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