ALTA 2019 - Friday May 24th

ALTA 2019 continued today with Sessions on Lithium Processing running parallel with In-Situ Recovery (ISR) sessions.

 

After a brief welcome from the sponsor, Mining3, ISR began with a keynote address from Dr Horst Maerten, Vice-President of Technology at Heathgate Resources, entitled, "Trends in ISR Technology". Heathgate Resources was established in 1990, and is the owner and operator of the Beverley and Beverley North Uranium Mines in South Australia. Beverley, which commenced production in late 2000, is Australia’s first operating In Situ Recovery (ISR) mine.

This was followed by 14 papers dealing with topics on developments in Uranium ISR, ISR for non-uranium metals, and the use of bacteria. It was good to catch up with MEI's keynote lecturer from Biohydrometallurgy '16, Dr Frank Roberto of Newmont Goldcorp, who presented "Microbially-Assisted In Situ Metal Recovery - Where does it Make Sense?"

The day finished with the Enhancing ISR Permeability Forum, which included a Panel Discussion and Q&A chaired by Dr Laura Kuhar, Research Team Leader at CSIRO.

Over in the Lithium Processing sessions, sponsor OLI Systems, represented by Dr Anthony Gerbino, welcomed delegates, before Adrian Griffin, Managing Director of Lithium Australia, presented, "Innovation Required to Meet Future Lithium Demand".

There followed another 15 papers on various topics ranging from Safety to Purification and Recovery, and included the Novel Lithium Processes Forum and a Panel Discussion and Q&A chaired by Dr Chris Griffith, Seniour Process Chemist/Business Development Lead at ANSTO Minerals.

Martin Viera, Edoardo Sommacal and Justin Ridley of Matec Pacific, which was launched in June 2018 to offer high pressure filtration technology to the Australian market.

James Groutsch of METENG, who was at the conference representing METSIM

At lunch today, there were a number of raffle draws to win prizes at booths, unfortunately I didn't win any of them!

Danielle Hewitt displaying the prizes on offer at the CSIRO booth

Allison Taylor gathers the crowd to the Koch Knight booth for their draw

Greg Mann (Koch Knight) presents Rudy Furrer (Sherritt International) with his prize

A selection of the 17 delegates from CSIRO who attended ALTA this year.
L-R: Danielle Hewitt, Rebecca Meakin, Grant Douglas, Goutam Das &
Joanne Loh Goutam Das presented "Extraction of Lithium from Spodumene Concentrate"
in this afternoon's Novel Lithium Processes Forum

Afternoon tea break

Bongiwe Nkabane and Seshree Pillay of Mintek
Seshree presented "Positioning of IX within the Uranium Industry" during yesterday's Developments in IX Forum, whilst Bongiwe presented "Au from Carbon Fines" in the Gold-PM session yesterday.

ALTA 2019 will continue tomorrow with the short course, "Heap Leaching & it's Application to Copper, Gold, Uranium and Nickel Ores", presented once more by Alan Taylor. But my time here has ended, and what a great time I have. I have met so many new faces, while reconnecting with old, and I have to say a special thank you to the Taylor family for being so welcoming and treating me like one of their own. My last two photos from the conference are for them!

Before I go though, there is a call for papers for ALTA 2020 - the 25th anniversary event, which I'm sure will be very special and I hope to see you all there!

Joan & Alan Taylor presenting Amanda Wills with a gift

Allison Taylor, Amanda Wills, & Rebecca Taylor

ALTA 2019 - Thursday May 23rd

ALTA split into parallel sessions today, with two 1-day conferences: Gold-PM and Uranium-REE.

Uranium-REE began with an opening address from Dr Brett Moldovan, of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), "What will Future Uranium Mining Projects Look Like?".

Using information which was mainly sourced from the IAEA/NEA Red Book, Brett lead us through a summary of the global uranium demand forecast, the supply forecast, an overview of global assured resources, a geological summary of uranium resources, the forecast of global uranium production capability, key considerations for mines of the future and innovation opportunities in the uranium industry.

Dr Karin Soldenhoff, Technology Manager - Minerals at ANSTO, delivered the keynote, entitled "Uranium IX - Past, Present and Future" - a challenge indeed for a 35 minute slot!

Over in the Gold-PM session, Prof Jacques Eksteen, Director of the Gold Technology Group  and Chair of Extractive Metallurgy at the Western Australia School of Mines, Curtin University, delivered the keynote address, "Fit-for-Purpose Precious Metals Leach Systems: Matching Leach Strategies to Source Characteristics".

Both sessions were busy days, with Uranium-REE containing another 14 presentations, culminating in the Developments in IX Forum with a Panel Discussion and Q&A led chaired by Alan Taylor, whilst the Gold-PM session contained another 15 presentations and included the Fit-for-Purpose Leaching Systems Forum with a Panel Discussion and Q&A chaired by Prof Jacques Eksteen.

CSIRO were well represented at this year's ALTA, with around 17 delegates attending over the 5 days.  Today they had 3 presentations in the Gold-PM session, including "Demonstration at Scale in the Field of a Non-Toxic Reagent System to Recover Gold", presented by Dr Paul Bruer, Principal Research Scientist - Gold Processing.

Gay Walton, Kevin Quinlan and Danielle Hewitt, all of CSIRO

Dane Platyes and Matthew Kiem 

Daya Dallakoti and Santo Varghese of Flowrox 

Frank Trask, Technical Director at Mining and Process Solutions

Joan Taylor (ALTA Metallurgical Services) with Greg Mann (Koch Knight)
Koch Knight are celebrating 15 years of support for the ALTA conference

Pete Smith, General Manager of MOGAS Australia

Joe Zhou (Joe Zhou Mineralogy), Jianqiao Kang (Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy (BRICEM)), Ziying Li (Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology) and Li Boping (Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology)
Joe presented "Geometallurgy and Process Mineralogy of Gold Ores: Methodologies and Applications in Process Selection and Plant Optimization" in the Gold-PM session today, whilst Jianqiao presented "The Research of Cladding Technology for Acidic Uranium Tailings and the Control of Radon Exhalation" in the Uranium-REE session.

Conference sponsors EKATO drew visitors to their booth with their virtual reality experience

The day ended with a Happy Hour, with drinks and snacks provided courtesy of sponsors Ausenco.

Happy Hours are regular occurrences at MEI Conferences, as they provide an excellent way to wind down and network with fellow delegates.

I was lucky enough to chat to Julia Garside of AusYGN (below) who was at the conference for the day to promote the International Youth Nuclear Congress (IYNC), which is being held in Sydney, Australia on 8-13 March 2020, and co-hosted with the Australian Young Generation in Nuclear (AusYGN). Under the theme Diversity in Nuclear, the mission of IYNC2020 is to promote and enable the diversity of people engaged in the many peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology.

Julia Garside (AusYGN)

I was also pleased to meet Murdoch Mackenzie, of JMW Mackenzie, who has attended every ALTA conference!

Allison Taylor with Murdoch Mackenzie

 Outotec (sponsors of Physical Separation '19, Flotation '19, and Comminution '20) were well represented

Lukasz Szwancyber (left) and colleagues from KGHM Polska Miedz

Dwight Van der Meulen from SGS Australia (left) and colleagues with Ben Sipos (AngloGold Ashanti)

Justin Ridley (Matec Pacific), Martin Viera (Matec Pacific), Cathy Cheng (CPC Engineering), George Butjor (Electric Metals) & Edoardo Sommacal (Matec Pacific)

ALTA 2019 - Wednesday May 22nd

Today was the last day of the Nickel-Cobalt-Copper conference, and began with Pavel Spiridonav of InnovEco Australia presenting his second paper of the conference, "Investigation of the Resin in Moist Mix Process for the Nickel and Cobalt Recovery from Laterites".

Next up were two papers on Heap Leaching, and then after the coffee break, the rest of the day was devoted to the Pressure Acid Leaching Forum, which acknowledged the 20 year anniversary of the commissioning of the Bulong, Cawse and Murrin Murrin PAL projects, with 8 papers. This included two papers from Clean TeQ's Sunrise Project in NSW.

Fiona Sofra, Managing Director of Rheological Consulting Services, presented a paper on the project's flowsheet rheology and it's implications on the process design, and Tim Harrison, Manager of Process Development at Clean TeQ, presented "The Clean TeQ Sunrise Project - Pilot Demonstrated Upgrade of Pressure Acid Leach Discharge Through Use of Continuous Resin in Pulp Technology.

The day finished with a Pressure Acid Leaching Panel Discussion and Q&A chaired by Alan Taylor.

Jim Wall & Tim Harrison of Clean TeQ

Brenton Ward and Luzaan Jooste of Turtle Tough talking to Diane Quan (Purolite)

Pavel Spiridonov (InnovEco Australia) chatting to Ben Gatzlaff and Kevin Merrie at the Rema Tip Top booth

Steuler KCH held a draw during the lunch break for a bottle of Royal Salute Scotch Whisky

Iain Bennett, Managing Director of Steuler KCH presents the lucky winner with his whisky

Matthew Newman and Pete Forakis of SGS with their demonstration autoclave

Danielle Hewitt, Technology Transfer Advisor at CSIRO Mineral Resources (left) chats to delegates during a coffee break

ALTA 2019 - Conference Dinner

Last night's conference dinner was a fine affair. Held in the Pan Pacific's Grand River Ballroom, staff had made an impressive quick change from conference room to dinner venue.

The theme of the evening was Star Wars, and after pre-dinner drinks in an anteroom, the 150 guests were welcomed into the ballroom by the sound of the Star Wars theme tune and greeted by Stormtroopers and R2D2!

Amanda Wills with a balloon Stormtrooper

The dinner was sponsored by JordProxa, and General Manager John Warner gave a few words to the guests, before Alan Taylor presented, "The Rise of Cobalt - A Laterite Wars Story". Alan raised more than a few laughs from the audience with his comparison's with 007, Jason Bourne and the Star Wars series of movies.

Alan Taylor entertained guests with his dinner speech

The food was excellent quality, as was the wine, and I was lucky enough to enjoy great company at my table. As well as the Taylor's; Alan, Joan, Allison and Rebecca, I enjoyed getting to know David and Amanda Weight better, and chatting to Bryn Harris about our Zambian connection. Also present were Jacques Eksteen - a familiar face from our MEI Conferences, Karin Soldenhoff, and Adrian & Josephine Griffin.

Amanda Weight, Josephine & Adrian Griffin, and Allison Taylor

Luzaan Jooste getting to grips with the Stormtroopers

Adrian Griffin and Alan Taylor

Bryn Harris, Karin Soldenhoff and Jacques Eksteen

ALTA 2019 - Tuesday May 21st

There were 12 papers presented today, on the topics of Extraction and Purification, Filtration, and Leaching Process Development.

Mike Hourn, General Manager at Glencore Technology (sponsors of MEI's Flotation '19 and Comminution '20 conferences) kicked things off with "First Commercialisation of the Albion Process for Copper".

Mike began by giving us an overview of Glencore's activities in Africa and the challenges involved, before running us through the key highlights of the Albion Process. He then lead us through the development of the Albion Process for copper at the Sable Copper Project in Zambia, which averaged a 98.5% copper recovery rate, thereby proving that the technology could be used with copper.

He was followed by Bravo Mbao, Regional Technical Manager at Solvay (who are also sponsoring Flotation '19), who presented, "Acorga CR60 Crud Mitigation Reagent - Commercial Trials in North America and Africa". Rather than deal with crud on a reactive basis, Solvay has developed a reagent which inactivates crud formation under certain conditions in copper SX, according to the results of these trials.

Bravo can be seen below with some of his colleagues at Solvay's exhibit booth.

Tryphena Mitchell, Ashley Stewart, Alun James & Bravo Mpao of Solvay

Below are a selection of photos from the rest of the day:

Gary Zhang, Fumin Guo & Jean-Marc Vesselle from Sunresin New Materials

Karin Soldenhoff (ANTSO) & Peter Haig (BASF)

Geoff McGaw and Mark Mulligan from FLSmidth

Frank Roberto (Newmont Goldcorp), Denis Shiers (CSIRO), Danielle Hewitt (CSIRO Mineral Resources), Scott Shuey (Newmont Mining) and Judy McShane (BHP Nickel West)

Boyd Willis, Principal at Boyd Willis Hydromet Consulting, who presented a paper on "The Platina Scandium Project - One Step Closer to Production"

Lunch in the exhibition area

Grant Wellwood (Jenike & Johanson)

ALTA 2019 - Monday May 20th

Now in it's 24th year, this year's ALTA conference is being held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth, from May 18-24, and comprises of five international conferences in one week:

* Nickel-Cobalt-Copper (20-22 May) including Pressure Acid Leaching Forum & Panel
* Uranium-REE (23 May) including Developments in IX Forum & Panel
* Gold-PM (23 May) including Fit-for-Purpose Leaching Systems Forum & Panel
* In Situ Recovery (ISR) (24 May) including Enhancing ISR Permeability Forum & Panel
* Lithium Processing (24 May) including Novel Lithium Processes Forum & Panel

and three Short Courses presented by Alan Taylor, the Conference Founder and Chair and Managing Director & Metallurgical Consultant, ALTA Metallurgical Services :

 

* Treatment of Nickel-Cobalt Laterites (18 May)
* Copper SX/EW Basic Principles and Detailed Plant Design (19 May)
* Heap Leaching & its Application to Copper, Gold, Uranium & Nickel Ores (25 May)

Today, Monday 20th, saw the start of the Nickel-Cobalt-Copper sessions. Alan welcomed delegates to the conference, informing us that this year has seen a record number of attendees, with over 440 delegates from 32 countries, 40% of which are from overseas. There are also roughly 40 exhibitors, and, as with MEI Conferences, all coffee and lunch breaks are held in the exhibition area.

Joan & Alan Taylor

The conference was then officially opened by David Weight, President of the Cobalt Institute, UK, who gave a review of the history of the cobalt industry and the challenges it now faces in the age of lithium-ion batteries. It was clear from listening to David that one of the most important challenges of this growing market will be recycling. The Institute is also calling for more proportionality in the global regulation of cobalt compounds.

L-R: David Pattinson (SRK Consulting UK), Andrew Tong (Cobalt Blue Holdings), & David Weight (Cobalt Institute)

David was followed by Dr Bryn Harris, Managing Partner of NMR360 Inc., Canada, who presented the keynote address, "The future of Ni-Co-Cu processing in the age of lithium-ion batteries".

Bryn first gave a brief history of batteries, during which I learnt that the term battery is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, who first used it in 1749 when he was doing experiments with electricity using a set of linked capacitors (an interesting history of batteries can be found here), before discussing the growth in electric vehicles, cobalt supply-demand relationships, and cobalt-nickel-copper production and reserves before moving onto an overview of current recycling methods, none of which are currently satisfactory.

Bryn Harris (NMR360) & Amanda Wills (MEI)

Following the first coffee break, Dr Stephen Grocott, Chief Technical Development Officer at Clean TeQ, presented, "The Clean TeQ Sunrise Project - a one stop shop from nickel laterites to lithium ion battery feedstock - project update". There were then 5 papers dealing with battery metals, with a break for a delicious lunch of Mexican food in the middle, during which I got a chance to mingle.

Nobuzwe Makhotla (Innospec Performance Chemicals) & Amanda Wills (MEI)

Jeremy Rattigan (EMCS International)

Gary Frampton (BHP Nickel West), Bryn Harris (NMR360) & George (Tony) Eltrington (Tony Eltrington Consulting)

Kevin Rainbird & Hugh Gullick of Metso Australia

After the afternoon coffee break, there were two papers dealing with laterite processing and two on project risk, and then it was straight into the Welcome Function.

Sponsored by NobelClad, this was a 2-hour event featuring wine, beer and canapes, held in the exhibition area, that flew by... it's a sign of good company and good conversation when I don't get round to taking many photos!

Natalia Streltsova (Vintage94), Ivor Bryan (Mining and Process Solutions), & Frank Trask (Mining and Process Solutions)