Monday at Comminution '25

Monday 31st March

MEI's Jon Wills opened Comminution '25 this morning, welcoming the 236 delegates from 28 countries to this the 14th conference in the series and the biggest since Comminution '12 thirteen years ago.

Jon thanked our consultant Prof. Aubrey Mainza and our sponsors King's Beads, Russell Mineral Equipment, Global Met Tech, Glencore Technology, ME Elecmetal,  Metso, Eracles - Ceramiche Tecniche, FLS, Magotteaux, CiDRA Minerals Processing, Weir Minerals, Capstone Copper, Sino Grinding, Metcelerate, Nesch Mintec, Conundrum, Derrick, Maelgwyn Mineral Services, Molycop, FKK, Steinert, and CITIC Heavy Industries and our media partners International Mining  and Minerals Engineering and industry advocates the CEEC: Coalition for Minerals Efficiency and the Critical Minerals Association. 

Jon said a few words in memory of absent friends - John Starkey who died in January and Sam Palaniandy who died last May.

A keynote by Carsten Schilde, of Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany opened the day of 18 presentations, which will be summarised in a few weeks time with links to the extended abstracts.

Carsten's keynote was all about the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on comminution modelling, and AI came to MEI Conferences at Flotation '23 when we welcomed the first time involvement of Conundrum, a UK company which creates advanced machine learning software for the digital transformation of the metals and mining industry, which they feel is an industry foundational to the modern economy where digital transformation secures enormous financial and sustainable manufacturing impact. The company was so impressed by Flotation '23 that they signed up at the meeting as sponsors of four of the next six conferences in our portfolio, including Comminution '25. 

It was good to welcome back Conundrum owner Mat Matthews, who was talking to  Marcos de Paiva Bueno, the CEO of Geopyörä, Finland, who presenting the first paper after the keynote.

It was good to see Marcos as he is recovering after a serious cycling accident a couple of months ago which left him with several bruises and a broken collarbone.

Marcos and Mat

Yufan Mu one of five delegates from Molycop, representing Australia, South Africa and Spain, presented the first sponsor paper of the conference. Molycop is a pioneer supplier of breakthrough technologies and cutting-edge solutions. 

Yufan is 2nd right below in the Molycop booth, with colleagues Paul Shelley (2nd left) and Oliver Samukute (centre), who were with Marnu Lombaard of Orway Australia (left) and Abraham Kabinga, of Barrick, Zambia (right).

I first met Eyüp Altuncu of FKK Mining, Türkiye, at the International Mineral Processing Congress in USA. FKK is one of the first local companies in Türkiye to produce rubber linings and lifter bars for grinding mills. 

We welcome the company and Eyüp to their first MEI conference, as a sponsor. He is with Oktay Celep (left) and Ersin Yazici (right) of Karadeniz Technical University, Türkiye. Ersin will be presented a paper on behalf of the company on Thursday.

It's always good to see the team from conference sponsor Derrick Corporation, a family-owned and operated company focused on pioneering fine separation technology, leading the industry in the design and manufacture of patented high-frequency vibratory screening machines and screen surfaces. 

Screens are replacing classifiers in many grinding mill circuits as classifying by size-only they give a sharper separation than hydrocyclones with multidensity feeds and reduce overgrinding of the dense minerals, and Derrick South Africa's two delegates Nic Barkhuysen and Wynand Erasmus were highlighting their new developments in this area.

Nic (centre) and Wynand (right) with Ali Khademi of LKAB, Sweden

Also good to catch up with my old friend Chris Martin, of RSG Inc, USA, manufacturers of dry ultrafine grinding machines. Although the company he formed in 1992 is based in Alabama, Chris is a fellow Brit, and an avid Manchester United fan, which I try my best to not hold against him....

Chris (right) sharing a Mancunian joke

Scantech International is an Australian based technology developer and leader in the application of real time measurement systems for conveyed bulk materials. 

The company is represented by George Tabi, seen talking below to Christiaan Muller, of PT Growth Asia, Indonesia and Benoit Clermont of Magotteaux International, Belgium.

The long coffee and lunch breaks have been hives of activity with much interest in the exhibition, our biggest ever, and in the poster presentations.

During the afternoon coffee break it was great to see our former Flotation consultant J-P Franzidis.

J-P (centre) with Marcelo Tavares, Malcolm Powell, me and Aubrey Mainza

And it was good of J-P to join us and the conference delegates after a long hard day, to relax at the evening sundowner in the Vineyard gardens.

And a pleasant surprise to catch up with our former Biomining consultant Sue Harrison, who now alternates between University of Cape Town and her present position at the University of Queensland.

A great end to a great day!