MEI keynote speakers honoured by keynotes at IMPC 2024

Only six weeks now before IMPC 2024 commences in Washington and MEI is proud to be a media partner for the event. Leading the technical sessions will be 14 keynote speakers and I am pleased that half of these have been keynote speakers at MEI Conferences.

Megan Becker is MEI's consultant to the process mineralogy series of conferences. She leads the geometallurgy and process mineralogy research activities in the Centre for Minerals Research, and the Minerals to Metals Initiative in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town. In 2018, Megan was nominated as one of the top 100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining, having numerous academic and industrial collaborations on projects in geometallurgy, process mineralogy, flotation and comminution, hydrometallurgy, and environmental mineralogy. 

Megan will be co-authoring two papers at Process Mineralogy '24 and at Process Mineralogy '22 in Spain she gave a keynote on the contribution of mineralogy to sustainability in the mine life cycle. At the IMPC she will present a keynote on the importance of process mineralogy and geometallurgy in enabling the energy transition.

Megan with Norman Lotter at Process Mineralogy '22

Diana Drinkwater, of Metcelerate, is a mineral processor with over 30 years’ experience in mining operations, engineering and consulting. Her principal interest is professional education and technology transfer, and she has delivered targeted education programmes in Australia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. She has served on the board of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy  and currently chairs the Education Commission of the International Mineral Processing Council which is overseeing a global review of Mineral Processing education. She presented a keynote lecture at Flotation '23 and at IMPC her keynote will address the critical skills needed for production of critical minerals.

Diana Drinkwater (centre) with her Metcelerate colleagues,
Jenny Wiese and Katja Freitag at Flotation '23

Kevin Galvin, of the University of Newcastle, Australia, is the inventor of the Reflux Classifier and the Reflux Flotation Cell. His numerous awards include the Ian Wark Medal, ATSE Clunies Ross Award, and the SME's Antoine Gaudin Award. He has presented keynote lectures at MEI's Physical Separation '09 in Falmouth, and at Physical Separation '22, which was online due to the pandemic. At IMPC he will look at the application of the Boycott Effect in maximising grade and recovery.

Kevin Galvin (right) at Mill Circuits '24 with the team from FLSmidth,
the service provider for the Reflux Classifier and Reflux Flotation Cell

Kym Runge

Another MEI conference which was held online due to Covid was Flotation '21 and a keynote lecture by Kym Runge. leader of the Separation Research Program at the SMI-JKMRC, Australia discussed developments in flotation circuit diagnostic practice. At IMPC Kym will discuss advances in flotation which have the potential to address the challenges associated with the energy transition.

Jacques Eksteen, of Curtin University, Australia,  has been a regular contributor to many MEI Conferences and was a keynote speaker at Precious Metals '15 in Falmouth. His keynote lecture at IMPC will look at the development of sustainable hydrometallurgical technologies for critical minerals and precious metals, focusing on glycine. In the photo below, taken at Precious Metals '15, Jacques Eksteen (right) is talking to Corby Anderson of Colorado School of Mines, USA (centre) and Dave Dreisinger of the University of British Columbia, Canada. Dave Dreisinger will also be a keynote lecturer at the IMPC, discussing new strategies for recovery of nickel and cobalt for a low carbon future.

Ted Bearman and his wife Claire are good friends who I have known since their student days at Camborne School of Mines.

With Ted and Claire at Asia-Pacific 2022 in Melbourne

Ted presented a keynote lecture at Comminution '12 in Cape Town, and at IMPC his keynote lecture will be "Changing the Face of Comminution – Insurmountable Hurdles or Just Speed-humps on the Journey"?

Finally, I must mention Pablo Brito-Parada, of Imperial College, UK,  who will present a keynote at the IMPC on advances in model predictive control for flotation. Although he has never presented a keynote at an MEI Conference, he fulfills a very important role with all the conferences as Editor-in-Chief of Minerals Engineering, a position that he took over from me at the end of 2022. In this role he also acts as editor of the special issues of the MEI Conferences, which are published online via ScienceDirect.

Pablo Brito-Parada (2nd left) at Computational Modelling '19 in Falmouth

A full listing of all 14 keynote lectures at IMPC 2024 can be found on the congress website.