Is physical separation still relevant in 2024?

Not only is physical separation relevant in 2024, James Agenbag, of Mineral Technologies, South Africa, will argue in his keynote lecture at Physical Separation '24 that it is of critical importance.

James will show how, as the world transitions into the fourth Industrial Revolution, weening ourselves away from our dependence on fossil fuels and towards a more sustainable future, we will have to mine and process minerals at a scale never seen in human history. This time, we will be mining not to consume and burn, but to build and to recycle.

To fuel a technology-driven, power-hungry world through renewable energies, we need a new power generation infrastructure, with solar panels, wind turbines,batteries and motors requiring enormous quantities of copper, lithium, uranium,manganese, rare earths and other so-called critical minerals. 

Because these elements occur in small quantities in the earth’s crust, we will need to dig up many,many, many millions of tons of dirt to extract these critical elements. But today’s world will not allow us to dig things up in the way we have in the past hundred years. We cannot continue to rely on energy-intensive and polluting bruteforce mining and processing methods, milling everything to dust, before floating or leaching. Our processing methods will have to use less power and water, to create the minimum environmental disturbance.

Physical separation is the most energy-efficient, chemical-free means of sorting and upgrading minerals. It is already, but will become an even more vital first-stage in future flow sheets. In addition, physical separation will also become a critical step in the recycling of batteries, cables, cell-phones and other electronics as we start to close the metal loop and start to re-use more and mine less.

The future world needs metals. Metals (unless recycled) come from minerals, which need to be processed from low-grade ores. Many of those processes involve and will require physical separation to be efficient and cost effective. So the future world needs mineral processing and it needs physical separation. 

James Agenbag is the Regional Sales Manager - Africa at Mineral Technologies where he leads the African team by designing strategies, building high-performance teams, and strengthening relationships with key and new customers. He has commissioned mineral separation plants in South Africa, Botswana, Ghana, Indonesia and Australia.

Physical Separation '24 will be the 8th in this popular MEI conference series and is sponsored by Steinert, Comex Group, Conundrum, and Capstone Copper. Our Media Partners are International Mining and Minerals Engineering, and our Industry Advocates are the Critical Minerals Association. The provisional programme will be published very soon, so it is not too late to submit abstracts if you are involved in any aspect of physical separation.

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