Sustainable Minerals '23: a summary of the technical presentations

Sustainable Minerals '23, MEI's 8th International Symposium on Sustainable Minerals, was held at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth, UK, from June 7-8, 2023 and was sponsored by Promet101 and Steinert. Media Partners were International Mining and Minerals Engineering, and Industry Advocates the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC) and the Critical Minerals Association. 

Following is a summary of the presentations made in the technical sessions over the two days.  The draft papers associated with the presentations are available online as open access. The drafts have not been refereed, but all the presenters have been invited to submit their final papers for peer-review to a virtual special issue of Minerals Engineering.

Wednesday June 7th

The conference was opened this morning by MEI's Jon Wills, who welcomed the 53 delegates from 14 countries before a full day of technical presentations.

Lithium is one of the key critical metals in the green energy transition, and here in Cornwall Cornish Lithium is progressing towards extraction from two previously considered ‘unconventional’ sources of lithium: from geothermal waters, and from mica minerals disseminated through granite rock, as described by Lucy Crane in the first keynote lecture of the conference. Lucy is the ESG & Sustainability Manager for Cornish Lithium and is a geologist by training with a background in grassroots exploration. She has been on the committee for Young Mining Professionals London since its inception, and is heavily involved in Women in Mining UK. She holds a degree in Earth Sciences from Oxford University, and a Masters in Mining Geology from the Camborne School of Mines.

Lucy (left) at the opening session with Carly Leonidas (UK)

The potential for brines in geothermal waters was also the subject of the next presentation, by Ivan Korolev, a Research Scientist at Geological Survey of Finland,  who graduated from Erasmus Mundus Master Course in Georesources Engineering EMerald in 2016 with a triple degree from University of Liège, Belgium, Luleå University of Technology, Sweden and École Nationale Supérieure de Géologie de Nancy, France. From 2017 he has pursued doctoral studies at Aalto University, Finland.

With Ivan Korolev

As discussed by Ivan, highly mineralized waters are considered a promising, though under exploited, source of metals. Occurring at great depths, brines may contain economic concentrations of critical elements, especially Li, while their high temperature may be used to generate low-carbon electricity and heating, as is Cornish Lithium's intention. The BrineRIS project, described by Ivan, is  co-funded by EIT Raw Materials and aims to decrease the dependency of Europe on imported critical metals and improve the accessibility of renewable geothermal energy. 

Originally from Recife in Brazil, Bernardo Mendonça is a PhD student at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He has a mixed background in civil engineering and urban development. Bernardo discussed his research, which is seeking to understand the role of voluntary sustainability initiatives that may be adopted within lithium-ion battery material supply chains and the various factors that may influence their adoption.

Jenna Trost is a doctoral student in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Northwestern University, USA. She focuses on the analysis of environmental and social sustainability of mining of minerals for decarbonization technologies through life cycle analysis. In her presentation she assessed the feasibility of the Inflation Reduction Act’s EV critical mineral targets.

Jenna (centre) with Rachel Bridge (Canada) and Kari Heiskanen (Finland)

Lithium was featured again after the coffee break. Peter Ehren, a lithium expert with 26 years of experience in the industry, is co-founder of Lithium Ark Holding and Process and Environmental Consultancy in The Netherlands. He showed that, although lithium is widely distributed on Earth, there are few commercial sources where lithium is found in concentrated values suitable for producing lithium compounds, such as lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. One source of lithium is in minerals, such as, spodumene and clays. Another source is from naturally occurring brines and a new source is the black mass obtained from wasted lithium-ion battery recycling streams. 

Once the lithium is extracted and concentrated, conventional methods react a resulting lithium solution with one or more reagents to produce lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate. However, these reagents, can be expensive to obtain and may contain noxious impurities. In addition, existing lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate production processes can be inefficient, requiring improvement in waste reduction and material re-use. Accordingly, more cost-effective and efficient methods and systems for producing lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate are needed and Peter described a new patented method for production of lithium hydroxide. 

Peter Ehren (right) at the afternoon sundowner at the Chain Locker

Lütke von Ketelhodt, of conference sponsor Steinert, South Africa, has over 20 years’ experience in introducing sensor-based sorting technology into the mining sector for mineral beneficiation applications. He looked at the applicability of sensor based sorting technology for the processing of lithium pegmatite ores. The work offers a framework on which to evaluate the sortability of lithium pegmatite ores with a focus on achieving ESG goals. Using a multi-sensor platform approach provides flexible solutions to decrease the carbon footprint of existing processing routes. 

Luke with his colleague Priscila Esteves, of Steinert Latinoamericana, Brazil

Justin Paris completed his B.Eng. in Materials Engineering at McGill University, Canada, in 2022. He is now a first year Ph.D. student in the same department. His research aims to increase the availability of lithium resources by developing new mineral processing and hydrometallurgical methods for the beneficiation and extraction of lithium from hard-rock deposits. He presented a preliminary investigation into lithium extraction by phosphoric acid leaching of spodumene.

Justin (2nd right) with his 5 colleagues from McGill University

Anahita Jannesar Niri is a PhD student at the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. She received her Master’s degree in Mining Engineering from the Islamic Azad University, Iran, in 2015, and a Bachelor degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Zanjan, Iran, in 2012. Anahita evaluated the sustainability of battery minerals supply through production prediction in a move towards the green energy transition.

Anahita with Luleå colleagues Yousef Ghorbani and Sina Shakibania

Meolla Yvon is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals. Her research is mainly focused on the agglomeration of fine mineral particles using a novel emulsion binder with an aim of maximising ore recovery with minimal environmental damage. She discussed this after the lunch break in relation to nickel beneficiation.

Meolla (left) at the evening sundowner at the Chain Locker

Tiina Heikola (left) is a Research Scientist in the Metals and Materials Recovery group at VTT, Finland. She graduated from the University of Jyväskylä in inorganic and analytical chemistry and her presentation was a comparison of chemical and biological methods, with the effect of chloride, on the recovery of nickel and cobalt from nickel concentrate.

Peipei Wang is a Research Associate in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals, based at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She obtained her PhD at Imperial College, UK and her research focused on the rising behaviour of particle-laden bubbles. This work was recognised via the Bosworth Smith Trust Fund Prize from the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining. She then spent her postdoc at the University of Queensland investigating ways to enhance flotation recovery, and undertook studies concerned with bubble bursting at flotation froth surfaces. Her current work at the University of Newcastle, which she described today, is on the development of the Reflux Flotation Cell and a novel agglomeration technology.

Peipei with Isobel Mackay of University College, UK

Martin Rudolph is head of the processing department at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany.  Coming from nanoparticle systems processing as a postdoc he transitioned to mineral processing research with a focus on fine particle separation methods such as heterocoagulation in froth flotation. His presentation looked at fine particle separation methods for the recycling of critical metals and minerals in energy transition technologies, with emphasis on the cases of black mass from end of life lithium-ion batteries and critical metals bearing catalysts from spent proton-exchange membrane electrolyzers.

Martin with Margaret Ekua Amosah and Nilanka Ekanayake (Australia)

Tommi Rinne is a doctoral student in the Processing of Materials program in Aalto University, Finland. His research explores innovative mechanical processes for recycling Li-ion batteries and his presentation was a study on the effect of particle size on the recycling of Li-ion batteries via froth flotation and perspectives on selective flocculation.

Tommi Rinne (right) at the Chain Locker sundowner

Jens Markowski, a scientific assistant at the Brandenburg University Of Technology, Germany, described comparative studies on the quality of recovered secondary graphites from the recycling of lithium-ion traction batteries.

Jens with Stoyan Gaydardzhiev (Belgium)

Aaron Taylor, of Wardell Armstrong International, UK, holds a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Cardiff University and has 5 years of experience in managing laboratory and pilot-scale testwork operations.  He showed that, as lithium production must quadruple, and rare-earth metal demand is set to double by 2030, recycled production offers a pathway to offset increased demand. Battery and e-waste recycling of critical metals is in its infancy, but he reviewed integrating this type of metal processing back into the mining life cycle.

Aaron with Malcolm Spence of British Lithium

Christina Lee works within the Chalmers Rock Processing Systems research group of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Coming from a Masters in Environmental Science at Gothenburg University, she brings an interdisciplinary element to the group with a key interest in the environmental impacts related to the aggregate industry. She presented the final paper of the day looking at secondary materials in the European aggregate market and what is feasible now?

And Christina was looking very relaxed a couple of hours later at the evening sundowner at the Chain Locker, following the 3 mile guided coast path walk (see Wednesday at Sustainable Minerals '23).

Thursday June 8th

The second day was opened by a keynote lecture from 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 that was proposed, in his keynote lecture, for the adoption of new technology to decarbonise cement and concrete. Portland cement production is the world’s largest emitter of CO2 at 8% of global emissions, equal to the global car fleet. 

With Jannie Van Deventer

Following the keynote lecture, Gauti Asbjörnsson (left) an Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, described the development of production and environmental platforms for the European aggregates and minerals industries. Gauti is currently involved in two EU projects, Horizon 2020 Digiecoquarry and Horizon Europe Rotate where he is responsible for the environmental estimations for the different platforms.

Abdellatif Elghali is an assistant professor at the Geology & Sustainable Mining institute at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco. He discussed the geochemical implication of cemented layers formation in inactive sulfidic tailings storage facilities.

Abdellatif with his colleague Yassine Taha

Margaret Ekua Amosah is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle, Australia and part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals. She graduated with a Bachelor of Minerals Engineering (Honours) from the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana, in 2020 and has a working experience with a gold mine as a trainee metallurgist. Her research is mainly focused on ultrafine gravity separation using inclined channels subjected to different G-forces including standard gravity and she discussed the role of enhanced desliming and gravity separation in upgrading cassiterite from tailings.

Nilanka Ekanayake is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals, the Department of Chemical & Engineering at the University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on the development and application of analytical and CFD models to solve solid-liquid separation in dewatering units used in the mineral industry. She discussed the modelling of High Pressure Dewatering Rolls as an alternative filtration technology for tailings.

Margaret (2nd left) and Nilanka (3rd left) at the Chain Locker sundowner

Diana Kasymova (left) is preparing her doctoral thesis at Aalto University and she is with Metso, Finland. She has a long experience on water research in an industrial environment. She is especially interested in the formation and effects of polythionates in industrial sulphide flotation circuits. Diana discussed the challenges of closing water loops at mineral processing sites. She proposed a paradigm shift of how to move towards a more resilient mineral resource conversion by modelling and controlling mineral-water interactive systems.

Yassine Taha, of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco, then discussed performance evaluation and benchmarking for the life cycle assessment of phosphate mining and beneficiation.

Sofi Buzukashvili (left) is a PhD Student at McGill University, Canada. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sofi got her Master's degree with honors from the National University of Science and Technology in Moscow, after which she emigrated again, this time to Israel, where she worked at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In early 2020, Sofi started her PhD program at McGill, supervised by Kristian Waters. Her research, the subject of her presentation, focuses on remediating wastewater from heavy metals using synthetic zeolites derived from coal fly ash.

Laura Castro (right) has a PhD in Materials Chemistry and she is Assistant Professor at Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She has developed her research in the field of biohydrometallurgy and presented work on the selective biosorption and recovery of scandium using the alga Fucus vesiculosus.

Msimelelo Gcayiya is at the Centre For Bioprocess Engineering Research at the University of Cape Town, and he looked at the production of iron-based products from South African coal waste using biohydrometallurgical processing techniques.

Msimelelo (centre) with UCT colleagues Sue Harrison and Ishaaq Hajee

Helene Baust is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Mechanical Process Engineering and Mechanics at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Germany. She received her Bachelor of Science at KIT in 2015 and her Master in Chemical and Process Engineering at the same University in 2018. Her research, and her presentation, is focused on simulation and modeling of separation processes, in particular of centrifuges.

The final session began with a presentation from Christopher Olsen, of FLSmidth, USA. Christopher has over 20 years experience with conveyors, mobile conveying, and stacking systems. He presented guidelines for transporting and stacking dewatered tailings. Dry stacking offers several advantages over traditional tailings storage methods. One of the primary benefits is the significant reduction in water usage and the associated costs of managing large volumes of water in tailings ponds. Dry stacking also eliminates the risk of dam failures or leaks from tailings ponds, which can have severe environmental and safety consequences

Helene Baust (left) and Christopher Olsen with Nilanka Ekanayake (Australia)

Mohamed Aaatach is a PhD student at the GeMMe 'Mineral Processing and Recycling' Unit of the University of Liege, Belgium. His PhD project is "A Fundamental Study on the Application of Ultrasound in the Hydrometallurgy for the Recycling of Copper from End-of-life Products" and he spoke of the effects of ultrasound on the electrochemical cementation of copper onto iron.

Mohamed (2nd right) with Laura Castro (Spain), Axel Schippers (Germany) and Stoyan Gaydarzhiev

Sina Shakibania (left) is a PhD candidate at the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, working on the sustainable process development for the extraction of the valuable metals from mineral wastes. He received his MSc degree in Materials Science-Metals Extraction from the University of Tehran, Iran, in 2018 and a BSc degree in Materials Science-Extractive Metallurgy from the Amirkabir University of Technology, Iran, in 2014. His research field is hydrometallurgy focusing on the purification of the leaching solution using a variety of processes, such as solvent extraction and precipitation. His presentation covered the purification of K-feldspar leaching solution using anti-solvent crystallization.

Our only delegate from China is Xianjun Lyu, who obtained his PhD in Mineral Processing from the Northeastern University, China, in 1994. He was a visiting scholar at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, from 2000 to 2001. He is currently a professor in mineral processing at Shandong University of Science and Technology and his presentation was on the application of soda sludge in the preparation of cement clinker.

Xianjun with Ozan Kokkilic (Canada) and Amanda Wills

Mohamadreza Arefzadeh is a PhD Researcher at the Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland. He presented a study of oxalic acid recovery using solvent extraction with TBP, Cyanex923, and Aliquat336 as organic solvents from a synthesised hydrochloric acid solution.

Mohamadreza (right) with Tommi Rinne (Finland) and Sina Shakibania (Sweden)

Born in South Korea, Heekang Kim (left) moved with his family to Montreal, Canada in 2009. After completing a BEng in materials engineering at McGill University in 2020, he joined the University’s mineral processing group as a master’s student in 2021, supervised by Kristian Waters. He explored the connection between elemental sulphur and sulphide minerals.

Mbuyu Ntunka is an experienced academic at the Durban University of Technology and an honorary researcher at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. His doctoral work was focused on the recovery of electrolytic grade manganese dioxide, using an integrated circuit, comprising grinding, leaching, purification and electrolysis and his presentation focused on the sustainable production of electrolytic manganese dioxide.

Mbuyu by Pendennis Castle on the coastal path walk

MEI's Amanda Wills then closed the conference, inviting everyone to Critical Metals '24, which will be held in November next year in Cape Town, before adjournment for farewells with a Cornish Cream Tea.

We would greatly appreciate your views on the conference via comments to this posting.  

All the photos on the blog postings, and more, are in a Sustainable Minerals '23 Album. Please feel free to download photos for your personal use. If you would like to use any photos on a company website, please acknowledge the source (MEI Blog).

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