Tuesday at Flotation '23

 Tuesday November 7th

The day began with a keynote lecture from Glenn Dobby, of Woodgrove Technologies, Canada, the first of 22 technical presentations during the day (a reminder that a summary of all the technical presentations will be published in a few weeks' time).

It was good to see a full house again, and that delegates were making full use of the satellite room, into which the presentations were streamed. This always proves popular as delegates can work, and come and go during the sessions without disturbing the presenters.

Glenn Dobby's keynote streamed to the satellite room

Glenn Dobby is well known for his partnership with MEI consultant Jim Finch in the 1980s, leading to the publication of their seminal text-book Column Flotation.  Jim and Glenn are pictured below with Juan Yianatos, of Santa Maria University, Chile.

Juan, Jim and Glenn

The exhibition was vibrant again, with plenty of time for interaction during the long coffee and lunch breaks.

Artificial Intelligence has come to the flotation conferences for the first time, with a welcome to the first time involvement of Conundrum a UK company run by self-confessed "process engineering geeks" and AI experts, many with doctoral degrees in maths and physics. They create advanced machine learning software for the digital transformation of the metals and mining industry, which they feel is an industry foundational to the modern economy where digital transformation secures enormous financial and sustainable manufacturing impact. 

They have been so impressed by Flotation '23 that they signed up today as sponsors of the next one, Flotation '25, which will be in Cape Town in November 2025. In the photo below Commercial Director Mat Matthews, with  Pavel Prikhodko, seals the agreement with MEI's Jon.

Virtual reality is also featured in a couple of the booths. In the Glencore Technology booth delegates are able to find out what the perfect Jameson Cell is for their operational needs, and then they can see it using Glencore's Oculus Quest 2 and then walk around the flotation cell in VR.

Glencore's Hans De Waal demonstrates the Jameson Cell VR
with Shani Engelbrecht, of AECI Mining, South Africa

Zeiss sponsor many MEI Conferences and Rakesh Patel, of Zeiss, UK was enthusiastic of one of the most exciting things that Zeiss is enabling, mineral liberation in 3D, being shown to Rosemary Moagi, of Palabora Mining Company, South Africa.

GoldOre Pty Ltd is represented by Adrian Singh, founder and CEO, who in the poster sessions described how the GoldOre MACH REACTOR™, a hydrodynamic cavitation device, has enhanced the flotation of fine to ultra-fine PGMs from the Great Dyke Orebody in South Africa.

The MACH REACTOR™ harnesses the power of cavitation and is the only high shear/cavitating device currently on the market that is completely self-aspirating, allowing it to be operated without a pressurized gas supply. The self-aspiration aspect, combined with the comparatively lower power draw, makes it particularly suitable to projects where power costs are high, or power is self-generated.

Adrian Singh with Catherine McInnes, of Strella, Canada, and Glenn Dobby

Delegates from Kibali Gold Mine, DRC

Tuesday lunch

Metso is by no means a new sponsor, but Metso Outotec has been a regular sponsor of MEI's comminution and flotation series. In May the name was changed to Metso Corporation, combining two valuable companies into one strong Metso. We welcome the "new" company, the biggest group at the conference, with 19 delegates representing nine countries, Australia, Canada, Chile, Finland, Kazakhstan, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and USA. In the photo below Metso Vice-President Minerals Sales, Charles Ntsele, shakes hands with Jon on their ongoing sponsorship, of Flotation '25.

Festo is a multi-national company with over 22,000 employees worldwide and develops tailored automation solutions for the process industry, in all project phases from engineering to operation and maintenance. The company first sponsored at Flotation '19 and we welcome them back as sponsors, represented by Sebastian Appel, Germany and Peter Mulock-Houwer, South Africa, pictured below with Subhasish Mitra of the University of Queensland.

And then a complete change of venue in the evening, across the City Bowl to Green Point to the Gold Restaurant for the very informal conference dinner, with a 14-dish menu giving us a taste of Africa, paired with traditional Mali puppets, entertainment, good wine and company.