In brief: Loesche to sponsor Comminution '18; Gold Ore Processing 2nd edition; Mineral Processing for sustainable growth; Recent Comments

Loesche to sponsor Comminution '18

Loesche is an owner-managed engineering company founded in Berlin in 1906 and currently based in Düsseldorf, Germany that designs, manufactures and services vertical roller mills for grinding of coal, cement raw materials, granulated slag, industrial minerals and ores.

The Loesche Vertical Roller Mills (VRM) have been used since the 1930s to grind cement raw material. They operate with two, three, four or six rollers and combine drying, grinding and classification operations in one unit.

Loesche was a sponsor of Comminution '16, where a number of papers were presented showing how these mills are now being used successfully in hard rock applications, and we are pleased to welcome the company as the 9th sponsor of Comminution '18.

Current sponsors of Comminution '18

 

Gold Ore Processing 2nd edition

The new edition of Gold Ore Processing: Project Development and Operations, edited by Mike Adams, Associate Editor of Elsevier's Hydrometallurgy, brings together all the technical aspects relevant to modern gold ore processing, offering a practical perspective that is vital to the successful and responsible development, operation, and closure of any gold ore processing operation. This completely updated edition features coverage of established, newly implemented, and emerging technologies; updated case studies; and additional topics, including automated mineralogy and geometallurgy, cyanide code compliance, recovery of gold from e-waste, handling of gaseous emissions, mercury and arsenic, emerging non-cyanide leaching systems, hydro re-mining, water management, solid-liquid separation, and treatment of challenging ores such as double refractory carbonaceous sulfides. Outlining best practices in gold processing from a variety of perspectives, this volume is an ideal reference for anyone working in the gold industry, including metallurgists, geologists, chemists, mining engineers, and many others.

 

Mineral Processing for Sustainable Growth

Sustainable Minerals '16 was held in Falmouth last month, and the first speaker at the event was Prof. Robin Batterham, of the University of Melbourne. Appropriately Robin is also the first speaker on an excellent 19 minute video, produced by the International Mineral Processing Council during the 2012 IMPC in New Delhi. The other eminent speakers who give their views on sustainability and mineral processing's important role are the late Roberto Villas-Boas, John Herbst, Janusz Laskowski, Ponisseril Somasundaran, T.C. Rao, Prakash Kapur and Cyril O'Connor.

 

Recent comments

There have been comments on the following postings since the last update.

Developing a flotation model from first principles

Do today's engineering lecturers lack industrial experience?

Roberto Villas-Boas, 1943-2016

In brief (17th June)

A nostalgic week in Chingola

Return to Nchanga, Zambia's greatest copper mine

Let's start to take bad science seriously

Biohydromet '14 conference diary

 

Twitter @barrywills

In brief: Journal Impact Factors published; Congratulations to David Wiseman; Recent Comments

Journal Impact Factors Published

Journal impact factors for 2015 have recently been published (MEI Online), and I am pleased to see that Minerals Engineering still heads the table of leading mineral processing journals, with Elsevier's specialist journal Hydrometallurgy as usual in first place. On behalf of myself and Associate Editor Pablo Brito-Parada, many thanks to contributing authors, and of course, to our team of dedicated reviewers, for maintaining the journal's high standards.

Impact factor trends for mineral processing journals

Congratulations to David Wiseman

The AusIMM awards recognise contributions to the Institute and celebrate outstanding contributions to best practice professionalism in the minerals industry. The 2016 award winners have just been announced (MEI Online) and among them is an old friend of MEI, David Wiseman, who has attended, presented at, and sponsored many past MEI Conferences.

MEI's Amanda with David Wiseman at Physical Separation '13 in Falmouth  

David is recognised for the invention, development and commercialisation of an innovative software application for flowsheet development and drawing, mass balancing and process simulation called LIMN® ‘The Flowsheet Processor’. Development of LIMN began in1994 and it has since found application in 31 countries and more than 20 commodities/industries. More than 800 licenses have been sold. It has become the industry standard for modelling and simulation of coal preparation and diamond and iron ore upgrading plants in Australia and South Africa and increasingly in Europe and the Americas. It has also been applied in many other industries, including base metals minerals processing and hydrometallurgy.

Former JKMRC Director Prof. Alban Lynch spoke very highly of David in his MEI interview two years ago. By 1980 models of grinding and flotation circuits were well developed; many short courses were given on modelling, but simulation could not be used widely because engineers did not have easy access to bureau type computers. Personal computers were becoming available so a project was established to put the models on a PC. To demonstrate the validity of the modelling work and debug the programme the engineer who wrote the software spent 6 months with the PC at plants of AMIRA sponsors in USA and 6 months with sponsors in Australia. This was the origin of JKSimMet, which he feels was so successful because "a guy called Dave Wiseman wrote it. He had a lot of experience at Mount Isa, so he knew what was needed from a simulator". Knowing David well, I could understand Alban's praise for him, and his ability to keep things simple, a failing of many modern models, which have become so complex and difficult to understand that they are not easily accepted by operators.

Congratulations to David and all the other Award winners, from all at MEI.

Recent comments

There have been comments on the following postings since the last update:

Controversial “invisible gold” paper published

Challenges in processing nickel laterite ores

In brief (9th June)

Do today's engineering lecturers lack industrial experience?

Roberto Villas-Boas 1943-2016


Twitter @barrywills

In brief: The role of geometallurgy in the mining industry; Bad science by Royal approval; All scientific papers to be free by 2020; Recent comments

The role of geometallurgy in the mining industry

The AusIMM's International Geometallurgy Conference (GeoMet 2016) takes place in a couple of weeks' time. MEI will be represented in Perth by Process Mineralogy '17 consultant Dr. Megan Becker, of the University of Cape Town and she will be reporting on the conference for the blog.

To set the scene, Dr. Louisa O'Connor, of the Western Australian School of Mines has answered some common questions about geometallurgy and its place in the mining industry, in the AusIMM Bulletin (April 2016) and Dr. Gavin Mudd, keynote speaker at GeoMet 2016 and Dr. Simon Jowitt explain why geometallurgy is crucial to the sustainability of the mining industry (May 2016).

 

Bad science by Royal Approval

Most scientists would probably agree that on top of many lists of bad science would be homeopathy, although the Bodmin Institute has shown that it has potential in froth flotation.

What is particularly frightening is that Prince Charles, the heir to the UK throne, and a well known spokesman and expert on climate change and genetically modified crops, has informed the world that he uses homeopathic medicine on his farms to counter the adverse affects of antibiotics. As The Times reported (15 May) Charles let slip this little nugget of lunacy just two days after a report from the American Chemical Society concluded that homeopathy was about as useful and effective as his brother, Prince Andrew.

And in an open letter to Prince Charles, Prof. Mark Lorch gently explains why His Highness is talking nonsense as usual. This letter is published in SciTechConnect, published by Elsevier. Ironically Elsevier, a highly respected publisher of high quality journals such a The Lancet and Minerals Engineering, also, and quite bafflingly, publishes the journal Homeopathy, with "peer-reviewed articles that will appeal to a multi-disciplinary audience".

 

All scientific papers to be free by 2020 under EU proposals

And while on the subject of journals a recent article in the Guardian newspaper reports that all publicly funded scientific papers published in Europe could be made free to access by 2020, under a “life-changing” reform ordered by the European Union’s science chief, Carlos Moedas.

The move would mean that publications of the results of research supported by public and public-private funds would be freely available to and reusable by anyone. It could affect the paid-for subscription model used by many scientific journals; at present the results of some publicly funded research are not accessible to people outside universities and similar institutions without one-off payments, such as to Elsevier's ScienceDirect, which means that many teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs and others do not have access to the latest scientific insights. In the UK, funding bodies generally require that researchers publish under open access terms, with open access publishing fees paid from the researcher’s grant.

Let's have your views on this.

Recent comments

There have been comments on the following posts since the last alert (Thursday 2nd June).

In brief: Towards a circular economy etc...

In conversation with Ronald Woods...

Return to Nchanga, Zambia's greatest copper mine

In conversation with T.C. Rao....

Prof. Laxman ("Lucky") Amaratunga

Challenges in processing nickel laterite ores by flotation

 

Twitter @barrywills

In brief: Towards a circular economy; Women in Mining Speed Monitoring; Summer biomining school; Recent comments

On the pathway towards a circular economy

In three weeks time at Sustainable Minerals '16, MEI consultant Prof. Markus Reuter, of Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology, Germany, will explain how the EU has recently adopted an ambitious Circular Economy (CE) package. This CE plan covers the whole cycle from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials. The action plan aims at "closing the loop" of product lifecycles through greater recycling and re-use, and envisages bringing benefits for both the environment and the economy.

Recycling forms the heart of the CE system. Ultimately all products will have to be recycled at their End-of-Life (EoL). For these reasons, finding ways to maximise the recovery of materials from EoL products while at the same time lowering the environmental footprint of our collective existence and therefore lowering greenhouse gas emissions is a vital priority to a CE.

Markus was formerly with Outotec, one of the conference sponsors, and recently ranked the world's 3rd most sustainable company. As if to set the scene for Markus's presentation, Dr. Susanna Horn, Manager Life Cycle Model Development with Outotec explains in a recent article that the currently still dominant linear economy model – take, make, dispose – means that all the resources are taken from the natural environment, processed, used, and at the end of the usable life time, disposed of as waste, known as a cradle-to-grave model. This means that after first usage, the used resources are not generating any more value, merely becoming a source of emissions and the resource-depletion is accelerated at a growing pace. The circular economy model, however, is built on the assumption that our natural resources, i.e. materials used, can circulate in the technosphere for longer, even perpetual periods of time, therefore generating value for more than just one product’s life cycle. Dr. Horn details Outotec's current interesting portfolio of solutions, which can enhance the circular economy.

 

Women in Mining Speed Mentoring in Cornwall

On the evening of Wednesday 22nd June, prior to Sustainable Minerals '16, and at the end of Biohydromet '16, Women in Mining (UK) is organising a speed mentoring evening facilitating early career professional development in the mining sector. At these speed mentoring evenings, women are given the opportunity to meet with “mentors” over an informal dinner to discuss their professional development goals and aspirations. All discussions remain confidential amongst the participants. If you are interested in participating, either as a mentor (male or female) or mentee, please provide a short biography (1–2 paragraphs) outlining your experience and professional goals to: info@womeninmining.org.uk marking the e-mail “Mentoring Evening – Falmouth”. Successful applicants will be provided event details upon acceptance.

SysMetEx Summer School in Biomining

Many of the eminent speakers at Biohydromet '16 will also be presenting current progress in the biomining field to PhD students from EU countries at the SysMetEx summer school in Freiberg, Germany in August.

The mining and processing of sulfide minerals is subject to ever increasing national and European Union environmental regulations. As a result, environmentally friendly techniques, such as biomining, must be developed to meet the increased European demand for metals. Biomining exploits acidophilic microorganisms for the recovery of metals from sulfide ores in tanks, heaps, and dumps. Bioleaching of chalcopyrite (the largest copper resource in the world) is carried out in engineered heaps, and accounts for approximately 15% of the present world copper production.

The SysMetEx project uses a combination of approaches to investigate and model a critical stage in biomining of sulfide ores, the formation of a biofilm on the mineral surface that leads to metal release from the ore.

 

Recent Comments

There have been comments on the following posts since the last alert (Thursday 26 May):

Update on the Department of Mining and Process Engineering at the Namibia University of Science and Technology

Prof. Laxman ("Lucky") Amaratunga 1943-2016

Are these WASET conferences just a scam?

Comminution '16 conference diary

In conversation with Ronald Woods

 

Twitter @barrywills

in brief: Chinese company latest Comminution '18 sponsor; More Copperbelt faces; Subscribe to blog updates; Recent comments

Chinese company is latest Comminution '18 sponsor

We are pleased to welcome King's Ceramics & Chemicals as the latest sponsor of Comminution '18. It has been a pleasure to get to know their team from Beijing, who also sponsored Comminution '16 and Comminution '14.

The King's booth at Comminution '16

The company is a member of the Chinalight Group, founded in 1952, and one of the renowned state owned enterprises in China. It is the largest grinding media supplier in Asia.

Current Comminution '18 sponsors are:

More Copperbelt Faces

Last month Barbara and I had lunch in Cape Town with Roger and Janet Thomas, and Rod and Kathy Whyte, reminiscing about the 1970s in Chingola (posting of 19th April).

Rod and Kathy met up with Dave and Judy Deuchar recently at ‘The Bell’ pub in Knysna, South Africa. I am sure many of you will remember Dave, who is now fully retired. He and Judy live in Knysna, but frequently travel to family and friends in Johannesburg and Australia. Dave is a regular golfer at Pezula, a lovely links course situated on the Knysna Heads. 

Rod and Kathy with Dave and Judy

Dave is not an avid internet user, but if you remember him and would like to leave a comment, I am sure that Rod, who is subscribed to blog updates, will pass the message on.

Subscribe to blog updates

 

And talking of blog updates, if you are a regular reader of the MEI blog, then you should subscribe to receiving blog alerts by email. Just enter your email address in the box in the right hand column to receive these free alerts. If you are a Facebook user you can also see what is happening on the blog by joining the 600 people who 'like' MEI Conferences. Or you may like to follow us on LinkedIn on the MEI Conferences page, which now has almost 800 followers. And Twitter also has all the latest blog and MEI Online updates (Twitter @barrywills).

Recent comments on blog postings
The following blog postings have received comments since the last comments update:

Prof. Laxman ("Lucky") Amaratunga 1943-2016
Controversial "invisible gold" paper published
Comminution '16 Conference Diary

 

Twitter @barrywills

In brief: Metso best supplier to Chile; Introducing Cornwall Mining Alliance; Recent comments on blog postings

Metso best supplier to Chilean mining industry

Good to hear that regular MEI Conferences sponsor Metso has been awarded first place in the Best Performance Supplier category in the Mineral Processing segment, according to the results of the fifth "Ranking of Suppliers of the Mining Industry" made by Phibrand, a company specializing in industry marketing.

According to this survey, Metso was awarded first place as the company with the Best Performance in the past year in all sub-segments associated with the Minerals Processing category and thus received all the prizes: Best company in crushing solutions, Best company in mill solutions, Best Company in plant maintenance.

Introducing the Cornwall Mining Alliance

Cornwall is well known as the birthplace of modern mining, once being the world's largest producer of copper and tin. Now these mines no longer remain, although there is still a thriving industry in the mining of china clay. The Camborne School of Mines, established in 1888, is a lasting legacy of the importance of this area.

Mining and mineral processing are still active, however, in this remote and beautiful area of England, which is now home to a unique concentration of innovative businesses, organisations and experienced professionals providing services to all aspects of mining and related industries in the UK and around the world. The recently formed Cornwall Mining Alliance connects these experts and provides the right people for specific jobs. The impressive array of members can be seen in the Alliance Directory. Expect to hear much more of this organisation in the future.

 

 

Recent comments on blog postings

As the Recent Comments widget has, for no apparent reason, ceased to function, this is to advise that the following blog postings have received comments this month:

Innovations in crushing technology

Comminution '16 conference diary

Fracking for metals

Could the Nobel Prize go to a mineral processor for the first time?

Controversial "invisible gold" paper published

Where are the women in mineral processing?

In brief (12 May)

 

Twitter @barrywills

In brief: Special Issue on Computational Modelling; Economics of Ore Sorting; Gold Mining to be suspended in Thailand

Special Issue on Computational Modelling Published

Volume 90 (May 2016) is a special issue of Minerals Engineering containing nine selected papers from last June's Computational Modelling '15 conference in Falmouth. This volume is edited by Pablo Brito-Parada.

MEI's computational modelling series attracts a small but highly focused group of researchers to Falmouth every two years. Computational Modelling '17 will be held next June, as always back to back with Physical Separation '17.

 

Understanding the Economic Impact of Ore sorting

Among the ten papers published in the special Minerals Engineering issue of Physical Separation '15 is a highly topical one dealing with ore sorting, which is attracting more and more interest particularly in reducing energy consumption in comminution circuits. A joint paper from Orchard Material Technology, USA, and Steinert Elektromagnetbau, Germany, suggests that a major barrier to widespread implementation of electronic sorting in hard rock mining is a knowledge gap: sorting equipment manufacturers have made modest footholds in the mining industry, while miners and plant operators are largely unaware of recent developments and the state-of-the-art technology. Most importantly, a widespread understanding of how ore sorters can be implemented and their significant economic impacts is lacking. The impacts of ore sorting on the economics and the process flow sheet of an existing semi-autogenous milling circuit of a US copper mine are discussed in the paper.

Gold mining to be suspended in Thailand

As we all know, metal prices have suffered badly over recent times, and there is little light at the end of the tunnel, as May has seen a further slump in all the major metal prices.

Gold is the only metal which has fared reasonably well over the past year, so it was ironic to see that the Thai government has resolved not to renew or issue gold mining licences, such that the gold mining business can be suspended by the end of this year. The Bangkok Post reports that the suspension is to allow improvements to make the operations more environmentally friendly. New jobs will be found for 1,000 workers and affected residents will receive medical treatment and be rehabilitated. The resolution follows complaints about Akara Resources plc's mining in Phetchabun, Phichit and Phitsanulok provinces, where check-ups on local residents found many people had heavy metal in their bodies.

 

Twitter @barrywills

In brief: Land sea and air, Mining Recession over?, Dinner with Bradshaws

Land, Sea and Air

A couple of delegates have contacted me to tell of their post-Comminution '16 experiences. Grinding Solutions Ltd's Simon Bailey and his wife Tiffany were at Cape Point, and Tiffany tells me that she was "mugged" by a baboon. She gave no further details, and I do not know if the baboon was armed.

Chris Martin, of RSG Inc., USA, took to the sea on his final day, and sent me this great picture taken in Table Bay.

Barbara and I spent a week post-conference in Cape Town, and on Wednesday morning I took to the air during a one hour break in the heavy clouds that persisted during the day.

Apart from the leap off Signal Hill the tandem paraglide was a very serene experience, and I would recommend it to anyone visiting Cape Town. The landing area is at Sea Point, on the green opposite the Winchester Mansions Hotel - very convenient as this was where we stayed for the week!

Is the mining recession over?

Many analysts are predicting that metal prices have bottomed out, and that recovery is at last on its way, after recent data from China pointed to better-than-expected economic prospects. You can now keep abreast of 2-month trends in most of the important metals via MEI Online.

Dinner with the Bradshaws

Just a quick thank you to Dee and Mike Bradshaw for inviting us to dine with them last night at their beautiful apartment overlooking the Cape Town Waterfront. Dee is MEI's "Living Gold Ambassador" and is looking forward to Falmouth in June for Sustainable Minerals '16.

Twitter@barrywills

In brief - corporate hospitality, UCT visit and staying on after an MEI conference

Corporate Hospitality

Comminution '18 got off to a fine start last week with five of the sponsors of Comminution '16 signing up to continue their support.

We also thank three of these sponsors for their post-conference hospitality. On Thursday evening we were guests of Starkey & Associates for dinner, at the Vineyard Hotel's The Square restaurant, accompanied by fine wine from Durbanville Hills kindly provided by Russell Mineral Equipment.

With Donna and John Starkey and Spencer Reeves of Starkey & Associates

Amanda and Jon left for UK on Saturday evening, while Barbara and I were at Blues Restaurant in Camp's Bay, guests of Nick and Felicity Wilshaw, of Grinding Solutions Ltd.

Dinner at Camp's Bay

A brief visit to University of Cape Town

Last week Gaynor Yorath of UCT kindly showed me around the very impressive Chemical Engineering department, which has changed massively since I spent some time there in 1982 as a visiting lecturer. It was good to catch up with Process Mineralogy '17 consultant Megan Becker, who heads the automated mineralogy facility. Hard to believe that this department, which is a major world player in comminution and flotation is ranked only 92 in the ludicrous World Ranking of Mining and Minerals Universities.

With Megan Becket at UCT

Staying on

Always good to see some delegates staying on after conferences rather than flying straight back home. If you have spent some time enjoying what Africa has to offer after Comminution '16, and would like to share some of your photos, please email to bwills@min-eng.com. Your experiences may guide others in future.

If you are attending a Falmouth conference, a good guide to Cornwall has just been published, and the posting of 11th March 2015 lists some good reasons for staying on in Falmouth.

Twitter @barrywills

In brief- Lion's Head hike, Biohydromet '16 news and Cape Town retains its crown

Lion's Head Hike

Unfortunately Jon, Amanda and I were unable to join delegates on the hike up Lion's Head yesterday, but Matthias Mersmann of Loesche, Germany has sent me these photos of the hike, including the ascent by chains near the summit.

At the summitt, Andy Wilkinson (Metso, UK), Elvis Mudoti (Freda Rebecca Mine, Zimbabwe),
Adam Moore (Metso, USA), Matthias and Angelika Mersmann (Loesche, Germany)
and Marcus Adam (Omya International, Switzerland)

Biohydromet '16 news

We wish Dave Dew a speedy recovery from his recent illness which has necessitated his withdrawal from June's Biohydromet '16 as a keynote speaker. His place will be taken by Jan Van Niekerk of Outotec South Africa who will discuss the current status and continued development of the BIOX Process.

Cape Town retains its crown as world's top tourist city

Cape Town scooped the best city award for the fourth consecutive year, in the UK Telegraph Travel Awards.

And Falmouth was recently voted England's best place to live in SW England, so two reasonable venues for MEI Conferences!

Twitter @barrywills

In brief- reception in the Winelands, eminent scientist interview and storms in Falmouth

Reception in the Winelands

Last Sunday evening Comminution '16 sponsor Russell Mineral Equipment invited conference delegates to a reception at the Durbanville Hills Wine Estate. Brett Morgan of RME has sent me this photo taken during the sundowner drinks, with the sun setting over distant Cape Town.

Interview with an eminent flotation scientist

I wonder how many of you recognise this Australian scientist, well known in the flotation field. I am currently interviewing him, the latest in the MEI In Conversations With series. Look out for this sometime next month.

Storms in Falmouth

We are lucky to be in Cape Town this week, as back home the UK is being hit by more severe storms, and even the main street of Falmouth has been flooded due to the strong gales and high spring tides.

Falmouth centre photographed by Richard Brock (Facebook)

Twitter @barrywills

In brief

Saturday in Cape Town

Barbara and I arrived in a hot and sunny Cape Town yesterday morning, and the Vineyard Hotel's gardens have never looked lovelier.

Jon arrived today and Amanda is due in tomorrow from Windhoek after her family holiday in Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Amanda hard at work in Namibia

A few early birds are already here and I had a beer on the terrace with Simon Bailey of Grinding Solutions Ltd, UK, and his wife Tiffany, who are our near neighbours in Falmouth. This is Tiffany's first visit to South Africa and she says that she is "just blown away" by the Vineyard and its setting!

Later on, in the evening, we were joined by another Cornwall-based delegate, Andy Wilkinson, from Metso UK.

A controversial ranking list

The QS World Ranking of Minerals and Mining Universities list is attracting a lot of debate. The head of operations at QSIU has responded to the many criticisms of the list, and I wonder what your reactions are to this response.

Is the end in sight for tumbling mills?

Last Monday's posting has also created some debate, particularly on the future of tumbling mills and their possible replacement by HPGRs and stirred mills, all topics which will be discussed in a few days at Comminution '16.

Twitter @barrywills

In brief

Kelsey Mineral Jig inventor receives AusIMM Award

The Kelsey Mineral jig was mentioned in the posting on enhanced gravity separation on 19th August. The inventor, Chris Kelsey, a mechanical engineer, was recently awarded The AusIMM’s Mineral Industry Technique Award. A full listing of the 2012 AusIMM Award winners can be found on MEI Online.

 

Chris Kelsey (right) receives his award from AusIMM President Geoff Sharrock

A new feature for Minerals Engineering

Minerals Engineering now offers a new, free service called AudioSlides. These are brief, webcast-style presentations that are shown next to published articles on ScienceDirect. This format gives you the opportunity to explain your research in your own words and promote your work. Click the link above for more information and examples.

Twenty years ago today

Our first ever conference in Cape Town started 20 years ago today at the Cape Sun Hotel. Minerals Engineering ’93 was organised in collaboration with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, and the Western Cape Branch of the South African IMM and you may recognise a few familiar faces in the photo of the organising committee below.

More details on the conference can be found on the posting of 27 October 2010.

In brief

Grinding Solutions Ltd- a local success story

I called in at Truro a few days ago to see my old friends Nick and Felicity (Flee) Wilshaw, owners of Grinding Solutions Ltd (GSL), who are one of the sponsors of Comminution ’14. It’s always good to see a successful family run business, and Grinding Solutions was started by Nick and Flee in 2003 and now operates in all fields of mineral processing, offering technical, marketing and investment consultancy to the industry, as well as laboratory testing facilities.

Nick was a fine rugby player, and mineral processing student at Camborne School of Mines, graduating in 1980 before gaining his MSc in Mineral Processing from Queen’s University, Canada. Their daughter Samantha Abraham, Office Manager, joined the business in 2012, having been an estate agent locally, bringing fresh ideas and renewed energy to the business.  Felicity has been working full time with Nick since 2010 and bought with her years of experience as Business Support Director for Reflex Marine, a marine safety company owned by two other CSM graduates and based in Cornwall.  Simon Bailey, Research and Development Minerals Processor, has been with GSL for the last four years and manages the laboratory in Tresillian, outside Truro and has a background in geology followed by an MSc in Mineral Processing at CSM. 

I was impressed with the laboratory, which has grown over the years, allowing GSL to carry out a large range of mineral processing techniques, becoming recognised throughout the industry as a leader in ultra-fine grinding.  They have recently purchased a Malvern 3000 Particle Size Analyser to complement their existing fine grinding work and are the only South West company to have this equipment, enabling them to carry out the most up to date and accurate particle size analysis.  Talking to Nick and Flee, it is evident that GSL is innovative in the way it deals with problems and has helped develop numerous processes from speculative ideas to large scale projects.  Expect to hear much more of them in the future. It will be good to have them with us in Cape Town next April.

At the GSL labs with Simon, Nick, Felicity and Samantha

 Cornish Mining Sundowner- August

Nick and Flee Wilshaw were also in Falmouth last night for the monthly sundowner, which is becoming ever more popular and well attended. Over 35 mining people were at the Chain Locker last night, enjoying the local ales and company on a very balmy summer evening. The next sundowner is on September 19th, so if you are in the area we would be very pleased to see you.

Registrations flowing in for Flotation ‘13

Things are looking good for November, with registrations now coming in at a steady flow for the fine programme on offer. Already this week 15 delegates have registered from the University of Cape Town’s strong flotation group, and we thank them for their continued support of the MEI events.

MEI’s Jon will miss out this year on the TableMountain hike, as he will be returning to Falmouth immediately after the conference to look after 5-month old daughter Josephine, with his Imperial College partner Dr. Kathryn Hadler.

In brief

Change in schedule for MEI commodity conferences

Few people will have failed to notice that metal prices have suffered this year, and in particular the gold and platinum sectors have been having a hard time.  Although the prices have recovered a little over the past week or so, the South African industry has been hit very hard due to its ever increasing production costs. The gold mines are old, deep and low grade and the platinum industry has been hit by strikes, leading to demonstrations and many deaths.

Because of this we made a decision to cancel next year's Precious Metals '14 and Nickel Processing '14 conferences in Cape Town. These have now been rescheduled, and Precious Metals '15 and Nickel Processing'15 will be held in Falmouth in May 2015.

SAIMM Western Cape Conference

Prof. J-P Franzidis of University of Cape Town tells me that the "MinProc" conference held at the beginning of the month was very successful, with around 140 delegates, mostly students, as always, but a satisfying attendance given the state of the industry.  Professor Stephen Simukanga, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zambia and a former head of the Zambian School of Mines, gave a keynote presentation on the skills gap in the minerals industry in Zambia, and Marek Dworzanowski, President-elect of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, spoke on the role of metallurgy in enhancing beneficiation in the South African mining industry.  Altogether, 37 long and 27 poster snapshot presentations were delivered in sessions on Comminution, Flotation, Bio/Hydrometallurgy and Sustainability.   Another 18 posters were contributed to the poster session. Outotec awarded prizes for best presentations, but more of this in a later blog.

Students at IMPCs

One of the things that impressed me, Amanda and Jon at last year’s IMPC in New Delhi was the effort that the organising committee had made to bring as many students as possible to the Congress. Interviewed by AT Mineral Processing (issue 3, 2013) the President of the 26th IMPC, Dr. Pradip remarked “We have a large population of young minerals engineers in India... getting exposed to international level professionals from all over the world in such large numbers, perhaps for the first time. I think that listening to all these professional leaders should inspire at least a fraction of them to take up minerals engineering as a career. Even if 10% of them think about minerals engineering as a career of their choice it would be a great contribution to minerals engineers in India."

I hope that future IMPCs heed this sound advice.

In brief

In brief is a new thread to the blog which I hope will be a regular feature. Its success will be dependent on the inflow of news and photos from blog readers, so if you have any news of events etc, accompanied by photos, please send directly to me at bwills@min-eng.com.

Eco Efficient Comminution Workshop

The JKTech’s Diana Drinkwater tells me that the Eco Efficient Comminution workshop, which was run immediately after Metplant ’13 in Perth, went very well, with 16 delegates divided pretty evenly between engineers, vendors and operators. Following on from a theme that emerged during the conference, one of the presenters, Ben Murphy, coined the term “flotatinution” and there was some interesting discussion in the workshop about different ways of designing flotation circuits to minimise comminution energy.

Mick Rogers (Outotec), Alan Faulkner (Donhad),
Danica Clarke (Rio Tinto) and Steve Liddell (BHP Billiton)

Diana continues “We got great feedback from the participants and should definitely do it the same way again, with a few refinements.  Maybe we can make a case for taking something to Flotation’13, with a focus on the “flotatinution” aspect (I promise we will call it something else!).”

Good news on the progress of Jan Miller and Xuming Wang

 As you all know, Prof. Jan Miller and Dr. Xuming Wang of the University of Utah were seriously injured in a recent horrific car accident in Tibet. So it was great to receive this email from Xuming:

“Thanks so much for all the support you have given in prayer and messages.  Every day I am getting better. Now I can walk around freely, and start to read and reply to email.  Barry, your MEI blog is so amazing. Many friends in the mineral processing community knew about the accident. We received a lot of phone calls and messages when we were in China.  They said they knew the news from your blog and their support, prayer and help were really a big encouragement for us at that difficult time.  Dr. Miller is getting stronger. He can walk a little bit every day with a walker.  Many thanks to our friends in our community for their support, prayer, and encouragement. I am sure soon we will be able to serve our community again and make contribution.”

On behalf of everyone in the industry we wish you both speedy and full recoveries.

Our first visitor to the new MEI Office

We moved premises a month ago, and testerday welcomed our first visitor, Tony Clarke, who will be well known to anyone who passed through Camborne School of Mines between 1973 and 1998, when he looked after the mineral processing laboratories and mill. He now researches the evolution of Cornish mineral dressing, and is an enthusiastic volunteer at the excellent King Edward Mine Museum.

  

Tony Clarke with me and Jon

If you are ever in the area do call in and see us. We are only a couple of miles from Camborne School of Mines in Penryn. Our new address is 1 Freeman Collins Drive, Falmouth TR11 2GA.