Memories of Reagents '04, Falmouth

Reagents '04 began 20 years ago yesterday at the Falmouth Beach Hotel, which was sadly destroyed by fire eight years later. Sponsored by Akzo Nobel and Cytec this first MEI reagents conference was attended by 50 delegates from 22 countries.

The Akzo Nobel booth

The Cytec booth

As with all MEI Conferences, an important part of the event was the social programme. On the first night, the formal Gala Dinner was preceded by a brisk cliff walk showing some of Falmouth's coastal scenery. On the second night delegates were taken on a tour of the historic Basset Mines, part of the heritage trail centred on the Great Flat Lode area of Camborne-Redruth, one of the world's most mined areas, mainly for copper and tin.

I am sure there are many familiar faces in the photos below, taken during the cliff walk, gala dinner and the mine tour.

Mill Circuits '24: the final day

 The six presentations in yesterday's final session dealt with various aspects of comminution, beginning with process control of SAG/AG mills from Victor Portnov of Conundrum Industrial, UK. 

Conundrum is a sponsor not only of this conference, but also of Physical Separation '24 earlier in the week, and of the next four MEI Conferences. Conundrum is a small team of process engineering and AI experts whose mission is to expedite the shift of the metals & mining industry to the border of the physical limit of manufacturing efficiency, and during the morning coffee break Victor was talking to Adam McElroy, of Boliden, Sweden and Jenni Sweet of Mining3, South Africa.

Adam, Jenni and Victor

KSB of South Africa is one of the world's leading suppliers of pumps and valves and related services. The company is represented by Jacques Pretorius, seen talking below to Craig Brickhill and Ricus Van Reenen, of FLSmidth, South Africa.

Craig, Jacques and Ricus

It is good to have four delegates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo at the conference. Trudon Kalumba and Henoc Botulu are from the Kamoto Copper Company in Kolwezi, a copper and cobalt producer jointly owned by Glencore (75%) and Gécamines (25%).

Ngomo Batondo Dylan and Francois Onya Shongo were at the conference representing the Technical Cell for Coordination and Mining Planning, the body for advice, studies and coordination of mining activities in the DMRC.

It was good to meet our two delegates from Orezone Gold Corporation in Burkina Faso, Mohamed Ilboudo and Martial Sorgho. Oregold is a Canadian exploration and development company, engaged in mining, developing, and exploring its flagship Bomboré Gold Mine in Burkina Faso. The Bomboré mine achieved commercial production on its oxide operations on December 1, 2022, and is now focused on its staged hard rock expansion that is expected to materially increase annual and life-of-mine gold production from the processing of hard rock mineral reserves.

The final afternoon of the conference was devoted to a panel discussion on the future evolution of mill circuits, admirably chaired by FLSmidth's Dariusz Lelinski, with panelists Keven Galvin, University of Newcastle, Australia, Dave Meadows, Bechtel, USA, Rajiv Chandramohan, Ausenco, Canada and Victor Portnov, Conundrum, UK. It would be very difficult to summarise this 90 minute discussion, on wide ranging topics, so I don't intend to try but invite comments from all those involved.

Dariusz, Dave, Victor, Rajiv and Kevin

Amanda closed the conference, thanking all concerned, particularly our sponsors, and invited attendance at the 2nd conference in the series, which will be held at the Vineyard from April 24-25 2026, immediately following Physical Separation '26. To highlight that Mill refers to the concentrator, and not just to grinding mills, the title of the conference will be changed to Mineral Processing Circuits '26.

Following the closing we said our goodbyes in the exhibition area over final drinks.

A full album of photos is available for viewing. Please feel free to download photos for your personal use, but for corporate use please acknowledge the source, MEI Conferences.

#MillCircuits24

Mill Circuits '24 gets underway

Physical Separation '24 finished on Wednesday evening with farewell drinks, immediately followed by welcoming drinks for the 2-day Mill Circuits '24 conference.

Wednesday evening welcoming drinks for the first arrivals

On Thursday morning I welcomed the 52 delegates from 17 countries to this inaugural mill circuits conference, and thanked our sponsors, FLSmidth, Capstone Copper and Conundrum, our media partners International Mining and Minerals Engineering, and our industry advocate the Critical Minerals Association.

Friday's panel discussion is on the future evolution of mill circuits, so I set the scene for this by summarising the evolution of mill circuits during the three industrial revolutions, steam, electricity and computers, leading to the present 4th revolution, the Green Revolution.

The panel discussion will be chaired by Dariusz Lelinski, of FLSmidth, USA and he got the technical sessions off to a great start with his keynote lecture showing how innovation in flotation technology can deliver sustainable productivity, now and into the future.

One of the innovations he discussed was FLSmidth's Reflux Flotation Cell (RFC) invented by Kevin Galvin, of the University of Newcastle, Australia. During the coffee break I caught up with the FLSmidth team with Prof. Galvin. Dariusz is in the centre, holding a model of the RFC, with Prof. Galvin on the right.

The keynote was followed by eight presentations. These will be summarised in a report in a couple of weeks' time.

During the lunch break it was good to catch up with two debut delegates, Ivan Verzhenyuk, from Metso, Kazakhstan and Iakov Vdovin of TEM-Partner, Russian Federation, a company which supplies process equipment for the mining industry.

Ivan and Iakov

Gebr. Pfeiffer is a family-run business with its head office in Kaiserslautern, Germany, The company has pioneered the development of modern grinding, separating, drying, slaking, and calcining technologies for more than 150 years. Represented by Patrick Heyd and Bruno Kovacs, they are seen below talking to Craig Macmillan, of Africa Mining and Industrial Solutions, Namibia.

Patrick, Craig and Bruno

Groot Constantia is South Africa's oldest wine-producing farm, situated in the beautiful Constantia Valley, under Table Mountain.  Its Simon's Restaurant provided a relaxing venue at the end of the day for the informal conference dinner.

#MillCircuits24

Wednesday at Physical Separation '24

The final day of the conference, with 10 presentations on the physical separation of clays, iron ores, ilmenite, chromium and tin, and a last chance to talk to the exhibitors during the coffee and lunch breaks.

Represented at an MEI Conference for the first time, Consulmet is a specialist South African engineering group focused on fast-tracked design and construction of minerals processing plants, particularly in remote locations and developing countries. Consulmet has delivered greenfield and brownfield projects in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and South America for BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Anglo American, mid-tier and junior mining companies. Consulmet's Nico Van Vuuren and Ryno Pieters are shown below talking to Nicolene Roux, of Fraser Alexander, South Africa.

South Africa's Mintek has a strong presence at the conference, with seven delegates, shown below in a brief respite from the rain that has arrived today.

Gravitas Minerals is also exhibiting for the first time. This South African company has developed unique mineral processing processes, the Kalahari Process for iron ore and manganese processing, the Optima Process for coal processing and the ChromEx Process for chrome and ferrochrome.

In the photo below Tebogo Kale and Franco van de Venter (right) of Gravitas are talking to Kerneels Muller, Fred Bibbey and Schalk Bekker, of Tugela Mining and Minerals, South Africa, also specialising in innovative mineral processing techniques.

In closing the conference Amanda thanked the sponsors once more, as well as the exhibitors, chairpersons, authors and the delegates who have made this such a special event. After inviting everyone to Physical Separation '26, which will be held at the Vineyard again from April 20-23, 2026, we said all our goodbyes with final drinks in the conference foyer and terrace.

The remaining delegates at the end of the Farewell Drinks

A full album of photos is available for viewing. Please feel free to download photos for your personal use, but for corporate use please acknowledge the source, MEI Conferences.

PhysicalSeparation24

Tuesday at Physical Separation '24

The importance of sensor-based sorting is increasing rapidly, with the need to reduce energy and water consumption, and papers from leading players, conference sponsors Steinert and Comex, opened today's proceedings, followed by a paper from Vale, Brazil on sorting performance (there will be a summary of papers in a couple of weeks' time).

The Steinert team of Jean Makola, John Knouwds (Germany),  Priscila Esteves (Steinert Latinamericana, Brazil) and Lutke von Ketelhodt (Germany)
with Bruno Kovacs of Gebr.Pfeiffer SE, Germany

The team from Vale, Brazil: Mariana Pereira, Thailli Conte, Rogerio Kwitko-Ribeiro,
Vitor Andrade and Kassia Toccolini

Magnetic and electrostatic separation took us to the lunch break, which was followed by presentations on classification and screening.

It was good to welcome Chinese company Huate Magnet to its first MEI conference. The  company is the manufacturer of the world’s largest vertical ring Wet High Gradient Magnetic Separator (WHGMS) and High Gradient Magnetic Filter (HGMF).

Candice Hsu and Jason Liu of Huate with Schalk Bekker, of Tugela Mining and Minerals,
South Africa and Wynand Erasmus of Derrick, South Africa

I first met Mike Flanagan at the IMPC in Sydney in 1993. He was the founder, in 1974, of Boxmag Rapid South Africa and was managing Director of Magnapower which became Magquip, for which he is now a consultant. His son Rory Flanagan is managing director and they are pictured in their booth with Tomas Machalek of VSB- Technical University of Ostrava, Czech Republic. 

Tomas, Mike and Rory

Eriez, USA is a well known manufacturer of magnetic separators, and they are represented here by Eriez Magnetics, South Africa, and I called in to talk to Sales Director Theuns van Rensburg.

Following the day's presentation we travelled by bus to the heart of Cape Town for an always great evening of dining and entertainment, with a 14-dish taste of Africa menu, at the Gold Restaurant.

#PhysicalSeparation24