 2020) there is now nowhere in the UK where a school leaver can study mining engineering.

But there is a glimmer of hope! Throughout this year an Industry Advisory Panel, which includes several CSM Association members, has been working alongside the University to develop a pioneering new Mining Engineering program at CSM.

The Degree Apprenticeship (DA) model represents an innovative new partnership between employers and universities. Apprentices will be employed throughout the programme, spending part of their time studying (through access to online material and attendance at residentials) and the rest working. On successful completion of the program candidates will be awarded a BEng (Hons) degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Exeter. The program will be aimed at both the UK mining sector and the international mining industry through a blended learning offering.

To industry the DA represents both a completely different early talent recruitment model, and a novel opportunity for existing employees to gain a degree-level qualification. A recent industry survey around the DA provided very encouraging results and CSM and University Staff have agreed to develop the course. The Industry Advisory Panel will continue working with the University to develop a cutting edge curriculum and it is hoped that this will be delivered in partnership with the mining industry in September of next year.

Hopefully we will have a better attendance at the popular Christmas sundowner at Tyacks Hotel, Camborne, from 5.30 pm on December 16th.

@barrywills

Prof. Jim Finch summarises Flotation '21

We are fortunate to have Prof. Jim Finch as a consultant to the MEI series of conferences. Jim is Emeritus Professor of Metallurgical Engineering at McGill University, Canada, and a recent recipient of the IMPC's Lifetime Achievement Award, among many other honours.

Jim presented an admirable opening keynote lecture at this month's Flotation '21 on the life and work of Prof. Graeme Jameson and has now kindly provided us with a 15 minute summary of the conference, which is now available on YouTube.

If you did not register for this 5 day conference, it is not too late. as the 105 presentations, covering the whole field of flotation, and the two panel discussions, are available on demand, as are the discussions on each presentation. 

The full programme and registration details can be viewed on the conference website. Prof Finch's breakdown of the presentations into subject areas can be seen below.

A breakdown of the presentations in the fundamentals (left) and applications (right)
areas of the conference

#Flotation21

Innovative company Hudbay to sponsor 4 forthcoming MEI conferences

Canada's Hudbay is one of the most progressive mining companies, not afraid to bring new innovations into its operations. It is a diversified mining company primarily producing copper concentrate (containing copper, gold and silver) and zinc metal. Directly and through its subsidiaries, Hudbay owns three polymetallic mines, three operating ore concentrators and a zinc production facility in northern Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Canada, and Cusco, Peru, and copper projects in Arizona and Nevada, USA.

In 2015 Hudbay purchased the Snow Lake Project in Manitoba, which included the New Britannia gold concentrator. In August this year gold production commenced at the New Britannia mill after refurbishment, commissioning and start-up activities were completed earlier in the summer. 

The construction of a new copper flotation facility was completed last month and consists of an innovative and first-of-its-kind flotation circuit based entirely on Jameson Cells. First production of copper concentrate was achieved last month and ramp-up of the copper circuit is now underway.

Peter Amelunxen, Vice-President of Technical Services at Hudbay told me that the idea for all-Jameson cells came about before MEI's Flotation '19 conference (see posting of 7 April 2020) but the conference gave them an opportunity to discuss results, share ideas, and build relationships with Prof. Graeme Jameson and the Glencore Technology team and "even the guys from other flotation companies, who also provide very good technology that I would consider for other applications that may be less appropriate to pneumatic cells.  That’s the value of the flotation conferences and why we sponsor the events!", Peter said.

In choosing to sponsor four of MEI's upcoming conferences, Physical Separation '22 and Sustainable Minerals '22 next year, and our, as yet not formally unannounced, Comminution '23 and Flotation'23, Peter said "It has been Hudbay's pleasure to sponsor MEI and we are proud to continue supporting your mission to foster the sharing of valuable scientific and technical knowledge in the minerals industry.  As you well know, it is more imperative than ever for our industry to adopt more efficient and more environmentally and socially sustainable methods and practices, and this can only be done quickly by bringing together the best and brightest minds in our field to promote the sharing of knowledge.  For Hudbay, sponsoring MEI's mission isn't just about improving the operation of our mines and concentrators. It's about good corporate citizenship and it is perfectly aligned with our own vision and ESG principles".

Thanks Peter and Hudbay Minerals, we greatly value your support and your confidence in us.

COP26: was it just blah-blah-blah?

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) was hosted by the UK in Glasgow from 31 October to 13 November. This international summit was seen as crucial to bringing climate change under control. The host, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said the challenge is huge but there are no compelling reasons for procrastination. The goal is to keep warming limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels by 2100 but we are on track for 2.7C, which the UN says would result in "climate catastrophe". 

Around 40,000 people descended on the Scottish city of Glasgow for the two-week event, amidst cries of hypocrisy, as around 400 private jets flew into the country's airports. USA President Biden is estimated to have generated almost 1000 tonnes of CO2 in reaching the conference, his entourage consisting of a fleet of four planes, his Marine One helicopter and a vast motorcade. World leaders were present for only two days, leaving negotiators to deal with business, before flying off home in their jets, President Biden remarking that it was a great mistake that the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, had not been at the event, nor had the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

The perhaps unachievable Paris Agreement goal of net zero by 2050 (posting of 21 July 2019) took a bit of a knock on the first day when Indian prime minister Narendra Modi announced that the Indian target would be 2 decades later, 2070. India has the 3rd largest overall emissions after China and USA.

Not sure what they had to celebrate!
Source: Free Press Journal

The first major deal of the summit was the promise by over 130 world leaders to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. The commitment was supported by nations covering about 90% of the world's forests, including Canada, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and the DRC. Let's hope this will happen, as analysts have warned that a deal struck in 2014 failed to slow deforestation at all. 

Maybe we should also be wary of the 2nd day agreement between nearly 90 countries who have joined a US and EU-led effort to cut emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane by 30% by 2030. Methane is the major greenhouse gas after CO2 and it breaks down in the atmosphere faster, meaning that cutting its emissions can have a rapid impact on reducing global warming. However, this agreement is only voluntary, and three of the top five methane emitters, China, Russia and India, have not signed up to the pledge.

I also hope that the world will finally honour its agreement, three years behind its original promise, to give $100bn to the developing world to help it absorb the impacts of climate change. Some of this will be used for adaptation including improvements to sea defences and weather forecast systems. We should perhaps be more confident in the pledges from billionaire philanthropists who have vowed to make up any shortfalls.

Research from the University of Melbourne suggests that pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions could keep world temperature rises to below 2C, but only if the promises were followed through.  What might be needed to force these pledges from governments is action by Greta Thunberg and other young climate activists, who strike fear in politicians; she told an event by the Fridays for Future youth movement near the COP26 campus that politicians were merely pretending to take our future seriously. 

Greta Thunberg in Glasgow
Source: CNN

Speaking at COP26, former US President Barack Obama called on such young people to "stay angry" in the fight against climate change, urging them to apply political pressure to make a change. He said the world is "nowhere near where we need to be" to avoid a future climate catastrophe.

Although Miss Thunberg, and other activists who were out in force in Glasgow, may be naive when it comes to understanding the science (see posting of 14 January 2021) she would probably admit this. She sees her role as keeping the pressure on world leaders, who I fear are also naive regarding the science, into policy decisions and providing funds to those who can provide the technology and engineering skills to build the renewables and electric vehicles of the future. But alas this is where the bottleneck is likely to kick in- do we have the raw materials to produce this green new world? I have seen many activists demonstrating against mining, whereas what is needed is protests against the lack of investment in mining! Environmentalists are often against mining because it is a dirty business, which it can be, but many major mining companies now have net zero carbon targets, with realistic plans to achieve them.

Although the need to ramp up mining of critical metals is crucial, there was little, if any, mention of this at COP26, although coal mining was on everyone's agenda. More than 40 countries signed up to a statement to quit the use of coal and the UK government said that 190 nations and organisations had pledged to stop using it, in the 2030s for major economies and 2040s for the rest of the world. However the final wording of the deal is far weaker than the UK government first claimed, as it has the words "or as soon as possible thereafter" to the 2030s and 2040s deadline.

Some of the world's biggest coal-dependent countries, including Australia, China, India and the USA didn't sign up at all. China now accounts for almost a third of the world's CO2 emissions, burning almost half of the world's coal, with more than 1000 plants supplying 58% of its power. South Africa is also a major emitter of greenhouse gases and sulphur dioxide  as a result of its addiction to coal, and the country is set to receive US$8.5bn to help its reliance on coal, and a move to wind and solar power, in a deal funded by wealthier nations.

Although activists and politicians were demanding replacing fossil fuels, mainly coal, with renewables, there is little appreciation that building renewables, and providing the necessary raw materials requires vast amounts of energy, which, during the transition to all-renewables, will require energy from non-renewable sources. China mines and processes over 85% of the world's rare earth metals, including neodymium, an essential alloying element in the powerful magnets used to generate electricity. Processing of rare earth metals is extremely energy intensive and in China that energy is produced mainly from coal. The great irony is that fossil fuels will be needed for some time in order to phase out fossil fuels!

Nuclear energy is the other option, of course. It is essentially zero-carbon but has been removed as an option by many countries due to the problems of disposing of waste, and reaction to the disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Rather than huge fission reactors, such as that being built at Hinkley Point in UK, there may be a case for small modular reactors, which can be built and put into service relatively quickly. And looking to the future, and 2050, maybe we will be zero carbon if fusion can be made a viable option. The engineering problems are immense, but never underestimate the ingenuity of man in solving apparently insurmountable problems.

The long negotiations ended on Saturday evening, with nearly 200 countries agreeing the Glasgow Climate Pact to keep 1.5C alive and finalise the outstanding elements of the Paris Agreement, but it will only survive if promises are kept and commitments translate into rapid action.

The Glasgow Climate Pact will speed up the pace of climate action. All countries agreed to revisit and strengthen their current emissions targets to 2030, in 2022. This will be combined with a yearly political round table to consider a global progress report and a Leaders summit in 2023.

The pact was notable for naming coal as a root cause of the climate problem, for the first time in 30 years of UN diplomacy. The final text included the need to reduce the use of fossil fuels, phase out subsidies for fossil fuels and transition countries to using more renewable energy. The pact does not, however, hold wealthy countries to specific financial commitments to help poorer countries, the most devastated by climate change.

While the Glasgow Climate Pact is an ambitious attempt to rein in rising temperatures, the last-minute row over coal has undoubtedly cast a shadow over the deal. India was joined by China in pushing for a watering down of this key commitment, insisting on "phasing down" rather than "phasing out".  COP26 President, the tireless Alok Sharma, said that they would have to "explain themselves" to vulnerable nations.

The new deal comes just a few days after another notable Chinese achievement. Last Wednesday, the Xinhua news agency trumpeted the fact that the country produced more coal than ever before on a single day. When consumed for energy the one day of coal will produce carbon dioxide emissions roughly equivalent to Ireland's output for an entire year!

There are also vague clauses that will allow some countries to avoid updating their plans to cut emissions, depending on "differing national circumstances". There are real worries that some bigger developing economies like India and China will use that clause to skip updating their plans next year.

There are growing fears that the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C is unlikely to be met. UN Secretary General António Guterres said the summit would probably not see governments make the pledges needed to cut CO2 emissions by enough. However there was a glimmer of hope when activists and politicians gave a cautious welcome to the unexpected announcement that the US and China would work together to tackle climate change. The US-China declaration sees the two countries, the two biggest CO2 emitters in the world, vow to boost climate co-operation over the next decade, working together to achieve the 1.5C temperature goal set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.

Ultimately, this controversial pact does keep hope alive that temperatures may be held in check, somewhere between 1.8C and 2.4C this century.  However this is a frightening prospect in a world that has warmed by just over half that amount already, with massive impacts around the globe.

According to an analysis by the Climate Action Tracker, the world is still nowhere near its goals on limiting global temperature rise, despite the pledges made at COP26. It calculates that the world is heading for 2.4C of warming, far more than the 1.5C limit nations committed to. COP26 "has a massive credibility, action and commitment gap", according to the analysis.

There have been lots of promises but only time will tell if COP26 was a success, or merely more 'hot air'.

@barrywills

Flotation '21: Day 5 update

Friday 12th November

And so on to the last day of what has been a fine conference, attended by 267 delegates.  Continuing from yesterday, the day opened with 9 presentations on Flotation Circuits and Plant Practice, from Australia, Chile, China, Finland, Mexico and South Africa.

Following the mid-day break and networking session the final session on Flotation Machines contained 15 presentations from Australia, Peru, South Africa, UK and USA, commencing with three papers from Australia on the Reflux Flotation Cell, including its first full-scale trial at a coal preparation plant and its potential in processing other commodities. It could possibly become a generic solution for effectively floating both coarse and ultra-fine particles while maintaining a high throughput.

FLSmidth has, over the years, been one of the most prolific of MEI Conferences sponsors, and Dr. Dariusz Lelinski, one of yesterday's panelists, has been a familiar face at the flotation series of conferences. He co-authored all 3 of FLSmidth's presentations today.

Dariusz Lelinski (2nd left) at Flotation '19

Flotation product line manager Steve Merrill presented 2 of these papers, the first showing how FLSmidth has created and implemented Adjustable Radial Froth Crowders that allow customers to have more control over froth recovery and optimize the process for the variability of froth conditions.

FLSmidth has two main product lines for mechanical flotation machines: the forced-air nextSTEP™ and the self-aspirated WEMCO®. Thousands of these machines have been installed and continue to operate throughout the world and in his second presentation Steve showed how FLSmidth has implemented a row configuration called mixedROW that takes advantage of the benefits of each machine type to increase overall yield in flotation circuits. The new generation of Wemco flotation machines were described in a further FLSmidth presentation by Dr. Ronney Rodrigues Silva.

Maelgwyn Mineral Services, UK is also a long-term sponsor of MEI Conferences, and it was good to see a recent recruit Dr. Huu Duong Hoang present a paper on MMS's Imhoflot pneumatic flotation cell, and its performance in recovering fine gold losses to tailings. I met Huu for the first time 2 years ago at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany, where he was one of Dr. Martin Rudolph's team of researchers. Martin was one of the panel members on Monday and many of those in the photo below, taken at Freiberg, have been involved with presentations this week.

Dinner in Freiberg with (L-R) Edgar Schach (Germany), Bruno Michaux (Belgium),
Martin Rudolph, Anna Vanderbruggen (France), Nathalie Kupka (France),
Ahmad Hassanzadeh (Iran) and Duong Hoang (Vietnam)

In search of sustainability, the mining industry faces various environmental, social, and economic challenges, which will be highlighted at next year's Sustainable Minerals '22. Therefore, it is necessary to implement innovative technologies that improve the use of natural resources. One important technology addressing this challenge is the HydroFloat® Coarse Particle Flotation (CPF). As discussed by Jose Concha, products manager for HydroFloat at Eriez Flotation, USA, there has been a growing industrial implementation and acceptance of the CPF technology in tailings scavenging applications, and the next step in the development of this technology is implementation in pre-concentration applications (Coarse Gangue Rejection). Adam Johnston, of sponsor Transmin Metallurgical Consultants, Peru, presented a methodology to make an initial assessment of the cost benefit of introducing the HydroFloat® technology in a flotation circuit in early-stage projects by computer simulation. 

Jose Concha (right) in the Eriez Flotation booth at Flotation '19.

2nd left is Eric Wasmund, co-author of both HydroFloat presentations

Conference sponsor Eriez also manufactures the StackCell® SC-50 High-Rate Flotation Machine, whose industrial application was described at Flotation '19. This afternoon Dr. Erich Dohm presented the results of extensive field testing conducted by Rio Tinto and Eriez to evaluate the operability and performance of a StackCell® SC-50 high-rate flotation machine for recovery of copper and molybdenum from flotation tailings. The field test was conducted at Rio Tinto’s state-of-the-art tailings demonstration plant located within Kennecott Utah Copper’s tailings facility.

It was good to have GoldOre Pty Ltd back for the second time as a sponsor of the flotation series. Adrian Singh, founder and CEO, described the GoldOre Mach reactor, a hydrodynamic cavitation device, and  detailed the results of tests to quantify the impact of the Mach reactor on the recovery of the fine (-25 micron) fraction in floating a platinum-bearing UG2 ore from the Bushveld complex, South Africa. 

Adrian Singh (left) at Flotation '19

In winding up the conference, Jon Wills thanked the sponsors, exhibitors, presenters and all others for their interaction over the 5 days. Prof. Jim Finch will be summarising the conference soon, and this will be available on demand, as will all the presentations and panel discussions, until the end of May 2022.

Jon also announced the winner of the Cancha prize draw. This was a raffle prize of a 12 month subscription to Cancha Geometallurgy Software, worth US$ 2900. Peruvian company Cancha is a first time sponsor of MEI's flotation series, but sponsored Comminution '21 back in April. Cancha is used by geologists, miners, metallurgists and geometallurgists to accurately, efficiently and transparently project metallurgical performance for mineral resources, the geometallurgy software bridging the gap between orebody knowledge and plant simulators. 

Students and academics were not eligible for the draw, as free academic licenses are available any time. The prize came with free introductory training and support, and was won by Maxwell Norris, of Oktedi Mining, Papua New Guinea.

Following all this, we all adjourned to the Vineyard Hotel Gardens for farewell drinks. I wish!  Hopefully we will be doing this at Flotation '23, provisionally scheduled for November 2023.

Sundowner in the Vineyard Hotel gardens at Flotation '19

I would now like to invite all who attended to submit their views on Flotation '21. To those who didn't register, it is not too late. Nineteen delegates have registered during the last few days, to take advantage of all the presentations and panel discussions being available on demand until May 31st next year. So take your time and digest all that has taken place over the past 5 days at your leisure.

Thanks again to all our sponsors:

#Flotation21
@barrywills