January Cornish Mining Sundowner

It was good to see so many at last night's sundowner at the County Arms Hotel in Truro.

There were a few new faces and I was particularly pleased to see Penny Davies at her first sundowner. Penny is the partner of Dean Eastbury, by far the best of the many Elsevier Executive Publishing Managers who worked with me on my time as Editor-in-Chief of Minerals Engineering. Dean is now retired in Hayle, three train station stops from Truro and is a regular sundowner attendee.

Penny and Dean (centre) with Barbara and me

There was good news this month that one of our fairly regular attendees at the sundowners, Frances Wall, Professor of Applied Mineralogy at Camborne School of Mines and one of the world’s foremost experts on critical minerals and mining, has been awarded an OBE for services to Geoscience and Sustainable Resource Development in the King's New Year's Honours List.

Frances is a former Head of CSM, currently leading and taking part in large research projects on technology metals, circular economy, digital transformation and regional development, as well as teaching geology and mining and serving in various roles such as chair of the British Geological Survey Science Advisory Committee, trustee of the CSM Trust, Cornish Institute of Engineers and the Royal Geological Society of Cornwall. She was recipient of the William Smith Medal of the Geological Society in 2019 and nominated one of the 100 Global Inspiration Women in Mining 2016. In 2018 she presented a keynote lecture at MEI's Process Mineralogy '18 in Cape Town. Congratulations, Frances on behalf of us all.

Frances Wall (left) at Process Mineralogy '18

On Tuesday,there was a meeting on Cornish critical minerals at No. 10 Downing Street with the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisor for Business and Trade.  The meeting covered the importance of Cornwall for critical minerals projects and highlighted the tin/ tungsten/ lithium opportunities. Cornish Lithium's Jeremy Wrathall highlighted the lithium opportunity, alongside Fawzi Hanano, Cornish Metals plc for tin and Dennis Rowland, Cornwall Resources Limited for tungsten. Industry association representatives Ola Zawalna, of Cornwall Mining and Geo-Resources Alliance and Kirsty Benham of the Critical Minerals Association (UK) attended on behalf of the wider industry, including Imerys British Lithium Ltd, Tungsten West plc, Cornish Tin Ltd and Geothermal Engineering Ltd. 

The meeting was another positive development in UK Government support for the critical minerals sector, which needs engagement at the highest levels of government to ensure UK global competitiveness in the critical minerals space and grow the businesses that will help to secure critical mineral supply chains domestically and alongside partner nations. 

We are back at Falmouth's Chain Locker for the next sundowner, on Thursday February 19th, from 5.30pm.

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Looking Ahead to April: MEI’s First Conferences of the Year in Cape Town

MEI’s first conferences of the year are now just three months away, and we look forward to two outstanding events at Cape Town’s beautiful Vineyard Hotel.

Physical Separation ’26, the ninth conference in this successful series, is sponsored by Promet101, Gravity Mining, Steinert, TOMRA, Capstone Copper, and Mineral Technologies.

The conference will open with a keynote lecture, "Back to the future: the resurgence of physical separations", presented by Dr. Kristian Waters of McGill University, Canada. This will be followed by 36 technical presentations covering sorting, gravity, magnetic, high-tension and tribo-electrostatic separation, hydrocyclones, and industrial screening.

The full programme is available on the website, with links to abstracts and speaker biodetails. The conference timetable can also be downloaded as a pdf.

The conference dinner will take place at the nearby Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, widely acclaimed as one of the world’s great botanical gardens. Few venues can rival the sheer grandeur of Kirstenbosch, set against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s iconic Table Mountain.

Immediately following Physical Separation ’26 is Mineral Processing Circuits ’26, sponsored by Promet101 and Capstone Copper. Media partners for both conferences are International Mining and Minerals Engineering.

The opening keynote, "A new paradigm for mineral processing circuits: what might underpin the philosophy?", will be delivered by Kevin Galvin, Laureate Professor and Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Kevin is well known as the inventor of the Reflux Classifier and Reflux Flotation Cell, and more recently the CoarseAir flotation cell.

Following the keynote, the conference will feature 31 presentations delivered over two days. The full programme and abstracts are available on the website, and the timetable can be downloaded as a pdf.

A new venue has been chosen for the conference dinner: The Wild Fig Restaurant, an 18th-century farmhouse nestled in the shadow of Table Mountain.

We look forward to welcoming delegates to what promises to be an outstanding week of conferences in Cape Town. Together they promise an engaging week of technical discussion, networking, and exceptional surroundings..

#PhysicalSeparation26
#MineralProcessing Circuits26
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The Business of Flotation

The late Professor Dee Bradshaw was a strong proponent of the value of international travel and conference presentation for postgraduate students. In conjunction with Dr. Norm Lotter, Dee Bradshaw conceived the idea for ‘The Business of Flotation’ but was unable to see the completion of the book due to a terminal illness. The eBook has now been published, edited by Norman Lotter and Prof. Margeth Tadie and MEI's Process Mineralogy consultant Prof. Megan Becker, with MEI's Comminution consultant Prof. Aubrey Mainza contributing to the chapter on grinding strategies.

With Dee Bradshaw, Norm Lotter and Megan Becker at Process Mineralogy '17

The deliberate choice of the title "The Business of Flotation" underscores the authors’ contention that while flotation is a technological process, its application is fundamentally a business strategy for extracting paymetals from mined ore. This comprehensive, easy-to read book goes beyond the traditional approaches, emphasising asset management optimisation and addressing the performance gap in concentrator operations. The authors employ an integrated method, incorporating sampling, mineralogy, semiconductor theory, electrochemistry, and flotation testing, to provide practical insights for achieving peak plant performance. The final chapters cover statistically designed plant-scale trials, offering a roadmap for implementing improvements and increasing profitability. As the industry faces challenges such as low ore grade and mineralogical complexity, this multidisciplinary approach emerges as a forward-thinking solution for success in paymetal extraction operations: a blueprint that amounts to "the business of flotation".

A portion of the sales from the book will be used to create a travel fund in honour of the late Dee Bradshaw, emeritus professor at the University of Cape Town. The fund will be used to contribute towards the travel costs of international PhD students to attend and present their research at the annual Conference of Metallurgy and Materials (COM) of the Metallurgy and Materials Society of CIM (MetSoc).

One scholarship will be awarded per year to a PhD student for the presentation of a full research paper. The postgraduate student must be currently registered for full time PhD studies at a recognised university outside of Canada. The student cannot be a Canadian and the PhD focus area must be in flotation.

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A Busy Year Ahead for MEI

Happy New Year to you all and let's hope it will be a better one than 2025, with less conflict and upheaval across the world. The MEI team will be represented at a number of conferences this year and we hope to catch up with as many of you as possible.

I have been to 22 Annual Meetings of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, but last year's event in Denver may have been my last. Next month's SME Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City will be attended by Jon, so look out for him there and pass any interesting news on to him, as he will be reporting daily.

In the following month Amanda will be in Adelaide for MetPlant 2026. MEI is a media partner and I look forward to Amanda's report on this, which is Australia's premier mineral processing event.

One of the keynote speakers at MetPlant is Prof. Kevin Galvin, Director of ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals at the University of Newcastle. Kevin will also be presenting a keynote lecture at Mineral Processing Circuits '26 in Cape Town in April, MEI's second conference of the year. 

Immediately preceding Mineral Processing Circuits '26 is Physical Separation '26 and there is much to look forward to in these two conferences at the Vineyard Hotel.

Amanda will be in Orléans, France in September for the 26th International Biohydrometallurgy Symposium. MEI is a media partner, and abstract submission is open to the 15th of this month.

MEI is also a media partner for the International Mineral Processing Congress, which will be held at Cape Town's Convention Centre in October, five years after its scheduled 2020 date, which had to be postponed due to Covid. 

MEI will be represented by Amanda and me and Amanda's son Will, the latest member of the team. We look forward to this with much anticipation as the Cape Town IMPC of 2003 was one of the best in the series. The organisers of IMPC 2026 expect to gather over 1,000 professionals and academics from the mining industry, representing around 50 countries. The highlight will be the conference banquet where Lifetime Achievement, Distinguished Service and Young Authors' Awards will be made.

We will be back in Cape Town the following month for MEI's Process Mineralogy '26 and Critical Minerals' 26 and there are calls for abstracts for both of these events.

There is much to look forward to in 2026!

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December summary: Christmas in the Alps

Flotation '25, which dominated our November, now seems an age away. We were blessed with hot sunny weather in Cape Town, but returned to a very wet and windy Cornwall.

It was great to prematurely celebrate my 80th birthday at the conference dinner in Cape Town (posting of 19th November), and a week after my birthday I had a belated birthday treat with family from the north of England, a celebration also of Barbara's 79th birthday.

Christmas was special, with a week in Méribel in the French Alps with Amanda and Jon and families. Méribel lies at the heart of Les Trois Vallées (The Three Valleys- Courcheval, Méribel and Belleville), the largest interconnected ski area in the world. 

The Courcheval Valley from La Saulire which separates the Méribel and Courcheval Valleys

Skiing days are in the past now for Barbara and me, but the rest of the family. from expert (Jon) to beginners,  made full use of one of the best all-round ski resorts in the Alps.

Barbara and I made use of pedestrian lift passes to take gondolas up the mountains, just for the views and to visit summit restaurants, and to walk trails through forests and mountain landscapes.

The mountain scenery is stunning but was enhanced on Christmas Eve by a temperature inversion, which produced dense clouds and a sprinkling of snow in the valleys with clear, warmer air above the ocean of clouds.

Christmas Day Après-ski 

The MEI team, Jon, Amanda, Will, Barry

Now we are all back home and preparing for the New Year, so I take this opportunity of wishing you all the very best for 2026.

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Season's Greetings from MEI

On behalf of the family at MEI, I would like to wish you all a wonderful festive season and a very happy New Year. This year we are all celebrating Christmas together at Meribel in the French Alps.

We hope to catch up with as many of you as possible in 2026 in various parts of the world.

Thank you for supporting all that we do and a big thank you to all of you who have sent us Christmas greetings by email and via LinkedIn.