2022 with MEI: a cautious approach to normality

This year will be remembered for many things; in UK the year of three Prime Ministers, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, civil unrest and a severe cost of living crisis. The terrible conflict between Russia and Ukraine rages on with no apparent end in sight, but looking on the bright side it has been a year in which we learned to live with Covid, after two awful years of lockdowns and social distancing, and cautiously approached a new era of normality.

UK hospital admissions plateaued by the middle of January, suggesting that the end of the pandemic might be in sight and travel restrictions eased with no Covid tests required before entering UK, so we were optimistic that travel might be on again and Jon was the first of the MEI team to venture overseas, with a trip to the USA.

Jon at Mount Batchelor, Oregon

His visit went well so I registered for the SME Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, my previous venture overseas being to the SME Meeting in Phoenix in February 2020.  So at the end of February I took the train from Truro to London, on the day on which Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. The following day, after taking a Covid-test at Heathrow, I at last boarded a plane again, bound for the USA.

The SME has to be applauded for putting on such a huge face to face meeting so soon after Covid restrictions. The giant exhibition opened for a couple of hours on the Sunday afternoon, giving us a chance to experience the 'new normal', as the SME had emailed all delegates to advise that wearing of face masks was mandatory and anyone not complying would be asked to leave the event. 

So when I made my first call, to the giant FLSmidth display all conversation was behind face coverings. 

But moving on I was surprised to see that most people had removed their face masks, and experience in UK had shown that enforcing face mask rules is almost impossible, so when I stopped off at further booths, there was not a face covering to be seen, nor was there for the rest of the week.

Barbara and I took a nostalgic trip to the north of England at the end of April, visiting our old town, Ashton-under-Lyne near Manchester, and then on to Liverpool.

1960s nostalgia in Liverpool

Then back to Cornwall to prepare for what I hope will be the last of our online conferences, Physical Separation '22, IntegratedMinPro '22 and Sustainable Minerals '22. Originally scheduled to be held in Falmouth we had to commit to online events months before due to the pandemic. Although they were successful, there was obviously a feeling that they were no real substitute for face to face events. 

Sustainable Minerals '22 was also the first online event anchored by Jon from Luxembourg. Jon and his family moved to this small European country in June, as Jon's partner, Dr Kathryn Hadler, formerly with Imperial College, London, and a regular at MEI's flotation and other conferences, had been appointed Director of the European Space Resources Innovation Centre at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology.

Due to their move to Luxembourg Jon and family missed Amanda's 50th birthday celebrations in July.

This year's International Mineral Processing Congress was scheduled for Melbourne, but due to the severe Covid restrictions in Australia, and particularly in Melbourne, it had to be postponed. However, the AusIMM, the IMPC and CSIRO have to be commended for taking a big gamble in organising a substitute, a regional event, the IMPC Asia Pacific 2022 conference, in Melbourne in August. It was a hybrid conference, so delegates had the option of attending personally or presenting and viewing presentations online, and there were 460 delegates, 277 opting to attend face to face. I was honoured to be invited to give a keynote lecture in person on the birth and evolution of Minerals Engineering journal, as my big decision this year was to retire as Editor-in-Chief after 35 years, and recommend to Elsevier that the journal would be in very safe hands under the leadership of Dr. Pablo Brito-Parada.

It was a surreal experience to be standing before a large audience of mineral processors for the first time in nearly 3 years and, after a succession of online conferences, to be able to relax over a few beers with fellow delegates.

Relaxing after the conference with Graeme Jameson, Lachlan Bartsch,
Martin Rudolph and Ron Goodman

A week after returning from Melbourne Barbara and I were off on another nostalgic trip, this time to Tanzania to retrace the route taken on our safari in northern Tanzania 51 years ago. It was a wonderful week in this magical part of Africa, but tiring, so a few days relaxing in Zanzibar was appreciated before the long journey back to Cornwall and to a nation mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

In the Serengeti's Seronera Valley

Zanzibar

In the first week of November Amanda and I flew to Sitges in Spain to team up with Jon for Process Mineralogy '22, our first, and very welcome, face to face conference in three years. It was great to catch up with old friends and to make new contacts during the relaxed social events. Unfortunately, due to surgery, Barbara could not be with us, but she thanks everyone who sent kind messages of support, and I am pleased to say that she is now fully recovered.

A couple of weeks after returning from Spain it was Amanda's turn to take the long haul to Australia, this time to Perth, for the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium, which was held in hybrid format. Hosted by Australia’s National Science Research Agency and CSIRO, MEI was a media partner and it was good to see so many familiar faces in Amanda's daily reports, including our Biomining '23 consultants Prof. Sue Harrison and Dr. Chris Bryan.

Amanda with conference chairperson Dr. Anna Kaksonen
MEI Biomining '23 consultants Prof. Sue Harrison and Dr. Chris Bryan

It has been an interesting year with a cautious return to international travel but I am not sure that we can say that we are back to pre-pandemic normality. Realistically we are now in the era of the 'new normal', where for some time we will be nervously looking over our shoulders hoping that an as yet unknown virus is not lurking in the background or that a new strain of Covid will be back to bite us. But for now life must go on, and we now look forward with optimism to 2023 with our two major conferences, Comminution '23 and Flotation '23, in Cape Town, and, in between, Biomining '23 and Sustainable Minerals '23 in Falmouth.  In the meantime we wish you all a healthy and happy 2023.

@barrywills

Season's Greetings from MEI

Photo: Tony Clarke

On behalf of all of us at MEI, I would like to wish you all sincere best wishes for the holiday season and a peaceful and happy 2023. And a big thank you to all of you who have sent us Christmas greetings by email and post.

Now that we are travelling again we hope to see as many of you as possible next year and hope that you will stay in touch. We will, as always, endeavour to bring you all the latest news from the international world of mineral processing, via the blog, MEI Online, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Weibo.

Decarbonising pathways for cement and concrete: will innovation overcome industry resistance?

Portland cement (PC) production is the world’s largest emitter of CO2 at 8% of global emissions, equal to the global car fleet. Pressure from the community on the construction sector to decrease CO2 emissions results in green-washing from the industry, with no plan for radical change. Also, the prescriptive standards for construction materials and design codes based on PC act as a major obstacle to adopt low CO2 binders. 

We are proud to have at next year's Sustainable Minerals '23 Prof. Jannie Van Deventer, who was ranked #2 in the world in mining and metallurgy research (posting of 17 December 2020). With three doctorates in chemical engineering, mineral processing and business economics, Jannie has received several awards for his research and has been listed three times as one of Australia's most influential engineers. 

Prof. Van Deventer is CEO of Zeobond Pty Ltd and is an honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he was Dean of Engineering until 2007. He has a track record of commercialising technology in cement and mineral processing, and by analysing the interplay between technical and commercial factors, especially regarding concrete durability, a pathway will be proposed in his keynote lecture in Falmouth for the adoption of new technology to decarbonise cement and concrete.

New technology, including electrically-enhanced supersonic shockwave reactors, will produce low CO2 cements and supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) from primary and secondary resources. Synthetic SCMs will create a new value chain by replacing the dwindling supplies of blast furnace slag and coal fly ash as the steel and energy sectors decarbonise.

We are very pleased to welcome Jannie back to Falmouth as a keynote speaker, his first time in Cornwall since SRCR 11.

Jannie (left) at the Chain Locker, Falmouth

and with Markus Reuter, Dean Eastbury, Kari Heiskanen and me
in one of Falmouth's many fine restaurants

#SustainableMinerals23

Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner

Despite rail disruption and icy roads there was a good turn-out of around 25 at last night's ever popular Christmas sundowner at Tyacks Hotel in Camborne.

Christmas is always a time when departed friends are particularly missed, and this month our thoughts were particularly with the family of Tony Batchelor, who died in September and would certainly have been at the Tyacks sundowner. Tony had been at the heart of the geothermal industry for over 40 years both in the UK and internationally and was regarded as the ‘father of UK geothermal’ by many. There was some good news, however, as last month at the 9th UK Geothermal Symposium in London, Tony was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the industry, his passion, and his dedication, which was accepted on his behalf by his son James. Tony knew he was going to receive the award and he would have been delighted to discover that it contains cuttings from the deepest of the three Rosemanowes wells near Falmouth, that he was responsible for drilling in the 1980s.

And talking of drilling, the big news in UK mining this month is not from Cornwall, but from up country in Cumbria, where government approval has been granted for the first new UK coal mine in 30 years despite concern among Conservative MPs and experts about its climate impacts. The highly controversial mine will produce coking coal for steel production in the UK and across the world. Although the coal will not be used for power generation critics say the mine would undermine climate targets and the demand for coking coal is declining. However, supporters claim the mine will create jobs and reduce the need to import coal. British Steel, one of the country's remaining major steel producers, will not use the coal because of its high sulphur content, leaving only Tata Steel as a potential customer.

The fate of the West Cumbria Mining project had been hanging in the balance for two years after the local county council initially approved the mine in 2020 (see posting of 12 October 2020).

The next sundowner will be on Thursday January 19th, starting 5.30pm, at the County Arms, Truro. 

@barrywills

Comminution '23: a packed programme awaits delegates in Cape Town

We have had an amazing response to next April's Comminution '23, with a record number of abstracts submitted. The programme for the conference, which contains around 85 international presentations, in oral and poster presentations, is now available for viewing, and registration is now open.

The programme contains three keynote presentations from well known comminution specialists. Prof. Arno Kwade, Director of the Institute for Particle Technology at the Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, will present "Modelling and optimisation of wet and dry fine grinding processes" and Prof. Aubrey Mainza, of the University of Cape Town "High steel load in SAG mills and the implications on energy efficiency of this growing design trend." (see the posting of 3rd October for more information).

Prof. Malcolm Powell is one of the world's most well known comminution specialists. He has applied fundamental comminution research to design and process improvement on over 60 mines worldwide during 30 years at Mintek, University of Cape Town, and the JKMRC. He developed the comminution group at UCT into a world renowned leader in the field, now headed by Prof. Aubrey Mainza, MEI's comminution consultant.

His professional objective is to maximise resource utilisation  through significantly decreasing  the energy and environmental footprint. To this end he leads three R&D companies and contributes to University research. Prof. Powell collaborates extensively, with close compatriots on 5 continents and he is the founder of the Global Comminution Collaborative.

GCC members Malcolm Powell, Arno Kwade, Magnus Evertsson,
Aubrey Mainza, Marcelo Tavares and Hakan Benzer at Comminution '14

So who better than Malcolm to open Comminution '23 with a keynote presentation on "Taking ownership of our future: the case for cooperative research and technology development in the mining industry."

Although we have a packed technical programme over the four days of the conference, we have left plenty of time for networking, with long coffee and lunch breaks in the exhibition area, evening sundowners in the Vineyard Hotel gardens, and an informal dinner at the Gold Museum in the centre of Cape Town.

There is much to look forward to in MEI's first comminution conference back in Cape Town since Comminution '18.

#Comminution23

Tega Industries and Promet101, the latest Comminution '23 sponsors

Comminution '23 is now only 4 months away and we have now announced a very fine technical programme. There is much anticipation regarding the conference, the first comminution conference live in Cape Town since 2018, and we have very strong corporate support from 21 sponsors, the latest being Tega Industries Ltd and Promet101.

Current Comminution '23 sponsors

Tega Industries Ltd is an Indian multinational corporation with operations spanning across 16 countries and employing 1600 people worldwide, and was founded in 1976 in Kolkata. It will be the first time that the company has been involved with an MEI conference.

Tega’s primary end-user customers are mineral processing sites involved in gold and copper ore mining. The company is the second-largest producer of polymer-based mill liners that are used for grinding and sizing mineral ores.

In contrast to Tega, ProMet101 has been a prolific sponsor of many MEI Conferences in recent years, including numerous flotation events, including next year's Flotation '23, IntegratedMinPro22, Process Mineralogy '22 and Sustainable Minerals '22. Promet101 will also be sponsoring next year's Sustainable Minerals '23 in Falmouth.

Promet101 consulting supports its clients from the initial conceptual stages of projects, right through to ongoing support in plant debottlenecking and optimisation, focusing on understanding the fundamental mineralogy, metallurgical response of the mineral resources to be treated, subsequent development of suitable metallurgical test programs, detailed metallurgical analysis combined with decades of experience in the design and optimisation of real world minerals processing plant.

CEO and founder Stuart Saich said "So why does a small company like ours continue to support MEI? Well if you think carefully about it, how much effort is put into developing a technical paper? 100 or 200 hours per paper? Then what about the costs involved? By supporting MEI you are supporting a platform for the advancement of our own industry by willing individuals to advance the scientific knowledge of the very industry we belong to. What is the inherent intellectual value or investment into the knowledge base of each conference at which say 100 technical papers are presented? I would say $1-2 million a piece. And from that investment springs further value growth as ideas advance and commercialisation grows. Why do we invest in supporting MEI every year, because it makes absolute sense! It is not about me, it is about our industry!"

Stuart Saich with Jon Wills at Flotation '19

#Comminution23

Biomining '23 and Sustainable Minerals '23: Final Calls for Abstracts

A reminder that if you would like to present papers at Biomining '23 and/or Sustainable Minerals '23, which will be run back to back in Falmouth next June, abstracts should be submitted via the respective websites by the end of this month.

There is more information on the conferences on the posting of 14th November, and we look forward to seeing you at Falmouth's National Maritime Museum next summer.

#Biomining23
#SustainableMinerals23

Prof. Noel Warner: 1932-2022

I heard rather belatedly a few days ago of the death of Prof. Noel Warner, on April 14th at the age of 90.

Noel Warner was Emeritus Professor of Minerals Engineering at the University of Birmingham, UK. I got to know this genial Australian very well in the late 80s and early 90s when he was external examiner for the mineral processing degree at Camborne School of Mines. He was President of the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, 1992-3.

Amanda Wills with Noel Warner at the 2010 IMPC in Brisbane

He used to talk passionately of the process that he and his team at Birmingham were developing for the treatment of polymetallic massive sulphide deposits. The process was direct ore smelting. What was to become known as the Warner Process (Minerals Engineering Vol. 2 Number 1, 1989) was radical, in that the ore was smelted in a single furnace, the enormous amount of energy required to do this being recovered from the molten slag. Expensive comminution was avoided, apart from some preliminary crushing, and the inefficient flotation step was also by-passed. Pilot plant runs using McArthur River ore showed that zinc and lead recoveries could be well over 90% and with the adoption of innovative energy recovery technology, the thermal requirements could be satisfied by the inherent energy content of the ore itself. The Birmingham team showed that the energy requirements of direct ore smelting could be competitive with conventional mineral processing, particularly for ores containing sulphides.

Noel got a pilot plant built and operated at the University of Birmingham and demonstrated that the closed circuit could be worked on a big scale, and a number of people were attracted to come and see it, but enthusiasm was not overwhelming. Maybe it was too radical an innovation to be thrust on what was then a very conservative industry?

It's a shame that Prof. Warner never saw his process adopted commercially. It is certainly novel and operating at around 1000C the processing dynamics are very fast compared with flotation and electrowinning.

I have no doubt that comminution and concentration techniques will continue to evolve, but will there be a time when they lose the battle, when the remaining ores are so finely disseminated and intergrown that they can no longer be treated by physical methods? Is no mineral processing the future of mineral processing, and will the future be direct hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical routes? Maybe one day Prof. Noel Warner will be remembered for his unique invention.

@barrywills

Derek Barratt: 1939-2022

Sad news from Canada of the death, on 15 November, of a well known and respected comminution expert, Derek Barratt, who I met twice, the first time in Cambridge in 2015 at the IOM3 conference Minerals and Metals Production from Mine to Market, and again in London in 2017 for the IOM3 Awards, where Derek was awarded the Futers Gold Medal.

Derek Barratt in Cambridge in 2015
with David Meadows of Bechtel Mining & Metals, USA

The IOM3 Awards in 2017. Derek is 4th from the right on the front row

The following appreciation has been provided by David Meadows of Bechtel and the IOM3's Tony Francis:

The passing of Derek Barratt, FIMMM is reported with great sadness. Derek was a highly regarded Metallurgical Engineer and Minerals Processor known throughout the mining industry for his ground breaking (!) work on comminution circuit design and modelling. He was a world leader in the development of comminution circuit sizing methodology using the multiple Bond work index tests. He was frequently called upon by mining companies and engineering contractors to carry out due diligence reviews of comminution circuits design and expansions. He was particularly known for his expertise in high capacity SABC circuits in Latin America.

Derek was a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, London and ran his consultancy, DJB Consultants Inc, from his adopted home in Vancouver. He was a principal speaker at many international conferences and published nearly 50 technical papers during his 60 years in the minerals industry. In addition, he has served as lead lecturer for a SAIMM Comminution School in 1991, as co-editor and Vice-Chair for the SAG 1996 and co-editor and Chair of the SAG 2001 Conferences, and Committee Secretary/Technical Advisor/Editor to the SME Mineral Processing Plant Design, Practice, and Control Symposium in 2002. 

Derek received the 2003 INCO Medal from the CIMM, the 2006 Art MacPherson Award from the Canadian Mineral Processors of CIMM and the 2017 Futers Gold Medal from the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining.

Derek was a registered Professional Engineer in B.C., a Chartered Engineer in the U.K., a Life Member of CIMM, a Legion of Honour Member of SME, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and an Associate of the Royal School of Mines.

Derek was liked and respected by all who met him and will be greatly missed. Condolences go to his family, friends and colleagues.

David Meadows & Tony Francis, December 2022.

The supply of critical minerals becomes increasingly critical

There was much talk of critical metals and minerals at Process Mineralogy '22 in Sitges last month, and in planning Process Mineralogy '24, which will be back in Cape Town, we are likely to run back to back with a 2-day conference on the recycling of these metals and minerals and the challenges imposed on mineral processing.

The list of 'critical minerals' is slowly expanding; until fairly recently copper was not classed as a critical metal, but it is one of the most important metals in the green transition, with more than 20 million tonnes consumed each year across a variety of industries. A recent report from S&P Global predicts the world’s appetite for copper will reach 53 million tonnes, on an annual basis, by mid-century. This is more than double current global mine production, according to the US Geological Survey.

Notably, growth in new copper supply capacity, from new mines, or expansions of existing projects, would unlikely be able to keep pace with the surge in demand, the study says. The International Energy Agency has estimated that it currently takes 16 years, on average, to develop a new mine, meaning that a new mine seeking permission today would not become productive in time to accommodate the demand spike. That leaves increases in capacity utilisation (output as a percentage of an existing mine's total capacity) and recycling as the main sources of additional supply, according to the study.

The world's biggest copper producer, Codelco in Chile, was well represented at Process Mineralogy '22 and a recent statement from the company warns that global shortages of the metal may reach eight million tonnes by 2032, as soaring demand continues to offset new project numbers. Maximo Pacheco, chairman of the board of Codelco, said at an industry conference that while a surplus is expected in the short term due to new projects in Chile, Peru, the DRC and China’s Tibet region, medium to long-term demand will eclipse supply further down the line.

Codelco delegates in Sitges

“Considering that some copper deposits are in the process of stopping production and that other projects are in the process of starting operations, it is estimated that the deficit will be almost eight million tonnes in 10 years,” Pacheco said at the Asia Copper Week conference in Singapore.

Based on studies conducted by Codelco, Pacheco said the world’s energy transition to stop climate change will take copper demand from the current 25 million tonnes per year to just over 31 million tonnes in 2032. This means the world would need to build eight projects the size of BHP’s Escondida in Chile, the world’s largest copper mine, over the next eight years. 

Source: elements.visualcapitalist.com

The World Bank estimates that to meet the Paris Accord goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees will require 3 billion tonnes of new critical minerals, something which was hardly mentioned at last month's chaotic COP27 in Egypt, where the final text mentions emissions reductions through "low-emission" energy alongside renewable energy, raising concerns this will allow for more continued use of gas, which often has lower emissions than coal and oil, but still releases carbon dioxide when burned. Despite all the warnings, the world did not prepare itself for the complexity of supplying the transition to a green economy. For instance, for the growing lithium-ion battery requirements the world will need to bring into operation another 300 lithium mines, the equivalent of a 965% increase in lithium demand by 2050.

World population reached 8 billion last month, and a staggering statistic is that this year 5.3 billion mobile phones will be thrown away, according to the International Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) forum. "People tend not to realise that all these seemingly insignificant items have a lot of value and together at a global level represent massive volumes," WEEE director general Pascal Leroy said. Most smartphones carry roughly 80% of the stable elements on the periodic table.

Breakdown of critical metals in a smartphone
Source: University of Birmingham

Another staggering statistic- there are an estimated 16 billion mobile phones worldwide, and in Europe almost a third are no longer in use. The WEEE says its research shows the "mountain" of electrical and electronic waste - from washing machines and toasters to tablet computers and global positioning system (GPS) devices - will grow to 74 million tonnes a year by 2030. Magdalena Charytanowicz, of the WEEE, said: "These devices offer many important resources that can be used in the production of new electronic devices or other equipment, such as wind turbines, electric car batteries or solar panels - all crucial for the green, digital transition to low-carbon societies."

Just over 17% of the world's e-waste is properly recycled - but the United Nations International Telecommunication Union has set a target to raise that to 30% by next year. However there are enormous challenges in recycling the tiny amounts of critical metals in WEEE and mineral processing will be at the forefront of these efforts, with the aim of achieving a totally circular economy.

There will be much to discuss next June in Falmouth at Sustainable Minerals '23 and if you are involved in any aspects of the processing of critical minerals we would certainly like your input.

#SustainableMinerals23
@barrywills

November summary: a return to normality; encouraging news of young mineral processors

After three years in the doldrums it was great to be in Sitges, Spain, during the first week of the month, for Process Mineralogy '22, MEI's first face to face conference since Flotation '19 in Cape Town. Apart from getting back to proper social interaction, sadly lacking with online and hybrid conferences, it gave me, Amanda and Jon the opportunity of visiting Catalonia for the first time. Sitges certainly didn't disappoint, but I must confess to being slighly underwhelmed by nearby Barcelona.

Sitges and Barcelona

What I found particularly encouraging about Process Mineralogy '22 was the number of young researchers presenting their work. The industry desperately needs diversity and new blood as mineral processing is at the forefront of the quest for a zero carbon world by 2050. 

Young Chilean women in Sitges

There was encouraging news of the achievements of young people last month.  It was good to hear that Anna Vanderbruggen, a familiar face at many MEI Conferences, won first place in the European Institute of Innovation and Technology CHANGE Award category for developing a revolutionary new way to extract graphite from lithium-ion batteries. Her method, the first of its kind, separates the fine powder from crushed lithium-ion batteries in order to obtain two valuable products instead of one. This process enables the efficient and highly selective recycling of both graphite and metals from used lithium-ion batteries. It could lead to a truly circular battery supply chain and decrease the environmental footprint of battery production as well as reliance on raw material imports from outside the EU. I am hoping we will hear more of this at next year's Sustainable Minerals '23 in Falmouth.

Anna is a researcher at Helmholtz Institute Freiberg (HIF) for Resource Technology, Germany, and last month was awarded a PhD. Three years ago I visited HIF and met Martin Rudolph's mineral processing research team, a very impressive group of young people.

Dinner in Freiberg in 2019 with (L-R) Edgar Schach (Germany), Bruno Michaux (Belgium),
Martin Rudolph, Anna Vanderbruggen (France), Nathalie Kupka (France),
Ahmad Hassanzadeh (Iran) and Duong Hoang (Vietnam)

Apart from Anna there were two other recipients in the above photo of prestigious awards last month. Bruno Michaux, now a process engineer with Omya in Switzerland, received the “Heinrich Schubert-Prize 2022” last month, which since 2019 has been awarded by the TU Bergakademie Freiberg to commemorate Prof. Heinrich Schubert, an IMPC Lifetime Achievement Award recipient. Bruno also won the best poster prize in the Applications Symposium of Flotation '19. And last month I was pleased to present Ahmad Hassanzadeh, now with the Norwegian University of Science & Technology and Maelgwyn Mineral Services, UK, with the 2020 MEI Young Person's Award in Sitges.

We are certainly getting back to our pre-pandemic mode, and ten days after leaving Spain Amanda was travelling again, to Australia for the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium, IBS 2022, in Perth. Her daily updates can be found on this thread.

Amanda with Dr. Anna Kaksonen, chair of the International Organising Committee

We now look forward to the next MEI event, Comminution '23 in Cape Town in April.

@barrywills

Flotation '23: Clariant is the latest sponsor, and news of an award to Metcelerate

People often ask why flotation, which has been around for more than a century, is still so intensively researched. A major reason is that it is crucial to the economic production of many critical metals and minerals, and handles vast tonnages, so even modest increases in recoveries have a marked effect on overall production, which is why flotation has always been MEI's most important conference series.

Flotation '23, which will be held next November in Cape Town,  has already attracted major corporate sponsors, and the latest to join us is Clariant, one of the world’s leading specialty chemical companies, providing a wide range of flotation collectors for specific duties such as the flotation of industrial minerals, iron ore, and molybdenite. 

Current Flotation '23 sponsors

Due to difficulties with storage, handling and disposal of xanthate collectors, sulfide mining companies are facing increasingly difficult xanthate logistics challenges. Through collaboration with customers, Clariant has developed alternatives with high copper flotation performance and safer handling and disposal solution for mines, lowering capital expenditure and providing a longer shelf life than solid xanthate. The Clariant xanthate replacement collectors allow operators to discontinue the use of sodium isopropyl xanthate and potassium amyl xanthate. 

Having the support of a major company such as Clariant, which employs over 13,000 people worldwide, is good news, as is news of one of our other sponsors, Metcelerate Limited, whose training solution builds technical competence in the mineral processing workplace for metallurgists and engineers. Metcelerate recently won the annual IChemE 2022 Global Award for Business Start-Up companies. Prof. Jan Cilliers, CFO of Metcelerate, said “We are very proud and humbled to have been acknowledged in this way by an esteemed organisation such as IChemE. We started Metcelerate to assist mining companies to close the skills gap in mineral processing, one of the most important elements of mining profitability. Our experience, backed by published data, tells us that this is a serious gap for mining companies. Graduates from our program have skills and ability to produce better results, and this is supported by feedback from learners and their supervisors.”

Jan Cilliers with the IChemE award

Metcelerate is delivered by a team of global academic experts and practitioners, and is now into its third intake of learners, with a fourth intake scheduled for mid-2023. To date it has trained learners across four continents. The 20-month program consists of a mixture of online course material, live tutorials and practical in-plant exercises. Learning is built around the real problems mineral process engineers face daily. The Metcelerate course is especially valuable for high-performing chemical, mechanical and other engineers transferring into the minerals industry. “This award will inspire us to work even harder to make the Metcelerate Course the industry standard” says the CEO, Diana Drinkwater, who will be at Flotation '23 next year to deliver a keynote lecture on management of the "People Asset".

@barrywills

Leonard George Austin, 1929-2022

Five days ago the minerals community lost another 20th century legend in the field of comminution, one year after the death of Prof. Alban Lynch. 

Leonard (Len) G. Austin, who died at the age of 93, was Professor Emeritus of the department of Fuel and Mineral Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, from where he retired in 1996.

Born in England his achievements include international reputation in the field of crushing and grinding for the power, mining and chemical industries. He was a recipient of the Gaudin Award from the SME in 1983 and the Nicholls Award of the Joint Engineering Society in 1987.

Prof. Austin is survived by his wife Sofia, his ex-wife Ann, and his three children, Mark, Timothy, and Stuart. He also leaves his grandchildren: Thomas, Charlotte, and Joseph. 

Unfortunately, although I was aware of his reputation, I never met Prof. Austin, but I am sure that many of you did, and I invite you to share your memories of him below.

The final day at the International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium

 Amanda reports on the final day of IBS 2022:

Delegates preparing for the final day

Mario Vera (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile) began the final day of the conference, with his keynote presentation on "Biofilm lifestyle of bioleaching microorganisms".

Next, we heard from Catherine Joulian (BRGM, France) with her presentation on "Bioleaching community dynamics during adaptation and process upscaling of a secondary polysulfidic ore".

Following Catherine, Robert Braun (Helmholtz-Institut Freiburg für Ressourcetechnologie (HIF) HZDR, Germany) gave a recorded presentation on "Directed evolution biology in resource technology - from the identification of novel inorganic-binding biomolecules to their provision in future".

Then we heard from Maria Dabrowska (University of Warsaw, Poland) with "Sporosarcina globispora and Glutamicibacter protophormiae - two ureolytic strains with high potential in revalorisation of heavy-metals".

In the last presentation before morning coffee, Ishaaq Hajee (University of Cape Town, South Africa) asked, in a recorded presentation, "Can microbially-induced calcite precipitation alleviate the traditional shortcomings of the Co-disposal method?".

Coffee with Zygmunt Sadowski of Wroclaw University of Science
and Technology, Poland

Sadia Ilyas (Hanyang University, Republic of Korea) and
Siti Chaerun (Bandong Institute of Technology, Indonesia

The parallel sessions after coffee were Session 5A, Biomining Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Systems Biology and Synthetic Biology and Session 5B, Biostabilisation, Bioremediation and Ecological Restoration and Biological Mineral Formation and Minerals Exploration, Biogeochemistry and Biosensors. The full programme can be viewed here.

After lunch, as with the previous two days, we were given 1.5 hours to view the posters and exhibition. 

Then, after an afternoon coffee break, it was time to decide on a venue for  IBS 2026 (the 2024 event will be held in Halifax, Canada, in conjunction with COM 2024). The choice was between France and Chile and, as ever, it was up to the delegates to choose. And the winner was... France!

Next up, Axel Schippers (BRG, Germany) gave the closing presentation, entitled "Future prospects for biohydrometallurgy".

Then came the award presentations.

Congratulations to the poster award winners: Douglas Pino Herrera (BRGM, France), Daniela Rios (Linnaeus University, Sweden), Reinier Egas (Wageningen University, The Netherlands), Maria Dąbrowska (University of Warsaw, Poland), Benjamin Monneron-Enaud (Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany) and Anna Cozzolino (University of Cagliari, Italy).

And congratulations to the oral presentation award winners: Klemens Kremser (University of Natural Resources and Life Science, Austria), Sophie Ullrich (TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany), Reinier Egas (Wageningen University, The Netherlands), Babatunde Oladipo (Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa), Anne-Gwénaëlle Guezennec (BRGM, France), Anna Cozzolino (University of Cagliari, Italy), Melissa  Corbett (Curtin University, Australia), Chiamaka Belsonia Opara (Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany) and Jonovan Van Yken (CSIRO Land and Water / Murdoch University, Australia).

All that was left then was for Elizabeth Watkin to deliver the closing remarks, including thanking Anna Kaksonen for all her efforts in finally bringing this event to fruition. Thanks to Covid it has been 7 years in the planning!

I would like to also offer my thanks to Anna and her team. You all did a fantastic job and it was wonderful to be back with the IBS 'family'. I hope to see as many of you as possible in the UK next June for Biomining '23, and in Canada the year after! There is an album of photos from the conference, so please feel free to download any that you like.