Death of eminent comminution scientist Frank Shi

Very sad news in today from Australia of the death of Franks Shi, Emeritus Professor of the University of Queensland's Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), and I thank the Director of the JKMRC, Professor Mohsen Yahyaei for his posting on LinkedIn, which provides a background to Frank's life and work.

Prof. Shi's career began as an operator at an iron ore mine in China in 1971, and he joined the JKMRC in 1988 where he has been a research-focused academic, continuously working to improve the energy efficiencies of comminution processes. His expertise covered wide areas including ore and coal breakage characterisation, mathematical modeling of comminution machines and circuits, slurry and flotation froth rheology, and high voltage pulse comminution. He was the chief inventor of the JK Rotary Breakage Tester and the JK size-dependent breakage model, both of which have found significant applications in the mineral and coal industries.

Frank has been the co-author of many papers presented at MEI's comminution conferences, and although he did not travel a great deal he presented work at Comminution '04 in Perth, Australia, and at Comminution '08 in Falmouth, UK. 

Frank Shi (2nd right) at Comminution '04

Frank with JKMRC colleagues at Comminution '08

Frank at the Comminution '08 conference dinner

His pioneering studies on the application of High Voltage Pulse resulted to a breakthrough and innovation which is the core of a current major research collaborative on this topic and the subject of a paper to be presented by one of his JKMRC colleagues at Comminution '25 in April.

Our  deepest condolences to Frank's family and colleagues.

Christmas in Camborne

Camborne, just 13 miles north-west of Falmouth, is regarded as the most impoverished town in Cornwall and one of the poorest in UK. Yet in the mid-19th century it was one of the world's richest towns, the centre of Cornwall's flourishing tin and copper industries. The town and its near neighbour of Redruth were surrounded by hundreds of mines, Cornwall's deepest tin mine, Dolcoath, being situated in the town, as was South Crofty, the last tin mine to close, in 1998.

Echoes of the past on arrival at Camborne train station

On Christmas Eve 1801, the Puffing Devil, the world's first self-propelled steam-powered road locomotive, built by Camborne engineer Richard Trevithick, made its way up Camborne Hill (now Tehidy Road and Fore Street). At the top of the hill, in the town centre, the Camborne School of Mines was based from 1888 to 1975, and a couple of hundred yards away was the meeting place for mining engineers from around the world, the Tyacks Hotel.

Fittingly Tyacks was the venue for two Christmas mining events this month. Last Saturday was the annual CSM Association Christmas lunch, attended by mainly past students and staff of CSM.

Five days later the Christmas Cornish Mining Sundowner was held, as always, at Tyacks, with a good attendance of around 20 regulars.

It was particularly good to talk to Camborne School of Mines Director Pat Foster and Matthew Eyre, Associate Professor in Intelligent Mining. As is now well known Mining Engineering will be reintroduced as an undergraduate degree at CSM from September next year and the School wishes to celebrate this historic development with the establishment of a scholarship programme, which will help convert students onto this exciting learning pathway.

The aim is to establish a £2M endowment fund to support Mining Engineering students for many years to come. Students will either be offered a £15,000 scholarship upon enrolment to the Mining Engineering course for four years, or have the option to select Mining Engineering at the end of the common engineering first year, incentivised by the opportunity for the scholarship.  

The opportunity will be promoted to all students on the University of Exeter’s Engineering course from September 2025, with the first cohort notified of awards in Spring 2026. Each student will receive up to £60,000 over the course of their studies.

Donations are invited to help CSM launch this historic opportunity to Exeter students, in order to drive recruitment to this vitally important industry worldwide.

With Matthew Eyre and Pat Foster

The next Cornish Mining Sundowner will be at the County Arms Hotel, Truro from 5.30 pm on Thursday January 16th.

Flotation '25: Call for abstracts

"I would encourage all those young and not so young mineral processors with a passion for bubbles to put their fingers to the keyboard and write an abstract for Flotation 2025 in Cape Town. This conference is renowned for bringing academics and industry together to discuss the science of mineral froth flotation- an event not to be missed!" says Dr. Chris Greet, Global Mineral Processing Specialist at Magotteaux, Principal Consultant at Mineralis Consultants and Adjunct Associate Research Professor at University of South Australia.

There is now a call for abstracts for Flotation '25, MEI's 12th international flotation conference. Abstracts must be submitted via the website by May 31st 2025. All presenters will be invited to submit papers for peer-review after the conference. These will be refereed, and, if accepted, published immediately in the first available regular issue of Minerals Engineering, and included in the Virtual Special Issue of the conference on ScienceDirect. 

The technical programme will include oral and poster presentations, and three high profile keynote lectures, from Chris Greet, of Magotteaux, Australia, Charlotte Gibson, of Queen's University, Canada, and Jim Finch, Emeritus Professor at McGill University, Canada.

We are also pleased to announce that the conference dinner will be at the elegant Simon's Restaurant at the Groot Constantia Wine Estate.

Recent conference dinner at Simon's Restaurant, Groot Constantia

There are more photos and details on the posting of 29th April. Since that posting all 23 exhibition booths in the coffee and lunch area have been sold, but there are seven 2m x 1m booths available for rental outside the main conference room.

We look forward to seeing you next year at Cape Town's beautiful Vineyard Hotel.

See reports on Flotation '23

Some memories of Flotation '23

#Flotation25

Nominations invited for MEI Young Person's Award 2024

It was a pleasure to present the 2023 and 2019 MEI Young Person's Awards to Paulina Vallejos and Nikhil Dhawan respectively this year and it is now time to start thinking of who you might like to nominate for the 2024 MEI Young Person's Award, to join the list of exceptional young mineral processors who have made outstanding contribution to minerals engineering.

Nominations, for persons under 35 years of age at December 31st 2024, should be submitted by email to bwills@min-eng.com by Friday March 7th 2025. Nominations must come from a senior person, or persons, who have had first-hand experience of the work of the nominee.

Nominations should include the name, age and affiliation of the nominee, and reasons for the nomination. The recipient will receive an engraved award and a complimentary registration to any future MEI Conference, and the presentation will be made whenever a mutually convenient situation arises.

Comminution '25 update with news of the technical programme

The packed programme for Comminution '25 in Cape Town, with a record number of oral and poster presentations, is now available for viewing. The programme includes three high-profile keynote lectures, from Carsten Schilde, of TU Braunschweig, Germany, Bern Klein, of the University of British Columbia, Canada and Grant Ballantyne, of Ausenco, Australia.

A measure of the importance of this conference is the level of corporate support, with a record number of 22 sponsors so far. Of these there has been recent good news from one of our regular sponsors, Russell Mineral Equipment (RME), the world's global leader in grinding mill relining technology. The company has entered into a transitional sale agreement with US-equity firm Resource Capital Funds (RCF) and the Australian Federal Government's National Reconstruction Fund Corporation (NRFC). As part of the deal, the NRFC has made its first investment, the sale to the NRFC-RCF partnership being worth $40 million. RME says the deal ensures it will remain Australian-owned and operated from regional Queensland. 

RME always has the largest display at the comminution conferences, taking three booths at Comminution '25. 

Russell Mineral Equipment's large delegation at Comminution '23

All 23 booths in the main exhibition area are now sold, but due to the high demand seven extra 2m x 1m booths have been placed outside the main conference room, and currently two of these are available for rental.

It's going to be a great four days at Comminution '25, with great networking opportunities at the evening sundowners and at the conference dinner at the Groot Constantia Wine Estate.

Sundowner at Comminution '23

Recent MEI Conference dinner at Groot Constantia

There is much to look forward to at Comminution '25, and it is not too late to submit an abstract, as we are still considering abstracts for poster presentation.

View reports on Comminution '23

#Comminution25

Critical Minerals '24: a summary of the technical presentations

Critical Minerals '24, the 1st in what we hope will develop into an important series, was held at the Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town from November 14-15, 2024 and was attended by 64 delegates from 15 countries.

Following is a very brief summary of the presentations made over the two days.  This summary is intended to guide you to the extended abstracts associated with the presentations, most of which are available online as open-access. Unfortunately not all presenters responded to requests for drafts, but for those that did their names are linked directly to their papers in the online Proceedings.

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.

Thursday November 14th

Technical Session 1: Chairpersons: Mehdi Safari (Mintek, South Africa) and David Currie (British Geological Survey, UK)

The conference got underway with a keynote lecture from Markus Reuter, Chief Expert with the SMS Group, Germany. Markus said that there is a lot of talk about greening society, greening the supply chain, circular economy etc. The question that needs to be answered is how green is all of this and what shade of green (or grey) is achievable? He discussed the key role of metallurgy and minerals processing in applying its simulation methods and theory and how they can be applied to understand the greenness of systems and in fact what the limits are of the system.

In a follow-up to his plenary lecture at last month's IMPC, Richard Williams, Principal and Vice Chancellor at Heriot-Watt University, UK, reviewed the surveys of societal-technological policies of a range of mining corporations and offered key recommendations for areas of focus for pathways that might achieve a step-change to net-zero operations.

Markus Reuter and Richard Williams

The progressive integration of cutting-edge technologies into sensor-based mineral processing systems is a key objective for stakeholders in the mining sector. Markus Firsching, of the Fraunhofer Development Center X-ray Technology, Germany, looked at the application of X-ray transmission sorting as a pre-concentration method, exploring its potential to enhance processing efficiency and to reduce associated costs. The latest generation of X-ray sensor sorting technology was evaluated, assessing its capability to identify a diverse array of critical minerals,including metaliferous oxides and sulphides, rare earth phosphates, graphite, and others encapsulated within run-of-mine rocks. 

Markus Firsching (right)

Conference sponsor Steinert is one of the leading players in sensor-based sorting and Lutke von Ketelhodt, the Business Development Manager with Steinert, Germany discussed the sensor-based sorting of low-grade nickel ores. Nickel is one of the critical minerals that is necessary for the clean energy transition. The demand for nickel is primarily driven by stainless steel production and the growing demand for electric vehicles and energy storage. High- to medium grade nickel ore deposits are nearing depletion leaving low grade marginal deposits, so innovative technologies and approaches are essential to break away from traditional mining and mineral processing methods to sustain long term supplies.

Lutke von Ketelhodt (2nd left)

South Africa is renowned for vast mineral wealth, including platinum group elements (PGEs), chrome, gold, manganese, diamonds and coal. The mining industry faces challenges with efficient resource extraction and utilisation resulting in significant mine waste generation. The primary objective of a study described by Mohau Rampou, of Mintek, is to meticulously characterise the ore material and address the challenges associated with extraction of valuable metals/minerals, maximise resource utilisation, and aid meeting the demand for precious metals.

Historical mine tailings represent an environmental liability and simultaneously a significant reservoir of unrecovered critical and strategic minerals.  Nikita Malafeevskiy, PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, presented a study investigating the reprocessing challenges posed by the sulfide-rich historical Joma mine tailings, of the Grong Ore District, in Norway. 

Nikita Malafeevskiy (2nd right)

Emmanuel Mends

Emmanuel Mends, a Graduate Research Assistant at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA, described an investigation into the selective extraction of metals from nickel sulfide tailings using salt roasting and acid leaching.

Reprocessing mine tailings to deliver critical metals for the energy transition is an economic rehabilitation strategy gaining traction, said Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Principal Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia. A Tasmanian mine site, with a dam containing 38 Mt of pyritic tailings was studied in this context. The results have provided a strategic understanding of the site as a potential Co resource.

Anita Parbhakar-Fox with Markus Reuter

Mehdi Safari is Head of Flotation in the  Mineral Processing Division of Mintek, South Africa and he described an investigation of physical and chemical parameters on the flotation performance of copper, perhaps the most critical of metals.

Mehdi Safari (2nd left)

Copper has been highlighted as a critical mineral to mitigate climate change and provide clean energy, however major deficits are forecasted and therefore copper demand is expected to rise. This situation will become more severe if copper’s production continues at its current rate, and given the declining copper head grades as well as the long time span needed for exploration of new sites it has become necessary to improve existing processes. Natalie Shackleton, Metallurgy Consultant with conference sponsor AECI Mining Chemicals, focused on copper’s flotation performance using novel co-collectors developed for improved extraction of various copper-bearing minerals.

Natalie Shackleton (2nd right) with AECI colleagues at Groot Constantia Wine Estate

Zikhona Magaxeni, a Senior Lab Technician at Mintek also looked at copper flotation, describing work undertaken at Mintek to identify the most effective collector blend for achieving optimal flotation performance for PGM ores and copper ores.

Zikhona Magaxeni (4th left) with Mintek colleagues

Technical Session 2: Chairperson: Lucas Pereira (Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany)

Damien Krebs

Rare earths were the subject of the papers in the afternoon session, beginning with a keynote lecture from Damien Krebs, Principal Process Consultant with Primero, Australia. Damien provided an introduction to the extractive metallurgy of rare earths covering all major deposit types. The key rare earth bearing minerals were presented and discussed from a metallurgical amenability point of view and the major processing steps covered in a sequential process showing the equipment and chemistry involved. 

Ruhany Sheherazad Azeez, a researcher at the Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, described the hydrochloric acid treatment of Estonian phosphate rock to recover rare earth elements.

Ruhany Sheherazad Azeez (right)

Walter Ngobeni is a Flotation Principal Engineer with Mintek, and he described the selective flotation of REEs from calcite and hematite from a Southern African repository.

Walter Ngobeni (2nd left)

Nathan Fox, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland described the exploration of rare earth element opportunities in Australia’s mine waste and unconventional sources.

Nathan Fox, with wife Anita Parbhakar-Fox

In the final presentation of the day, Lev Filippov, a Professor at the University of Lorraine, France, described an alternative extraction strategy for rare earth elements from the bauxite residue of the Friguia alumina plant in Guinea, through the development of a pretreatment strategy and leaching using soft acids.

Lev Filippov (left) at Groot Constantia Wine Estate

More on Day 1

Friday November 15th

Technical Session 3: Chairpersons: Andrew Menzies (Bruker Nano Analytics GmbH, Germany) and Richard Williams (Heriot-Watt University, UK)

Lithium is currently and forecast to be the material of choice for mobile batteries due to the high power density provided by fundamental atomic properties. The global transition from combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles and hybrids will require vast expansion of global lithium production. This applies to both mine production as well as refining of mineral concentrates to produce battery pre-curser chemicals.

The major hard rock source of lithium is from the mineral spodumene which is found in pegmatite deposits. These pegmatite deposits are mined and processed to produce spodumene mineral concentrates which is typically between 5 and 6.5% lithia. Yesterday's keynote speaker, Damien Krebs, described methods for refining of spodumene concentrates.

In a double-act Camila Senna, Area Sales Manager Mining with Steinert Latinamericana, Brazil, and Poliana Ferreira, of Lithium Ionic Corp., Brazil, showed how integrating Dense Medium Separation and sensor-based sorting can produce cleaner spodumene concentrates, minimise environmental impact and operational costs, and improve resource management.

Poliana Ferreira and Camila Senna

Diego Arteaga, a researcher at the University Of Oulu, Finland, looked at flowsheet development for zero-waste processing of lithium hard rock ores, using DMS in particular.

Diego Arteaga (centre)

Lucas Pereira, Group Leader at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg For Resource Technology, Germany, assessed the selectivity of lithium aluminate recovery in flotation against several gangue phases from a slag system under different reagent systems.

Lucas Pereira

Identification of new resources is both economically and strategically important, driving a boom in lithium exploration, said Andrew Menzies, of  Bruker Nano Analytics, Germany. He showed how rapid mineralogy mapping can support exploration, presenting mineral characterisation from a number of potential lithium resources in Portugal. Preliminary results suggest significant added value of the micro-XRF approach, where a much-improved mineral textural understanding aids exploration and ongoing evaluation of deposit potential.

Lev Filippov of University of Lorraine, France then discussed challenges in the recovery of lithium minerals from pegmatite and rare metals granite ores.

Graphite is important in transitioning to a green economy and while Southern Africa has substantial graphite resources, China remains the leader in terms of production and reserves. However, Southern Africa's high-grade deposits and ongoing exploration efforts indicate its growing importance in the global graphite supply chain, particularly as demand increases for graphite in batteries and other green technologies. Mintek plays a key role in the graphite sector and Mehdi Safari summarised Mintek's graphite R&D, with a particular focus on minerals processing.

Lawrence Bbosa, also from Mintek, highlighted the critical role of selecting an appropriate comminution process for improving flotation recovery and upgrading graphite ores. While size reduction is essential to enhance liberation and recoveries, caution is required to preserve larger flake sizes.

Lawrence Bbosa (left) and Mehdi Safari (2nd left)

David Currie, of the British Geological Survey (BGS), showed that Mozambique and Madagascar are currently the world’s second and third largest producers of natural graphite behind China. Around 50 natural graphite occurrences are known across eastern Africa including several in Eastern Province, Zambia. The BGS carried out fieldwork alongside Geological Survey Department for Zambia and Copperbelt University to sample these occurrences, then used optical and scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and thermogravimetry-mass spectrometry to analyse the sample set. It was shown that the Paleoproterozoic paragneiss of the Eastern Province of Zambia has the potential to host a natural flake graphite deposit. 

David Currie (right) co-chairing session 1

In the final paper of the morning session Aishvarya Venkataseetharaman, Principal Scientist at CSIR-Institute Minerals and Materials Technology, India, discussed how energy metals such as Mn, Ni,Co, Cu, are often found in leaner ore grades which are locked within complex oxide matrices. To address this, non-conventional anoxic bioleaching using metal reducing bacteria has been developed, targeting metal recovery from ferruginous manganese oxide and lateritic ores, offering significant advantages over conventional aerobic bioleaching.

Aishvarya Venkataseetharaman (2nd left) at the conference dinner

Technical Session 4: Chairperson: Lawrence Bbosa (Mintek, South Africa)

Vanadium's unique properties and strategic importance in various industrial applications make it a critical element in modern technology. This metal is often extracted as a byproduct from the smelting of titanomagnetite ores. Mohamadbagher Fathi, a Research Fellow at the University of Tasmania, presented a study on the extraction of V2O5 from the slag produced during the smelting of titanomagnetite ores.

Mohamadbagher Fathi (3rd right) at Groot Constantia wine estate

The depletion of the high-grade Ni sulfide deposits has resulted in efforts focused on processing the alternative low-grade ultramafic ores. However, these contain considerable MgO, silica, and gangue rocks, challenging their processing. Smelting has been predominantly used for Ni extraction from sulfides as hydrometallurgical methods are associated with vast chemical usage/wastewater. However, high smelting temperatures (>1300℃), refractory corrosion, and significant emissions remain the main smelting drawbacks. Brian Makuza, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto showed that thermal treatment (<1000℃) of the ultramafic concentrates blended with Fe additive is a promising approach for upgrading these concentrates. 

With Brian Makuza

Colwyn van der Linde, of TCM Research, Ireland, is currently an MEng student at the University of Pretoria. He described a dry chlorination flowsheet for the extraction of critical metals from primary nickel (copper, cobalt, PGMs and iron) sulphide concentrates.

Mixed Hydroxide Precipitate (MHP) is an important nickel and cobalt containing intermediate for producing battery-grade metals and salts. Currently extraction and refining of metals from MHP is via complex hydrometallurgical processes, which are sensitive to feed material composition and require elaborate waste stream treatment. Dmitri Terekhov, also of TCM Research, Ireland, showed that the Reduction/Carbonylation method, mostly used for sulphide intermediates refining, is ideal for MHP refining. 

Colwyn van der Linde and Dmitri Terekhov

Skarns today represent around 50% of the global tungsten reserves. Considering their fine textures and the trend of scheelite to form fine particles during the milling stage, the use of froth flotation is mandatory for their processing. However, tungsten skarns generally contain significant amounts of calcium minerals such as fluorite, apatite, and calcite, which reduce selectivity in the flotation stage. Yann Foucaud, Associate Professor at the University of Lorraine, France, presented work on the selective recovery of scheelite from an archetypal tungsten skarn using amine and fatty-acid flotation.

Yann Foucaud (2nd right) at the conference dinner

In the final presentation of the conference, James Strongman, Technical Director of conference sponsor Petrolab, UK, gave a review and case study of how mineralogical investigations and ore characterisation are vital for the development of critical mineral deposits. The energy transition is driving the development of both new types of deposits and previously challenging ores. These create new challenges for both mineralogists and metallurgists and James showed how new analytical techniques and workflows are being utilised to generate the information to answer complex questions around extraction, beneficiation and refinement. To demonstrate some of these techniques a case study of the mineralogical drivers behind the failure of a tin-tungsten mine was presented, along with how a deeper understanding of mineralogy is now taking the project forward. 

James Strongman (left)

More on Day 2

A final thanks to all concerned in making this a great conference, the sponsors, exhibitors, chairpersons, presenters and delegates, and last but not least the wonderful staff at the Vineyard Hotel.  We would greatly appreciate your comments on this posting.

A reminder also that the next conference in the series, Critical Minerals '26, will be held in November 2026. The venue is at yet undecided but will probably be in Spain.

Check out the reactions to the conference on LinkedIn at #CriticalMinerals24.

Process Mineralogy '24: a summary of the technical presentations

Process Mineralogy '24, the 7th in the series, was held at the Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town from November 11-13, 2024 and was attended by 109 delegates from 20 countries.

Following is a very brief summary of the presentations made over the three days.  This summary is intended to guide you to the extended abstracts associated with the presentations, oral and poster, most of which are available online as open-access. Unfortunately not all presenters responded to requests for drafts, but for those that did their names are linked directly to their papers in the online Proceedings.

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.

Monday November 11th

Technical Session 1: Chairpersons: Nathan Fox and Anita Parbhaker-Fox (University of Queensland, Australia) 

Geometallurgy was the main theme of the morning presentations, beginning with a keynote lecture from Stewart Brand, Principal, Global Geometallurgy at BHP, Australia where he leads strategic geometallurgy projects and supports geometallurgical teams around the world. Stewart looked at the future of geometallurgy, showing that, as complex, polymetallic, lower-grade and deeper mineral deposits are forecast to be the future source of the metals and minerals required to decarbonise the global economy,the sustainable and economic extraction of these minerals will require the expert application of geometallurgy across the mining value chain, from concept through to closure.   

Stewart Brand (centre) with session chairs Nathan Fox and Anita Parbhakar-Fox

Glacialle Tiu, a post-doctoral fellow at the Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, looked at data fusion using machine learning, towards real-time implementation of geometallurgical models for ore tracking.

Glacialle Tiu (right)

Corinne Garner is a senior mineralogist with conference sponsor Petrolab, UK. She showed why automated mineralogy is of increasing importance in the energy transition, with the need to scale mining of base metals and the drive for smarter and more environmentally friendly mining. She highlighted the benefits of trending long-term process mineralogy data.

Corinne Garner and James Strongman of Petrolab

Monica Mendes, a master geologist with Vale's exploration and mineral projects division,described a geometallurgical program for a copper deposit during its development stage: mineralogical characterisation, flowsheet optimisation and spatial modelling.

Monica Mendes (left) at the welcoming reception

Nathan Fox, a senior research fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia discussed the geometallurgical characterisation of a historical low-grade tungsten stockpile for ore sorting applications at Mt Carbine tungsten mine,Queensland. The results confirmed the amenability to preconcentration and led to the installation and optimisation of XRT ore sorting technology for processing both low-grade waste and new ore extracted since reopening of the mine.

Norman Lotter is the President of Flowsheets Metallurgical Consulting Inc., Canada, which he founded in 2016. A flowsheet development project was initiated at a palladium operation in Northern Ontario, so as to identify processing opportunities and develop improved metallurgical performance. Norman described the geometallurgical unit study and the process implications that developed.

Norman and Heather Lotter at the conference dinner at the Cape Town Waterfront

Alexandra Stavropoulou is a product scientist with Oxford Instruments, UK and she described the impact of adding Backscattered Electron and X-ray imaging to geological workflows in the SEM.

Alexandra Stavropoulou and George Stonadge of Oxford Instruments

In the last paper of the morning session Leonardo Salazars, a Geologist and Product Application Specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Australia, looked at improving quantitative mineralogy through non-linear Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy calibration.

Leonardo Salazars and Aukje Benedictus of Thermofisher

Technical Session 2: Chairpersons:  Glacialle Tiu (Luleå University of Technology, Sweden) and Paulina Vallejos (Santa Maria University, Chile)

John Logos Guiang is a metallurgist at Boliden Mining Oy, Kevitsa Finland and he presented the first paper in the afternoon session, evaluating new XRD calibration and mineral analysis accuracy for process onitoring at Boliden Kevitsa.

With John Logos Guiang

Geoff Nitschke is head of the Evolutionary Machine Learning group and Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, School of Information Technology, University of Cape Town. He described a new automated mineralogy computational tool for particle classification and analysis, leveraging the general classification capacity of large neural networks (deep-learning), multi-label classification, and established computer-vision (machine-learning) techniques to improve particle deagglomeration across various granular specimens.  

Percy Escalante is a PhD Student at the Universitat Politècnica De Catalunya, Spain,and he showed how Mineral Liberation Analysis (MLA) was employed to characterise the mineralogicalimpurities in a carbonate-rich material, revealing the presence of several accessory minerals.

Percy Escalante (centre) at the evening sundowner

Marijn Boone is a product marketing manager for micro-CT at Tescan, Belgium. Micro-CT is a technology to non-destructively investigate the internal structure of samples. However, when it comes to material identfication, the technology has some inherent limitations and can struggle to provide contrast between minerals with similar atomic number and/or density. Marijn showed how,by incorporating a spectral detector,  the 3D mineral identification in sulfide ore samples by micro-CT can be improved.

Marijn Boone with his Tescan colleague Marek Dosbaba at the sundowner

Jacob Viljoen, a senior development engineer with Scanmin International, South Africa, showed how Scanmin's successful application of its Site Reference Standards in calibrating analysers demonstrates its potential to enhance the reliability and efficiency of Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis, promoting broader adoption of this powerful analytical technique.

Jacob Viljoen (centre) at the Scanmin booth

Pia Lois Morales is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chile. She showed how X-ray microTomography can be used to estimate fracture propagation during impact testing. In a second presentation she described work applying automated SEM data from intact slabs to predict comminution indicators through an extensive database derived from the characterization of physical properties and an algorithm based on comminution behavior, to predict comminution test results. 

In the final paper of the day, Bjorn Von Der Heyden, a senior lecturer at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, showed how chemistry-mineralogy-texture inter-relationships can be quantified to predict manganese ore comminution response. This is important as South Africa hosts the world’s largest reserve of manganese ore, which is typically of sufficiently high quality for beneficiation solely by dry crushing and screening. 

Bjorn Von Der Heyden (right) at the sundowner

More on Day 1

Tuesday November 12th

Technical Session 3: Chairpersons: George Stonadge (Oxford Instruments, UK) and Bjorn von der Heyden (Stellenbosch University, South Africa)

The day began with a keynote lecture from Quentin Dehaine, a Senior Researcher with the Geological Survey of Finland. He assessed the trends in cobalt mining and processing in relation to mineralogy.

Quentin Dehaine (right)

Fernando Prado Araujo, of KU Leuven. Belgium, is a geologist specialising in the geochemistry, mineralogy, and genesis of mineral deposits, with a particular interest in the geometallurgy of rare metals and battery metal ores. He assessed mineralogical controls on Ni and Co recovery from the HCl leaching of Ni laterites.

Fernando Prado Araujo (right)

Jeremy Guignard, an experimetal mineralogist with I-ROX Technology, France showed how, with application to the Escondida ore deposit, copper sulphides liberation can be improved by using Pulse Power Comminution.

Jeremy Guignard (2nd right)

Hajar Chamlal, a PhD student at University Mohammed VI Polytechnic, Morocco examined a Cu-flotation circuit using automated mineralogy, addressing the diverse primary and secondary copper minerals with inherent textural complexities. By understanding the textural properties of the Cu-minerals, targeted improvements were made to the flotation circuit, ultimately leading to more efficient processing.

Scott Brindle. a graduate of the University of Manchester, UK, is a Senior Geoscientist with XPS Industry Relevant Solutions, Canada. He described a case study characterising Ni-Cu sulphide ores and products from flotation to improve metallurgical outcomes through the application of process mineralogy,

Scott and Jayne Brindle at the conference dinner

With the increasing interest in rare earth element (REE) deposits, and limited literature addressing the mineralogy of such deposits, there is a growing demand for REE mineralogical characterisation studies. Kirsten Youlton, a senior mineralogist at SGS South Africa showed how SGS Mineralogy can characterise these ores, addressing challenges, including mineral chemical variations, substitutions, impurities and solid solutions.

Kirsten Youlton (left)

The shift towards global energy transformation relies on essential metals and minerals, with lithium playing a crucial role in energy storage through Li-ion batteries. Lepidolite, a lithium mica, is abundant in the Beauvoir rare metals granite in France, which also contains fluorine, tin, niobium, tantalum, and beryllium. Chloe Korbel, a PhD candidate at the Universite de Lorraine, France, showed how a combination of  µXRF and µLIBS can be used as a tool to improve the beneficiation routes of these light elements.

Chloe Korbel (2nd right)

Krisztian Szentpeteri is a senior Ore Geology researcher at the Geological Survey of Finland, and he described in-situ lithium quantificiation and mineral mapping using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy for lithium pegmatites.

Ivana Cupido

Taking us to the lunch break, Ivana Cupido, a PhD student at the University of Cape Town, looked at predictive modelling of lithium mineral grades using data analytics and chemical assay data.

Technical Session 4: Chairperson: Natalie Shackleton (AECI Mining Chemicals, South Africa)

Speaking for the second time in the day, Fernando Prado Araujo of KU Leuven, Belgium, introduced a geometallurgical approach to by-product recovery from rare-metal granites.

Gillian Nikka Omaga of the Universite de Lorraine, France, has an MSc in Resources Engineering and a BS in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of the Philippines. She showed that as high-grade ores become depleted, attention shifts towards developing suitable beneficiation strategies for low-grade iron ores, posing significant challenges. She described the characterisation of a low-grade and complex iron ore stockpile and identification of possible beneficiation strategies.

Gillian Nikka Omaga with John Logos Guiang

Daniel Uliana, a process mineralogist and microscopy leader at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, discussed the 3D quantitative mineralogical analysis of a low-grade iron ore and the main challenges in sample preparation.

Daniel Uliana (left)

Mapadi Olifant is a senior scientist at Mintek, South Africa. She holds an Honours Degree in Geology from University of Witwatersrand and is currently pursuing Masters Degree in Geology at the University of Johannesburg. She described an iron ore case study for coarse particle characterisation to predict gravity separation performance.

Mapadi Olifant (left)

Yann Foucaud, an associate professor in mineral processing and applied mineralogy at University of Lorraine, France presented work on the technological characterisation and preliminary beneficiation studies of iron ore from the Mont Reed deposit, Canada, to establish a viable process for producing direct reduction quality concentrate.

Yann Foucaud (2nd right) at the conference dinner

In the final presentation of the day Cornelia Gous, a specialist geometallurgist at Kumba Iron Ore, South Africa, argued that geometallurgy is well established for base metal deposits where the metal recovery is directly linked to the mineralogy itself. However, at a bulk iron ore mine, the science of geometallurgy is relatively new and her presentation followed the journey of an iron company into geometallurgy. 

Cornelia Gous (left)

More on Day 2

Wednesday November 13th

Technical Session 5: Chairpersons: Kirsten Youlton (SGS, South Africa) and Fernando Prado Araujo (KU Leuven, Belgium)

The first five presentations of the morning session dealt with mine waste, starting with a keynote presentation from Anita Parbhakar-Fox, Principal Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia, recently recognised as one of the "100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining", by Women in Mining UK. Anita stressed that meeting the needs of the energy transition is a once-in-a-generation challenge like no other before. To meet the projected metal demand to support this, the global community will produce increased volumes of mine waste requiring best practice management. Mine waste is suspected to be a host of critical metals and minerals. If identified as significant resources of critical metals, re-mining waste can support global effort to adopt circular economy principles. She showed that that mineralogical characterisation is key to identifying valorisation options for not only recovering critical metals/minerals, but to also reduce associated environmental legacy issues and mining footprints.  

Anita Parbhakar-Fox at the Welcome Reception

What not to do with mine waste was the subject of the presentation by Corinne Garner, Senior Mineralogist with conference sponsor Petrolab, UK.

Environmentally friendly mining and remediation is at the forethought of every operational mining company with some finding alternative uses for their waste, commonly as aggregate or within their paste backfill. In theory the use of mine waste as aggregate is an excellent recycling feat, however in practice this can cause widespread catastrophe. A combination of reactive sulphides within weak/porous aggregate has caused oxidation, expansive sulphate formation, and acid generation leading to blockwork cracking and disintegration. Corinne's presentation showed how the use of automated mineralogy can map and quantify these sulphides and confirm sulphate generation.

Corinne Garner and James Strongman of Petrolab

Historical mine tailings represent both an environmental liability and an opportunity for future mineral supply. Amidst the current energy transition, they represent a potentially significant reservoir of unrecovered critical and strategic minerals. Nikita Malafeevskiy, a PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. presented a study focusing on the mineralogical characterisation of historical Storwartz mine tailings from the Røros Ore District, Norway's most prolific mining district with over 300 years of mining history. 

Nikita Malafeevskiy (left) at the sundowner

Manuel Caraballo. an Associate Professor at the University of Huelva, Spain, discussed the role of carbonation and geopolymerisation processes in the cementation of alkaline activated mine tailings.

Manuel Caraballo

The understanding of mine waste properties, particularly tailings, remains limited, as these wastes are often disposed of in tailings dams without further consideration. Current trends aim to valorise waste by reprocessing, yet a considerable waste fraction remains. A comprehensive characterisation is,therefore, crucial to fully grasp the material's properties said Sage Govender, a PhD student at the University of Cape Town. Sage showed how mineral sands mine wastes from two mines had been characterised.

Sage Govender (right)

Despite the transition towards cleaner energy and the manufacturing of associated new technologies and the required critical minerals, gold remains the most heavily invested sector in exploration and Andrew Menzies, Senior Application Scientist with Bruker Nano Analytics, Germany, discussed the role of automated mineralogy in the elusive hunt for gold.

Taking us to the lunch break, Carmel Vasconcelos, a Development Engineer at Boliden, Sweden, described a study from laboratory to industrial scale on Boliden's Kankberg ore to enhance gold-tellurium flotation performance.

Technical Session 6: Chairperson: Megan Becker, University of Cape Town, South Africa

Lucas Pereira, leader of the particle-based modelling group at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, Germany, was one of the young author award winners at last month's IMPC in USA. He discussed the quantification of the flotation kinetics of various copper-bearing minerals under unique reagent regimes, based on their microstructures, with particle-based separation models.

Lucas Pereira (left) at registration

Depressants are used to enhance the valuable minerals recovery and flotation selectivity and Natalie Shackleton, Metallurgy Consultant with conference sponsor AECI Mining Chemicals, South Africa, examined the performance of various depressants with the aim of gaining an understanding of the depressant and gangue minerals characteristics that play a role during froth flotation of PGM ore types.The work clearly demonstrates that the mineralogy of the ore dictates the depressant reagent type for flotation of PGM ores.

Natalie Shackleton (2nd right)

Daniel Dodoo, a Doctoral Student at the University of Melbourne, Australia, showed how, using talc as a case study, the flotability of gangue minerals can be characterised and predicted from X-ray diffraction patterns.

Daniel Dodoo (left)

First Quantum Minerals (FQM) established one of the world's first on-site process mineralogy teams with Auto-SEM-EDS at Kansanshi in Zambia in 2015. Lucy Little, Senior Metallurgist, Mineralogy with FQM described the application of on-site mineralogy at Kansanshi, with implications for production and planning.

Lucy Little (left)

Water hyacinth, an invasive species, disrupts waterways and poses environmental and health risks due to its rapid growth and decomposition. To foster the sustainability of source materials, researchers are now exploring invasive plant species as an emerging source of granular activated carbon (AC). Ntanganedzeni Anastacia Tshikovhi, an R&D Technician at Mintek, South Africa, investigated the synthesis of AC from water hyacinth for potential on-site applications in mineral processing, specifically for gold adsorption in CIP processes and wastewater treatment. The synthesised AC was characterised using techniques such as BET, SEM, and FTIR.

Ntanganedzeni Anastacia Tshikovhi (centre)

In the final presentation of the conference Pia Lois Morales, of the University of Chile. discussed the stabilisation of pulp chemistry during grinding according to mineralogy.

More on day 3

A final thanks to all concerned in making this a great conference, the sponsors, exhibitors, chairpersons, presenters and delegates, and last but not least the wonderful staff at the Vineyard Hotel.  We would greatly appreciate your comments on this posting.

A reminder also that the next conference in the series, Process Mineralogy '26, will be held in November 2026. The venue is currently undecided but is likely to be in Spain.

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