Wednesday at Flotation '25

MEI's consultant Jim Finch, Emeritus Professor at McGill University, Canada, opened the day with a keynote lecture on frothers, which was followed by eight presentations on frothers and surfactants. 

Graeme Jameson and Jim Finch

After that, the major manufacturers of mechanical and pneumatic flotation cells, all conference sponsors,  took centre stage. Chinese company BGRIMM described their mechanical machine, currently the world's biggest mechanical machine and FLS compared developments on their large machines, the WEMCO and WEMCO II. FLS also manufactures two of Kevin Galvin's inventions, the Reflux Flotation Cell and the CoarseAIR, also highlighted today in presentations.

The BGRIMM machine on display in the exhibit booth

Kevin Galvin and Graeme Jameson are the inventors of five novel flotation cells from Australia's University of Newcastle (posting of 23rd June 2025). The NovaCell, licensed to Jord, is Graeme Jameson's latest invention, and was the subject of two presentations today.

The Concorde Flotation Cell is the second of Prof. Jameson's three flotation inventions, a paper on his established Jameson Cell being presented by Glencore Technology on Monday. The Concorde Cell is licensed to Metso, represented by a team of 17, and was the subject of two presentations. A further Metso presentation introduced their new Coarse Particle Flotation technology. This was presented by Nathalie Kupka. Only 6 years ago I had dinner with Nathalie and other PhD students at the Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology, Germany (posting of 14th October 2019) and 2 months ago she became Business Manager for New Flotation Technologies at Metso, responsible for driving the success of the Concorde Cell and the novel Coarse Particle Flotation technology. 

Nathalie Kupka and Chantel Fourie with the Concorde Cell

Eriez manufacture three successful flotation technologies, Hydrofloat, the StackCell and the CavTube column, all highlighted in presentations today. Maelgwyn Mineral Services are long standing sponsors of MEI's flotation and comminution conferences and manufacture the  Imhoflot Cell, the subject of one of today's presentations.

A welcome break for lunch

During the afternoon coffee break I managed to catch up with three MEI Young Person's Award winners, Paulina Vallejos (2023), Ahmad Hassanzadeh (2020) and Paulina Quintanilla (2021).

Belma Sonmez Somer, of Akkim Kimya, called me over for a chat with her and her colleague Mahir Bulut.  Akkim Kimya is a well-established Turkish chemical manufacturer with a broad portfolio and global reach. 

With Belma and Mahir

And then the BASF team stopped me for a chat. BASF is a global chemical company headquartered in Germany, with a  portfolio of flotation reagents: collectors, frothers, modifiers, emphasising sustainable aspects.

I then caught up with a company new to MEI. Draslovka is a global chemical technologies company, primarily based in the Czech Republic, specialising in cyanide based chemicals and more recently in sustainable mining reagents and process technologies. In April 2023, Draslovka completed the acquisition of Blue Cube Systems. Blue Cube Systems was founded in 2001 in South Africa (Stellenbosch) to develop fast, in-line mineral analysers, and is well known to past MEI Conferences. It was good to talk to their two delegates Carika Haasbroek and Stefan Smit, both based in South Africa.

Another company new to MEI is South African company Enprotec, which is showcasing its flotation cell technology, which provides solutions to ultrafine flotation. They were very enthusiastic about the interactions and quality presentations at the meeting.

Enprotec with Gavin Mare, Annalie van Schoor and Arne Lourens

An extremely long and intensive day finished with sundowner drinks in the late evening sunshine.

The Maelgwyn Minerals team

#Flotation25