Monday at Physical Separation '26

MEI's Jon Wills opened the first day of Physical Separation '26, the 9th in the series, thanking our sponsors, Promet101, Comex Group, Gravity Mining, Steinert, TOMRA, Capstone Copper, and Mineral Technologies and media partners International Mining and Minerals Engineering. 

Jon welcomed the 76 delegates from 15 countries, a number unfortunately depleted by travel restrictions due to the war in the Middle East.

Jon then had the pleasant task of presenting the 2024 MEI Young Person's Award to Arjun Pukkella of Metso, Finland (posting of 14th April 2025).

The first session began with a keynote presentation from Kristian Waters of McGill University, Canada, who discussed the resurgence of physical separation. This was followed by six presentations in the morning session, dealing mainly with sensor-based sorters for pre-concentration of a variety of ore minerals. Three of these presentations were from conference sponsors Steinert, TOMRA and Comex. 

Priscila Esteves, Technical Director at Steinert Latinoamericana, presented recent developments and operational trends in sensor-based-sorting, focusing on the increasing need for flexibility, higher throughput and robust integration within modern mining flowsheets. In line with these developments, Steinert has released the company’s latest development for improved operational flexibility and enhanced performance for high-capacity mining environments. The new generation platform reflects the continued evolution of combined sensor sorting technology toward separation flexibility and higher throughput capability, supporting its application across a wider range of mining conditions and processing circuit requirements. 

John Knouwds, Priscila Esteves and Jean Makola, of Steinert,
talking to David Goldburn, of Holman-Wilfley, UK

Kai Bartram, Global Sales Manager at TOMRA said that he had looked forward to speaking about one of his favorite topics: AI in sorting technology. He said that he probably understands the technology itself only at a high level, without going deeply into every technical detail. But he looks very closely at what it actually changes in practice, feeling that many people still ignore or underestimate this development. At the same time, we all use tools like ChatGPT or Copilot every day to make our work easier. In comparison, the impact of AI in sorting technology has so far only been analysed in a very basic way. The future will be very exciting!

Steve Chingwaru, of University of Queensland, with Corne de Jager and Kai Bartram, of TOMRA

Comex has developed a triple product sorting machine, where the material identification process is carried out by a complex multisensory system, and where a two-threshold separation system allows for triple product separation. Particle ejection is the main novelty of the sorting system, where the separated particles can be ejected to three fractions/products. Difficult particles can be separated to the third fraction, which can represent middlings. Such material can then be processed separately, increasing accuracy and the reducing overall cost.

With Jakub Progorowicz, of Comex Polska

It was also good to catch up with Arjun Pukkella during the long morning coffee break, for a photo with the MEI team and his award.

Following the lunch break, the afternoon session focused on sizing and classification, including a paper from Derrick Corporation, specialists in fine screening equipment.

John Tran and Wynand Erasmus, of Derrick, with Niel Lourens, of Multotec

Dabmar Screens, represented for the first time at an MEI conference, are also screening specialists. They are represented by Gregor Martin, from South Africa, and Josef Martin from USA.  Dabmar was founded in 1966 in KwaZulu-Natal, and CEO Josef is the son of the founder, Otto Martin. his son Gregor being Operations Manager.

Gregor Martin, with his father, Josef

And at the end of a great day, for the first time in our long history at the Vineyard. the evening sundowner had to be held indoors due to the continuing inclement weather. Hopefully we will be able to venture outdoors tomorrow!

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