August summary: world on fire and the Lionesses denied at the last hurdle

This month it was the turn of Hawaii to be devastated by wildfires, with hundreds killed on the island of Maui, the deadliest wildfire in modern American history. There were also major wildfires in other parts of the world, notably Canada's Northwest Territories and British Columbia. In addition to carbon dioxide emissions, Chinese scientists estimate that 110 million tonnes of nitrous oxide and methane equivalent were emitted from fires in Canada this year.

Canadian wildfires
Source: Reuters

Last month southern Europe was ravaged by fire and the devastation of the Greek island of Rhodes brought back memories of our visit to this beautiful island 50 years ago this month. Barbara, Amanda and I spent a few days there during a stopover in Greece on our return to the UK from our four year spell on the Zambian Copperbelt.

Barbara and Amanda in Athens and Rhodes, August 1973

Five years later I was back in Greece with a group of CSM students on an industrial tour and we visited the island of Evia, also ravaged by the July wildfires. We visited the magnesite processing plant at Manthoudi where we saw hand sorting of magnesite from serpentine on a moving conveyor by a team of female operators. I would guess this is now done by electronic sorters- has anyone any information?

Hand sorting at Manthoudi

In one of its worst recent summers the UK has fortunately missed the extreme heat and fire and in the middle of the month Falmouth was buzzing, with around 750 international captains and crew members in town for the start of the Magellan-Elcano Tall Ships race. But it was not to be, as the inclement weather forced the organisers to cancel the start in Falmouth, which would have been preceded by the spectacular Parade of Sail. Nevertheless the five Class A square-rigged ships moored in the docks were an impressive sight, with long queues of some of the 100,000 visitors who had flocked to the town to visit the ships. 

Meanwhile in Europe Jon and family holidayed in Austria and Slovenia, and I think I must add Lake Bled in Slovenia to my wish-list of places to visit:

There can be no more intense rivalry in international sport than the clashes between England and Australia. One of the greatest ever cricket Test Match series was played in England in July, with a final result a 2-2 draw, but with Australia retaining the "Ashes" trophy.  This month England's netball team lost to Australia in the World Cup Final in Cape Town, but England's honours were restored on the 16th of the month by the women's football team, beating Australia 3-1 in the semi-final of the World Cup, in front of a hostile home crowd in Sydney.

The fact that the "Lionesses" lost to Spain 1-0 in a hard fought final did not detract from beating the old enemy on their home turf. They were the first senior England football team to play in a World Cup final since 1966 and the only one ever to to do so on foreign soil.

Well done the Lionesses who have brought some light into the prevailing gloom of our summer and hard to believe that in 1921 the English Football Association announced a ban on women's football "The game of football is quite unsuitable for females and ought not to be encouraged". The ban was not lifted until 1970. How the women's game has come on since then, and I hope that the skill-levels shown by all the teams in the World Cup will inspire a new generation of women footballers to lift the game to ever increasing heights.

Despondent Lionesses and jubilant Spain, the better side on the night

Finally we must applaud India's scientists for landing the first ever spacecraft near the south pole of the moon, a completely unexplored region. Scientists believe the Moon's craters that are permanently in shadow may hold frozen water and India's third lunar mission came days after Russia's unmanned spacecraft span out of control and crashed into the Moon.

@barrywills

Capstone Copper to sponsor the next six MEI Conferences

At the beginning of the month the U.S. Department of Energy announced that it will add copper to its Critical Materials list. The US Energy Act of 2020 defines a Critical Material as "any non-fuel mineral, element, substance, or material that the Secretary of Energy determines has a high risk of supply chain disruption and serves an essential function in one or more energy technologies."

It is estimated that copper demand may double by 2050 but many of the proposed new copper projects are facing setbacks, and existing copper mines will eventually be exhausted as the world becomes increasingly reliant on green energy technologies. Copper is crucial for the energy transition and ensuring a steady supply to meet growing demand is a challenge as copper mining and extraction are resource-intensive processes, and finding new sources of high-grade copper ore can be difficult. Environmental concerns and the energy-intensive nature of mining also play a role in supply limitations.

So we are pleased to announce that Capstone Copper, which has a portfolio of long-life copper operations in Canada, USA, Mexico and Chile, with 11m+ tonnes of copper in measured and indicated mineral resources, is to sponsor the next six MEI conferences. 

Capstone is committed to continuous improvement in environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. and the company's growing team of 7,900+ employees and contractors is well positioned to deliver the clean, ethical copper the world needs in the transition to a net-zero future. 

Senior Vice-President Peter Amelunxen said "We believe in giving back to the industry that has supported our growth, and the MEI conferences serve as a platform for experts, researchers, and industry professionals to share their technical knowledge and insights, fostering collaboration and innovation within the minerals engineering sector. By supporting these high-quality conferences, we actively participate in the advancement of the field, establish or enhance strategic partnerships, and contribute to the industry’s overall success.  We are a proud MEI supporter".

Many thanks Peter, we really do appreciate your continued support and confidence in MEI conferences, after having previously sponsored Sustainable Minerals '22 (online), Process Mineralogy '22 and Comminution '23.

August Cornish Mining sundowner: memories of Tony Batchelor and more good news on lithium in Cornwall

Thankfully it was a fine evening in Falmouth for last night's sundowner at the Chain Locker, as there was a record turn-out of over 40 to raise our glasses and remember Dr. Tony Batchelor, the "father of Cornish geothermal energy" who died last September (posting of 21st September 2023).  We were joined last night by his son, James Batchelor, to share our memories of Tony, a very modest man but a great scientist.

Here's to Tony! The lady in the front foreground, at her first sundowner, is Lesley Bromley,
wife of the late Alan Bromley, a great friend of Tony

It's always good to welcome new members to the sundowner, and I was pleased that Amanda was able to join me and Barbara last night, as we were joined by Michael Kapembwa, who, like Amanda, was born on the Zambian Copperbelt. Michael graduated from the University of Zambia with a degree in metallurgy and mineral processing. He then worked for NFC Africa Mines in Chambishi before moving to the University of Cape Town for an MSc in chemical engineering. Michael is a Commonwealth Scholar and chose the Camborne School of Mines to research copper recovery from Chingola Refractory Ore for PhD. supervised by Prof. Hylke Glass.

Michael with Amanda, me and Barbara

At last month's sundowner there was good news of Cornish company British Lithium's merger with china clay producer Imerys, and this month there was further great news from Cornish Lithium Ltd, the county's other lithium development company,  with the announcement of a US$67 million initial investment from a group of leading institutional investors led by the UK Infrastructure Bank alongside The Energy & Minerals Group (EMG) and TechMet. In its first direct equity investment, the UK Infrastructure Bank will invest US$30 million into the development of the UK’s critical minerals supply chain with EMG, a US-based private equity fund focused on the energy and minerals sectors, also investing US$30 million. Cornish Lithium’s largest existing institutional shareholder, TechMet, the critical minerals investment company, whose major backers include the US Government's Development Finance Corporation, is investing a further US$7 million, bringing its total investment into Cornish Lithium to US$30m.

Chris Harker, head of exploration, and Mike Round, head of geothermal, of Cornish Lithium Ltd

The funding package is expected to significantly accelerate progress toward the creation of a domestic supply of battery grade lithium compounds, which is crucial to support the scaling up of domestic battery production for electric vehicles and battery energy storage solutions for renewable energy sources. The funding aims to enable Cornwall's development as an industrial cluster for lithium extraction and once in commercial production, Cornish Lithium aims to build its 70-strong Cornwall-based workforce to over 300. Through its Trelavour hard rock mine development (posting of 10 December 2020) in East Cornwall alone, £800 million of economic activity for the local economy could be generated over the expected 20-year mine life. This figure is expected to increase further through development of the company's geothermal waters project in West Cornwall (posting of 18 September 2020). It is also a positive development for the UK’s automotive industry and green industrial revolution. A domestic source of lithium will strengthen the UK’s car manufacturing supply chain and improve its competitiveness whilst reducing the carbon footprint associated with the manufacture of batteries and electric vehicles.

Yesterday was a great sundowner and the next one will be at the Chain Locker on Thursday September 21st from 5.30pm.

@barrywills

MEI's collaboration with the SME on next year's International Mineral Processing Congress

We were more than pleased to see the recent announcement from the USA's Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), which continues our long standing role as IMPC media partners since the 2003 IMPC in Cape Town:

SME is happy to announce a collaboration with MEI for #IMPC2024, September 29 – October 3, 2024 in Washington DC. Share your insights in the advancements #mineralprocessing for the #energytransition by submitting an abstract.

The International Mineral Processing Congress is regarded as the 'Olympics' of mineral processing, where countries bid to hold this, the biggest meeting place for mineral processors of all disciplines. 

Covid played havoc in the organisation of recent events. The last face to face event was held in Moscow in 2018. Due to visa problems MEI was unable to attend this one, and our last full IMPC was in Quebec in 2016.   The Cape Town IMPC scheduled for 2020 was postponed to  2021 due to the pandemic, and again to 2026 as the pandemic raged on. 

Melbourne was the original scheduled venue for 2022 and this was cancelled due to the severe lockdowns in Australia. The IMPC, AusIMM and CSIRO then took a big gamble in organising the hybrid IMPC Asia Pacific 2022 within eight months, so they must be highly commended for a successful conference, bringing mineral processors together after this long lay off.

The IMPC has now rewarded Melbourne with a full Congress in 2028, following Cape Town in 2026, but before that the next Congress will be at National Harbor, Washington D.C., from September 29th-October 3rd, 2024.

The structure of global energy supply and demand is undergoing a dramatic transformation with shifts towards renewable and alternative sources of electric power and the electrification of transportation. Mineral Processing for the Energy Transition is the theme of the Congress, which will draw together the world’s leading experts to promote, discuss and reveal the latest advances in the science and technology of mineral processing. 

Full details of the event can be found on the congress website.

#IMPC2024

Gekko Chair Elizabeth Lewis-Gray inducted into Honour Roll of Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame

Eight years ago I interviewed Sandy and Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, perhaps the most well-known and respected husband-and-wife team in minerals engineering. They are the co-founders of Gekko Systems, which is a world leader in gold processing technology, as well as the design, construction and operation of energy efficient modular plants.

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.

We are therefore very pleased to announce that Elizabeth Lewis-Gray, co-founder and Chair of Gekko Systems and Founder and Patron of CEEC, has been inducted into the Honour Roll of the prestigious Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame for Service to Industry. This award recognises her remarkable contributions to the manufacturing industry, the primary reason for us inviting her to present a keynote lecture at last year's online event Integration, Optimisation & Design of Mineral Processing Circuits ’22, appropriately on the critical need for accelerating innovation in the mining sector.

In her acceptance speech, Elizabeth expressed her surprise at the honour, stating, "I am shocked- this honour was totally unexpected, and I am blown away. I am passionate about Australia and Victoria being world’s best, and it’s important to me that my businesses, Gekko Systems and Gaia EnviroTech, are world’s best. Clearly, it’s not one individual but the team who make these companies globally competitive." Gekko Systems' expertise in materials handling and modular systems provided the foundation for Gaia EnviroTech, focused on environmentally sustainable solutions for organic waste and renewable bioenergy.

The Honour Roll was presented to Elizabeth by the Hon. Ben Carroll MP, Minister for Industry and Innovation, during a gala dinner held as part of the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame Awards. 

The Hall of Fame Honour Roll Award particularly reflects the extraordinary achievements of the Gekko Systems team who, in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic, responded to a request from the Ballarat medical community, and successfully designed a fit for purpose ventilator (posting of 2 April 2020). Sandy Gray, Technical Director of Gekko Systems, brought together the Gekko Systems team’s knowledge of pneumatics, hydraulics, operating systems, mechatronics and control systems with the advice of a number of leading physicians and anaesthetists to design the simple, robust ventilator, and subsidiary, Gekko Medical, received a Letter of Permission from Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration for the manufacture of the GeVentor ventilator in a short 4-month period.

Sandy Gray with the prototype ventilator

Elizabeth Lewis-Gray's induction into the Honour Roll of the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame not only celebrates her personal dedication but also underscores the power of collaborative innovation and regional manufacturing expertise. Her accomplishments serve as an inspiration to the entire industry and stand as a testament to the impact that visionary leadership can have on driving progress.

Prof. Ronald Woods, 1934-2023: a flotation legend

There is sad news from Australia of the death last week of Ronald (Ron) Woods at the age of 88, who in 2005 was honoured by the SME/AusIMM as a Living Legend, at the Centenary of Flotation Symposium in Brisbane. One of the other flotation legends, Prof. Doug Fuerstenau, commenting on my 2016 interview with Ron, said that he was already well aware of Prof. Wood's seminal contributions to the electrochemistry of sulfide mineral flotation when he first visited Berkeley in 1974. He said "the next time that I met Ron was in 1983 at the Wark Symposium in Adelaide. I consider that his paper presented on that occasion to be a masterpiece in interpreting the different mechanisms by which sulfhydryl collectors can interact with sulfide minerals".

Ron Woods (right) with Prof. George Poling at the Wark Symposium in 1983

My first meeting with Ron Woods was in Falmouth at MEI's Minerals Engineering '99 and we met again in 2007 at Precious Metals '07 in Brisbane and three months later at Flotation '07 in Cape Town.

Minerals Engineering '99, Falmouth

Flotation '07 Cape Town

The last time that we met was in 2016 at the SME Annual Meeting in Phoenix, where he was awarded the SME’s coveted and highly prestigious Antoine M. Gaudin Award, for his outstanding contributions to advancing the chemistry of flotation of sulfide minerals and precious metals.

Presented with the Gaudin Award by Robert Seitz

During our brief meeting in Phoenix, I asked Ron if he would like to be interviewed for MEI's In Conversation series, and I was very pleased when he readily agreed, and the interview was published on 30 May 2016. There is not a lot more than I can add to this, apart from offering our  sincere condolences to his wife Elspeth, who I was also pleased to meet in Cape Town, and who was with Ron at the SME Meeting In Phoenix.

Ron and Elspeth in Phoenix with Marianne and Matthew Jeffrey

The world has truly lost one of the greats in flotation research.

@barrywills

July's announcements of major green initiatives in the UK

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak dropped a green bombshell in July by issuing hundreds of new development licences for North Sea oil and gas companies. He said that the new licences will cut Britain’s carbon footprint, as domestic production is responsible for just a quarter of the emissions of imported liquified natural gas. Alongside the new oil and gas licences, Mr Sunak confirmed millions of pounds will be invested in carbon capture and storage facilities in North East Scotland and the Humber.

Carbon capture and storage
Source: The Times

Labour, however, has promised to block new oil and gas developments if it wins next year's election, saying it would focus instead on investments in renewable sources such as wind and nuclear power, which have supplied about 30% and 15% respectively of the UK's energy over the past year. It's a shame that investment in nuclear wasn't made several years ago as this could have been the ideal source of energy needed for the transition to renewables, such as wind and solar power. In the meantime is the PM's decision a good one, as fossil fuels are going to be needed for a long time yet to supply the energy to mine and process the required metals, and to actually build the renewables, and oil and gas are better options than coal? Gas has supplied 38% of the country's needs over the past year.

July has also witnessed long-awaited and transformative developments for the UK critical minerals industry, such as Tata Group’s $4 billion investment into the construction of a gigafactory here in the UK (see posting of July 21st) and the recent green light given to Green Lithium to build the UK’s first large-scale lithium refinery in Teesside. 

Currently the European EV and energy storage sectors are wholly reliant on lithium produced by Chinese refineries. These existing producers are environmentally unfriendly, emitting large volumes of CO₂. This dependence will be further amplified by a continued increase in demand for battery chemicals. Green Lithium's solution is a UK lithium refinery that can serve the European market in an environmentally-friendly way whilst providing a stable and secure supply of lithium hydroxide to European cathode producers, battery manufacturers and original equipment manufacturers.

And in the same week that the PM made his announcement, there was news that a new research centre at Imperial College London will develop sustainable routes to materials for a green future.  

The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials at Imperial College will transform current mineral extraction approaches to support the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and will act as the hub for collaboration with other leading global institutions. It will drive a new sustainable model for materials production, supporting the mining and materials processing industry in developing new sustainable techniques and technologies to provide the critical materials the world needs for the energy transition.

The global transition to renewable energy generation, use and storage will require a significant growth in the production and supply of critical materials including metals and rare earth elements. These will be needed to support the scale up of electrification such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen production. The mining industry plays a vital role in increasing the supply of these materials. Global governments have recognised these materials as the key to enabling a rapid, just and sustainable transition to a decarbonised society. However, the extraction of the earth’s resources is itself energy and water intensive and can be ecologically damaging. A sustainable future requires dramatic and rapid change in this industry.

Prof. Jan Cilliers

The Rio Tinto Centre for Future Materials will deliver research programs to transform the way vital materials are produced, used and recycled and make them more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Rio Tinto has committed $150 million over ten years to create the centre, which will be led from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering and the Inaugural Director will be Professor Jan Cilliers, Chair in Mineral Processing. It will bring together diverse, inter-disciplinary teams to deliver innovative, and transformative solutions with environment, society, and governance at their core.

Key partners will be announced in the coming months with a plan to launch collaborative centre programmes in early 2024. MEI is particularly interested in this endeavour and is proud that Prof Cilliers, the new Director, will act as an advisor to MEI's new conference, Critical Minerals '24, which will be held in Cape Town in November next year. Details of this conference, which will have particular emphasis on the recycling of critical minerals, will be announced shortly.

@barrywills

The reality of climate change and warnings from the past

Few can doubt that climate change is a reality after recent record high temperatures, leading to wildfires, around the world. Temperatures soared to the high 40s in southern Europe and in the USA the temperature climbed to 53.3C in Death Valley, which runs along part of central California’s border with Nevada.

The hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth was 56.7C in July 1913 at Furnace Creek in Death Valley. Temperatures at or above 54C have only been recorded on Earth a handful of times, mostly in Death Valley. Barbara and I experienced the extreme heat there in 1994. We had stayed overnight at June Lake, just over 200 miles away and had to scrape ice from the car windscreen in the morning before the drive to Furnace Creek, where the temperature was well over 40C!

Death Valley 1994

There is little doubt that humans have contributed to these extreme events, but there are also other contributing factors, such as El Niño and in June climate scientists announced that an El Niño weather pattern had taken hold, which would strengthen through to the end of this year and the first months of 2024, warning there is a good chance that it could be a particularly strong El Niño this year. 

It would appear that they were right but in July a team of climate scientists, the World Weather Attribution Group, said that the intense heatwave in Southern Europe, North America and China would have been virtually impossible without human-induced climate change.

It is all all very sobering and maybe we should have heeded the warning in a New Zealand newspaper, headed Coal Consumption Affects Climate:

The furnaces of the world are now burning about 2,000,000,000 tons of coal a year. When this is burned, uniting with oxygen, it adds about 7,000,000,000 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere yearly. This tends to make the air a more effective blanket for the earth and to raise its temperature. The effect may be considerable in a few centuries.

What is particularly prescient about this warning is that it was published in the Rodney and Otamatea Times on August 14th 1912!  It was based on the work of Svante Arrhenius, who 16 years earlier had measured the warming effect of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (see also Is CO2 the most maligned gas in history?).

Maybe we should have heeded warnings from the past?

"The era of global warming has ended and the era of global boiling has arrived"
UN Secretary General, António Guterres

@barrywills