Wednesday at Flotation '23

Wednesday November 8th

The day got off to a fine start with a keynote lecture from Luis Cisternas, of the Universidad de Antofagasta, Chile, which was the first of 26 presentations today (summary of the presentations will be published later this month).

Luis Cisternas with his keynote co-author Yesica Botero

Down in the exhibition we were pleased that Glencore Technology has agreed to sponsor Flotation '25.

Hans de Waal shakes on the sponsorship deal with MEI's Jon, watched by Ryan Jones

Welsh company Maelgwyn Mineral Services is a regular sponsor of MEI's comminution and flotation conferences, and last year expanded its base in Africa, after the opening of its new combined Maelgwyn Africa and Maelgwyn South Africa premises in Johannesburg. Two metallurgists from the new facility, Janse Van Rensburg and Asanda Gcanga formed part of the MMS team, led by General Manager Steve Flatman, UK. MMS is also involved with research at Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology in Germany, and has taken space in their facilities, where Duong Hoang and Ahmad Hassanzadeh are carrying out research, the subject of a number of papers this week. Dr. Hassanzadeh was presented with the 2020 MEI Young Person's Award at Process Mineralogy '22 in Spain last November.  It was good to see Steve Flatman and MEI's Amanda sealing the agreement for MMS's continuing support of the flotation conferences, watched by the rest of the team.

As in the previous two days there was much interest in the exhibition and the associated poster displays.

Joe Felix is a familiar face at many MEI Conferences, representing CiDRA Minerals Processing, sponsors of the flotation and comminution series. Joe is the Regional Sales Engineer at CiDRA Corporation, South Africa. He and his son Travis, Applications Engineer at CiDRA, were  displaying CiDRA's SONARtrac and CYCLONEtrac Products.

Travis and Joe Felix demonstrating CiDRA products

This is the first time that Nalco Water, An Ecolab Company, has sponsored a face to face flotation conference, but they were sponsors of Flotation '21, which was online.  In 2021 Ecolab Inc., was named a Global Compact LEAD participant for its ongoing commitment to the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with more than 12,000 participating companies in 160 countries. Ecolab was one of only 37 companies to receive this recognition. Nalco Water plays an important role in the management of water, from the time it enters a facility until the moment it is returned back into the environment. 

Nalco representatives with Ncebakazi Majeke, of BASF, South Africa

During the lunch break it was good to meet the three representatives from Kaz Minerals Bozshakol, a large open-pit copper mine in Kazakhstan.

The MEI team with Inzu Sandybekova, Rebecca Peacock and Yermek Tulegenov

A bargain for Irina Bremerstein of UVR-FIA, Germany

Mecosa (Pty) Ltd was established in 1982 and has since grown to a well recognised company in the field of process variable measurement. Mecosa's partner, Sopat, develops and distributes a photo-optical image-based measurement technique for quantitative characterization of multiphase systems. Since 2009 their partner J&C Bachmann is globally active in developing and implementing measurement technology, equipment, and solutions for industrial applications, supporting their customers with tailor made solutions in various fields. Pictured in their booth is Henning Springer of Mecosa, South Africa (left) and Sebastian Maass, of Sopat, Germany (3rd left), with Isabella Vorster and Belson Awatey of University of Queensland.

Since founding the company in 1984 Superior Filtration, South Africa, has supplied filtration solutions in more than 36 countries on 6 continents but it is their first time at an MEI Conference. The company is being represented by Ndanganeni Mahangani and Albert Bam seen here with Grant Ndiitwani of Protea Mining Chemicals, South Africa (centre).

It was great to catch up with Swadhin Saurabh, winner of the MEI Young Person's Award in 2016. He is now with FLSmidth, who are regular sponsors of MEI Conferences. Swadhin is 3rd left in the photo below, with some of the 10 representatives this week from FLSmidth, 8 from USA and 2 from South Africa.  Global Flotation Director Dariusz Lelinksi has attended all MEI's flotation conferences and will be presenting a keynote lecture at Mill Circuits '24 in Cape Town next June.

The largest contingent at the conference is from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany, pictured below:

And good news at the end of the afternoon, that current sponsor AEC Mining Chemicals  is to sponsor Flotation '25. It was good to see the representatives from AECI Mining, with a team this year from South Africa, Brazil and Ireland. AECI is a diversified Group of 16 companies with regional and international businesses in Africa, Europe, South East Asia, North America, South America and Australia. Senmin, a business of AECI Mining Solutions, has been a regular sponsor of the flotation conferences for many years, always represented by Jules Aupais and Patrick Dicks, now consultants based in Ireland and South Africa respectively. Senmin is a manufacturer and supplier of mining chemicals used in the beneficiation of a wide range of ores such as platinum, copper, zinc, coal etc as well as polyacrylamides used for tailings treatment.

Jon seals the deal with AECI Mining

It's been another great day at the Vineyard and on a lovely sunny evening it was good to relax in the gardens for the second of our sundowners.