UK Mining Conference in Cornwall 2025: Insights from a day in Falmouth

The annual UK Mining Conference in Cornwall was held in Falmouth, Cornwall, from June 11 to 12, 2025 at the Princess Pavilion and Gyllyngdune Gardens. Organised by Jay One Events, the conference has established itself as a key gathering for professionals in the mining, investment, and energy sectors, with a strong focus on sustainable practices and the UK’s critical mineral supply chain.

This year’s event saw a record attendance of over 440 delegates from 15 countries. As the Princess Pavilion can accommodate only 320 people, additional relay screens were set up outside in a marquee and within the exhibition area to accommodate the overflow.

The Princess Pavilion

The overflow marquee

The conference attracted professional and private investors, brokers, financial institutions, supply chain consultants, government representatives, trade associations, as well as mine operators and explorers. It's not the kind of event I typically cover, but since it was taking place so close to home, I called in for the first day and spent some time speaking with attendees. As a result, I won’t be reporting on the 40 presentations, but rather sharing insights gathered from conversations on the ground. 

Mineral processors were very sparse on the ground, but I did manage to catch up with a few. The first was Neil Rowson, who I last saw at Physical Separation '19, also in Falmouth. He is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Birmingham, having spent over 25 years at Birmingham focusing on metal recovery, from mining to recycling critical metals,using magnetic, electrostatic separation, optical sorting, and biochemical methods.

He now serves as Laboratory Manager at Bunting-Redditch's Customer Experience Centre, where he leads hands-on tests and demonstrations for students, researchers, and industry partners using a wide array of equipment: Rare Earth Roll, Magnetic Disc, Wet High Intensity Magnetic Separators (WHIMS), Eddy Current, Electrostatic, and Stainless-Steel Separators. He was with Bunting-Redditch's Technical Sales Manager Phil Tree and Application Engineer / Sales Engineer Michael Allen, who gave a talk at the conference on magnetic separation. Neil's long time colleague at Birmingham was Terry Veasey, who also consulted for Bunting-Redditch when it was known as Master Magnets.

Phil, Michael and Neil

Sepro Mineral Systems Corp., founded in 1987 and based in Langley, British Columbia, Canada, specialises in designing and manufacturing mineral-processing equipment and offering full process engineering services. The Sepro booth was manned by local man Doug Caffell, a regular at the Cornish Mining Sundowners, who reported strong interest in Sepro's Frontier bowl for Falcon gravity concentrators. Doug is seen talking to Val Coetzee, Director of Process and Technology, and Paul Morgan, Senior Process Consultant - Comminution, of DRA Projects Europe, renowned for dense media separation, particularly on platinum-group metal ores, as well as flotation, milling, and classification design.

Paul, Val and Doug

It was good to catch up with Paul, who graduated in mineral processing technology from Camborne School of Mines in 1985, and to talk to him and another of my CSM students, Paul Benjamin, who also graduated in mineral processing technology at CSM in 1985. Paul is now VP Research at Ocean Partners UK Limited.

With Paul Morgan and Paul Benjamin

Jens-Michael Bergmann

There were, of course, a number of presentations at the conference on developments in mining in Cornwall, particularly tin and lithium, but I have kept up to date with those developments on the sundowner postings. I regularly report on developments at South Crofty tin mine in Camborne and in March I spoke with Cornish Metals metallurgical consultant Mike Hallewell who outlined the proposed mill circuit, using pre-concentration to reduce downstream processing and pastefill costs. The latest TOMRA XRT technology for the coarser fractions and Gekko jigs for the finer fractions will be used and TOMRA was another of the small number of mineral processing companies represented at the conference. It was good to see Jens-Michael Bergmann, TOMRA's Area Sales Manager for Europe, MENA, and India, who gave a presentation showing how TOMRA Mining is pushing the boundaries of sensor-based sorting with cutting-edge AI to drive efficiency, sustainability, and smarter decision-making in mining operations.

Although not a mineral processor, Alan Butcher is a highly respected geologist/mineralogist with a strong interest in process mineralogy. We go back a long way since we were both lecturers at CSM in the 1990s before he moved to Australia in 1998 to aid with the development of QEMSCAN automated mineralogy with CSIRO. In 2003 he became part of Intellection Pty Ltd, incorporated specifically to bring QEMSCAN to market. During his 5 years with Intellection Alan and I organised three annual conferences on automated mineralogy in Brisbane, which evolved into MEI's current process mineralogy series. Alan is now Chief Scientist and Technical Director with Hafren Scientific Ltd, UK and is an advisor to MEI's Process Mineralogy '26 and Critical Minerals '26. In the photo below Alan (right) is with fellow mineralogists, Al Cropp of Geotek, James Strongman of Petrolab and Mike Snape and Jack Thornton of Rockwash Geodata.

The Critical Minerals Association (CMA) is an industry advocate to MEI's next major conference, Flotation '25. The CMA is an influential voice in securing responsible mineral supply chains. Its major strengths include policy advocacy, cross-sector working groups, robust networking events, and close ties with Parliament and government, all aimed at supporting the transition to a green economy.

Jeff  Townsend is a co-founder of the CMA and a leading voice in the global critical minerals sector. He is also the son of my long time friend Ian Townsend, a well known mineral processor who for many years was with Larox and Outotec before his retirement.

With Ian Townsend at UK Mining 2023

It was good to see Jeff and Becca Kirk, who collaborates with CMA ’s technical and event teams, serving as a specialist on biogeochemistry.

Becca showed me the first copy of the UK Critical Minerals Investment Prospectus, showcasing investment opportunities in projects and services across the UK. Becca is also in her final year of a PhD at CSM on lithium biogeochemistry.

Becca and Jeff, with CSM Director Pat Foster

It was good to see strong female representation, something which would have been unheard of in my early days at CSM in the 1970s. The Women in Mining (WIM) UK organisation is shaping a more inclusive and high‑performing mining industry by empowering women through recognition, networking, education, and advocacy. The Managing Director of WIM UK is Cornwall-based Lucy Crane, who in recent years has been a high profile member of the Cornish Lithium team, as ESG and Sustainability Manager. She recently took up the role of Sustainability Consultant at Satarla, which supports organisations in making informed, risk-based decisions that turn Sustainability and ESG goals into practical action. Lucy (centre) and some of her WIM colleagues are shown in the photo below.

Lucy was one of the panelists on the Peter Hackett Education Panel discussion, which ended the first day of the conference. Chaired by CSM Director Pat Foster, the other panelists were Angela Bentley of Earth Science Teachers' Association, Suzie Doe, of Minerals Matter and Mark Cutifani of Vale Base Metals, and former CEO of Anglo American. The most important questions concerned how we attract and retain talent in our industry and how we change outdated perceptions along the way. "I don't think you can understate the problem," said Mark Cutifani, "the mining industry is facing a "grey tsunami" as experienced professionals retire without enough new talent being recruited to replace them. It touches most senior leadership, middle management, frontline supervisory in the field, and safety - everything in the industry. We have a lot of work to do to turn it around". 

Suzie Doe said meaningful and early engagement with young people is essential, something which I've often echoed on the MEI Blog (notably the post of 25th August 2024). Industry and mining institutions could take inspiration from the 1970s Minerals Industry Manpower and Careers Unit (MIMCU), a brilliant initiative led by Geoff Cox and supported by the then CSM Principal Peter Hackett (see also post from September 9, 2024).

Pat Foster, Angela Bentley, Mark Cutifani and Suzie Doe
Photo: Minerals Matter

It was an interesting first day and Jay One Events must be congratulated on organising such a large conference so efficiently. This is probably due to the fact that, as with MEI, they have a small dedicated team, led by Managing Director Jane Isaacs, who brings extensive experience in event management. Their mission of building business connections through targeted events was clearly realised here.  Well done team! 

The next UK Mining Conference in Cornwall is scheduled for 10-11 June 2026 in Falmouth.