UK Mining Conference continues to grow

The annual UK Mining Conference in Cornwall was created by Jeremy Wrathall, of Cornish Lithium, in 2019 and is aimed at professional and private investors, brokers, financial institutions, supply chain consultants, government representatives, trade associations, as well as mine operators and explorers. 

Cornwall is the most appropriate area of the UK to hold such an event at it is at the centre of a renewed UK mining boom because of its deposits of lithium, tin, tungsten and other critical minerals. Recent developments include geothermal-lithium extraction projects and efforts to reopen historic mines such as South Crofty. An independent report published this week highlights how Cornish Lithium is set to unlock £5bn for the UK economy, tripling the GVA of the mining and quarrying sector in Cornwall and creating a further 1000+ jobs in the county. Lithium production should support the production of 760,000 EVs per year, enough to meet around 40% of the Government's annual lithium production target by 2035. 

The conference was held on 10-11 June, and was attended by over 450 delegates from 21 countries, a far cry from the 30 delegates at its inception in 2019. There were also pre and post conference events, including a geothermal forum, a geologists workshop, an investors congress, various site visits and a gala dinner with presentation of awards.

On the evening prior to the conference I called in at my 'local' the Chain Locker to hopefully catch up with some of the delegates attending a Cornish buffet supper, and I wasn't disappointed. I shared an outside table with a group of familiar Camborne School of Mines people. Linda and Mark Shimmield are based in Adelaide, but spend time in Cornwall each summer. Linda was the founding secretary of the CSM Association, and husband Mark graduated in mining engineering in 1982 and three years later Paul Benjamin and Andrew Mitchell graduated in mineral processing. It was also good to meet Arlan Yeleusszov. from Kazakhstan, who is completing an MSc in mining at CSM.

Linda, Paul, Arlan, Andrew, me and Mark

It was also good to see Jens-Michael Bergmann and Oxana Penning, of TOMRA, who will be supplying their sensor-based sorting machines to Cornwall's South Crofty tin mine and to Devon's Tungsten West mine at Hemerdon. The company will be exhibiting at Comminution '27 in Cape Town next April.

And on the way home I bumped into another CSM alumnus, Kirk Adams, and his partner Isabelle. Kirk, who will be the MC at the conference dinner, graduated in mining engineering in 1985.

UK Mining in Cornwall is not a mineral processing conference, but the venue, Falmouth's Princess Pavillion is only a short distance from home, so, as last year, I called in for the first morning, hoping to catch up with a few familiar faces.

Delegates have come from all over the world and none so far as Australia, so it was great to see Ben Wraith and Nigel Grigg, of Gekko Systems, Melbourne. Gekko will be providing jigs to Tungsten West and likely to the South Crofty project.

Ben and Nigel

Sepro Mineral Services will be supplying Falcon gravity concentrators to South Crofty, and Doug Caffell I last saw in Cape Town in April, where Sepro were exhibiting at Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26.

Doug Caffell (right) at the Sepro booth

Dave Mildren was also at Physical Separation '26 representing Gravity Mining as a sponsor. Cornwall-based Gravity Mining produces the Multi-Gravity Separators, and Dave and his bother Treve were at the MintMech stand, talking to their team of Ashley Hares, Laurie Thornton and Alun Jones. MintMech is a Cornwall-based engineering company focused on offshore marine, drilling, automation, and specialist industrial equipment.

MintMech also provides engineering and fabrication support to Gravity Mining, handling the design and build of the huge C910 MGS chassis, drum support arms and oscillating drive mount, to improve construction and performance.

Ashley, Laurie, Treve, Dave and Alun

I was pleased that Mervyn Stevens and Dan Cairns, of Worley, UK, introduced themselves to me. They will be at Critical Minerals '26 in Cape Town in November, where Mervyn will be presenting a paper on circular battery flowsheets, incorporating process intensification, selective impurity rejection and reagent regeneration to improve lithium, nickel, cobalt, and manganese recovery.

With Mervyn and Dan

It was great to see the AFX Mixing and Pumping Technologies team. The company sponsored Biomining '20, which was scheduled to be held in Falmouth, but because of Covid became an online conference, Biomining '21 the following year.

AFX Mixing and Pumping Technologies is a UK and South Africa-linked engineering company that designs and manufactures industrial mixing systems, agitators, and peristaltic hose pumps for heavy-duty process industries. The South African side of the business began as AFROMIX in 2006 and the UK business, AFX Mixing And Pumping Technologies Limited, was incorporated in 2015 and is headquartered in Poole, Dorset. Because of the South African connection the team expressed strong interest in an involvement with Hydrometallurgy '27 next year in Cape Town.

The AFX team

I had to confess to Kevin Hall and Steve Kilner that I had never heard of BJD Crushers, so it was good to talk to them. The company is based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and traces its roots back to 1897 under the original name British Jeffrey Diamond, which is where the initials BJD come from. They produce roll and impact crushers for quarrying, cement production, waste recycling, power generation and chemical processing.

Kevin and Steve

And finally, it's always great to catch up with Lucy Crane, who also lives in Falmouth. Lucy is Managing Director of Women in Mining (UK). WIM UK is a professional organisation, founded in 2006 to promote careers in mining and minerals for women, support networking and mentorship, improve gender diversity in the industry and to highlight female leaders and role models. It works with mining companies, universities, and policy makers to improve inclusion across the sector.

Lucy (centre) and the WIM UK team

It was an interesting few hours at the meeting and, as always, Jay One Events should be congratulated on organising such a large conference so efficiently. The next UK Mining Conference in Cornwall is scheduled for the week beginning 14th June 2027, at Falmouth's Princess Pavillion.

#MEIBlog

MEI's Amanda at MetPlant 2026

MetPlant '26, Australia's premier mineral processing event, was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre this week, with a theme of "World’s Best Practice in Metallurgical Plant Design and Operating Strategies". Presentations included ESG in processing operations, water and tailings management, unit processes such as gravity, sorting, comminution, flotation, filtration, thickening, process control, hydrometallurgy and pyrometallurgy and refining. 

Historically, MetPlant has been organised by the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), as it was on my last visit in 2013, and Amanda's in 2019. Although MetPlant '26 was closely linked to AusIMM networks and communities, it was organised by an external committee, headed by the very able convenor Janine Herzig, a former AusIMM President and former Executive President and Director of the Coalition for Minerals Efficiency (CEEC). CEEC is an industry advocate for MEI's Critical Minerals '26 and Comminution '27 and was a media partner for MetPlant '26, as was MEI.

Amanda Wills and Janine Herzig

Amanda represented MEI at the conference, and reported on her experiences each day through LinkedIn (#MetPlant 2026). Her daily reports and photos are summarised below.

MetPlant '26 began on Sunday afternoon with what Amanda described as a sobering Special Distinguished Lecture by Simon Michaux, of the Geological Survey of Finland - "Do we have the metals required to transition away from fossil fuels?"  The short answer being no! He said that Britain cannot deliver on its ambitious net zero push because the world does not have enough minerals to do it, one of the reasons why we feel that Critical Minerals '26 in November is so important (see also posting of 10 April 2023).  Good to hear that the new South Australian Premier has positioned mining as one of the top two priorities for the government.

The lecture was followed up by a "Meet the Exhibitors" networking drinks reception where Amanda was happy to spend some time chatting with Kevin Galvin, of the University of Newcastle, Bill Skinner, of Adelaide University,  Adel Vatandoost, of Fortescue and Richmond Asamoah, of Adelaide University, amongst others.

Kevin, Bill, Adel and Richmond

Kevin and Richmond will be involved with presentations at next month's Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26 in Cape Town, Kevin presenting the keynote lecture at Mineral Processing Circuits '26.

Adel suggested that, although MEI's Process Mineralogy '26 will have geometallurgy input,  we might consider running a conference dedicated solely to geometallurgy and mine-to-mill. Thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Amanda enjoyed Monday's first morning at MetPlant, which was packed with great presentations.  She particularly enjoyed Jess Page's on "Applications of Generative AI in Heap Leach Modelling" as it was directly relevant to MEI's new conference pairing, AI in Mineral Processing '27 and Hydrometallurgy '27, and she caught up with some familiar faces during the coffee and lunch breaks.

Amanda with Nobuzwe Makhotla of Innospec, South Africa

Sam Ayoub and Basil Ayoub of Continental Engineering Services, Australia

Alfredtina Appiah (University of Tasmania), Daniel Nyarko (Adelaide University)
and Andrew Newell (SLR Consulting)

Amanda also enjoyed the Monday afternoon and evening. She said the afternoon was packed with interesting papers, including one from Mark Drechsler on "Early gangue rejection using gyratory rolls crushing technology", and another from Matt Pyle, of Ausenco, on "Cost effective concentrator design".

Mark is seen first left on the photo below, with fellow Adelaide University students and staff.

Source: LinkedIn

There was plenty of time for networking too. As well as the afternoon coffee break, JKTech Pty Ltd sponsored a Welcome Reception in the exhibition hall, where Amanda was delighted to catch up with Rod Price and Paul Pengpai, of Sino Grinding International, sponsors of Comminution '27.

Also sponsoring Comminution '27 is Metcelerate and Amanda caught up with Diana Drinkwater and Elaine Wightman, who very kindly invited her out for a wonderful Japanese banquet once the reception had ended. 

Diana, Elaine and Gerson Sandoval

Christy Randall, Tania Ledezm and Peter Bartsch

Bill Skinner, Tom Hilder, Virginia and Bob Lawson

Finally, Amanda was pleased to see Marco Lombard again, having not seen him since MetPlant 2019. Along with Xavier du Toit, seen in the photo below with Danielle Bell of Core Resources Pty Ltd and Matt Lloyd of Stone Three, he is part of the Magotteaux delegation, who are also sponsors of Comminution '27 as well as Flotation '27.

Marco, Danielle, Matt and Xavier

Amanda caught up with Marco and Xavier and the rest of the team on Tuesday morning at the Magotteaux sponsored breakfast where there was an excellent keynote lecture on AI-Driven Process Plant Optimisation by Ali Soofastaei of Soofastaei Institute. 

The Magotteaux team (source LinkedIn)

Then it was straight into the first session of the day, on "Plant Optimisation", which included two papers from PT Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara, a major Indonesian mining company. covering operations at Batu Hijau, one of the largest copper-gold mines in Indonesia. Senior metallurgist, Victor Suganda Rulie discussed improving oversize detection at the Batu Hijau gyratory crushers.

At the end of the session, CEEC Director Grant Ballantyne, the 2017 MEI Young Person's Award winner, awarded the CEEC International medals, as well as a surprise Special Recognition prize to Joe Pease, of Mineralis, a former CEEC chairman.

Joe Pease (2nd right) with Mineralis colleagues (source LinkedIn)

During the coffee break, Amanda was happy to see Matthew Toll, a frequent visitor to MEI's comminution conferences with Global Met Tech. Matthew had also presented in the first session  "Improving regrind performance on Bozshakol copper concentrate", and he was with his colleague Murray Johnson. Amanda also chatted with Chris Heah of ME Elecmetal, another of our Comminution '27 sponsors.

Matthew, Murray and Chris

The afternoon saw another packed programme, including an interesting presentation by Toni Kojovic, Managing Director of SimSAGe Pty Ltd, on "Application of rapid hardness index testing for estimating ore hardness and grindability".

Following the last session, those with tickets for the Syensqo sponsored Conference Dinner gathered for pre-dinner drinks, where Amanda talked to Richmond Asamoah, of Adelaide University and Andry Lazamanana, of Magotteaux.

Andry, Amanda and Richmond

She said the dinner was delicious and delegates were treated to a fascinating and entertaining talk by Prof Melissa de Zwart on "Space is not a "Wild West": Why you need a lawyer in space". 

And so to Wednesday, the final day at MetPlant which proved to be just as informative and fun as the first two!

Amanda decided to skip the breakfast presentation, and so had a slower morning, beginning with an interesting keynote from Neville Plint, of Mining3, on "Can collaborations simplify commercialisation of novel technologies?".

Chris Greet, consultant at Magotteaux and Mineralis, provided plenty of entertainment with his talk on "Application of vertical shaft impact on SAG mill pebble scats", and to finish the session it was time for the Russell Mineral Equipment Innovation Award. Congratulations to Brianna Ganly on winning with her presentation on "Real-time measurement of silica in process stream".

Amanda enjoyed catching up with Juan Diego Hiedra, of Carbo Industrial Technologies, Spain and Pradeep Sahu, of Eirich Official,  during coffee, as well as George Abaka-Wood, Richel Annan Dadzie and Theophilus Amos-Judge, of Adelaide University.

Pradeep and Juan

George, Richel and Theophilus

She admits to skipping the next session, in order to spend a bit more time chatting with the exhibitors, including Ron Roy, Jody Crow and  Christopher Hockaday of ALS, and also taking the opportunity to pop into the Syensqo booth to thank Stuart Emery and Tony Moore for the dinner on Tuesday evening.

Ron, Jody and Christopher

Stuart and Tony

Lunch was spent chatting to Rachel O'Halloran, of Australian Institute of Business and Mark Drechsler, of Adelaide University, among others, and Amanda was delighted to be introduced to Kyran Daniel by his father Mike Daniel, both of CMD Consulting.

Mark, Rachel, Kyran and Mike

Caroline Woywadt, André and Julia Kluge of Gebr. Pfeiffer Mining, Germany

The final session of the conference, Case Studies, included a presentation by Michael Davis, of MineScope Services, on "The golden path to recovery of refractory gold".

The conference ended with the awards for Best Paper, Presentation, Poster, and People's Choice - congratulations to Didit Ardi Maulana, Liam Coleman and Elise Naumann, Ali Rezvani, and Courtney Dobson.

Finally, delegates gathered one more time, to have a drink together and say goodbyes. Amanda says it was so good to catch up with so many familiar faces from our MEI Conferences and to meet so many new people and she hopes to see as many of you as possible at upcoming events this year and next, as well as MetPlant 2028 in Adelaide in March 2028.

A huge thank you to the conference convenor, Janine Herzig - you did a fantastic job!

#MetPlant2026
#MEIBlog

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!

#MEIBlog

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.