IMPC Distinguished Service Award to Tim Napier-Munn

At last night's International Mineral Processing Congress Awards Banquet in Maryland, USA, I was delighted to hear that Prof. Tim Napier-Munn was the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award of the International Mineral Processing Council, but I was disappointed that he was unable to attend the Congress to receive it.

I have known Tim for 37 years and regard him as one of the most outstanding members of the mineral processing fraternity. He was the first person who I interviewed for the MEI Blog back in 2014. When Elsevier asked me for a 7th edition of my book Mineral Processing Technology it was Tim who I turned to as the first co-editor in the series. The book was successful and was also translated into a Chinese edition.

His own book Statistical Methods for Mineral Engineers, based on his statistics course which he has presented around the world, has become a standard reference for mineral processing researchers and he is globally recognised as probably the leading exponent in the area of statistical analysis of mineral processing. Another of his many scholarly contributions was his editorship of the JKMRC “Blue Book” on comminution in 1996.

There can be few people in the global minerals processing community who have made more significant contributions to further our understanding of the technology of minerals processing than Tim, across a career spanning almost 50 years, and for the impact such outputs have had on industrial practice. 

Much of his career has been spent in senior positions at the eminent Julius Kuttschnitt Minerals Research Centre (JKMRC) at the University of Queensland.  Apart from his seminal contributions in processing technologies he has made noteworthy contributions to the study and modelling of dense-medium hydrocyclones. His PhD on this topic was undertaken at Imperial College London in 1984, but his interest continues, and he has published numerous highly cited papers on the analysis and modelling of these and other hydrocyclones. He has also made major contributions in areas such as comminution, classification and flotation and he is arguably best known for his contributions in the general area of modelling and simulation of mineral processes. 

Perhaps his most significant service to the industry has been through his Directorship of the JKMRC and JKTech.  He has played a major role in these organisations, which under his leadership have produced many outstanding graduates who are today playing major leadership roles on many continents. 

Professor Tim Napier-Munn’s many other achievements include the award of numerous prestigious honours from the IOM3 and AusIMM and he is without doubt a worthy recipient of the IMPC Distinguished Service Award.