Memories of the 2008 IMPC in Beijing

Last month I looked back at a memorable IMPC held in Istanbul in 2006. Two years later an even more lavish affair was held in Beijing, China. The XXIV IMPC of 24-28 September 2008 was attended by 850 delegates representing 45 countries. Of these almost 400 were from China. 

A record 690 papers were presented, 282 in innumerable parallel sessions, and 308 in poster sessions, and these were published in a massive 4-volume proceedings, weighing in at nearly 12 kg- a total of around 10 tonnes of paper, most of which probably ended up in hotel bins, as the organisers also provided a much more convenient CD!

The organising committee, led by the chairman Prof. Wang Dianzuo must be congratulated on the organisation of the huge timetable, and three associated workshops, and particularly the spectacular social events, which included a magnificent ‘Beijing Night’ Dinner show at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, and the final night banquet in the Golden Hall of the Beijing Hotel, the highlight of which was the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to Prof. Janusz Laskowski. 

The photos below might stir a few memories:

@barrywills

Memories of Minerals Engineering 2000, Cape Town

The last MEI Conference before the pandemic was Flotation '19, and it seems strange not to be travelling to Cape Town in November, something Barbara and I have done for the past 24 years. 

The first MEI Conference in Cape Town began 20 years ago today. Minerals Engineering 2000 was the first of a number of events to be held at the Mount Nelson, one of Africa's premier hotels. We organised the meeting in association with the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch and the Cape Technikon, and sponsorship was provided by CSIRO, Mintek, Multotec and Hicom International.

Around 125 delegates, representing 18 countries from as far as Australia, North and South America, Europe and Asia, attended the conference, which contained 84 high quality presentations, selected from among the over 150 abstracts submitted to MEI. 

It is always interesting to look back at old conference photos to see who you can recognise and this conference is no exception:

@barrywills

Memories of Gravity '99, Amsterdam

Physical Separation '19, the 5th in the series, begins in Falmouth in 3 months time. Twenty years ago today the first physical separation conference organised by MEI began in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

This two day event was Gravity '99, held at the Renaissance Hotel, in the centre of Amsterdam. Sponsored by Knelson Concentrators and Holman-Wilfley UK Ltd, the symposium was attended by 30 high profile gravity separation specialists from 12 countries, representing Australia, Africa, Asia, North America and Europe.

Unfortunately I have only a couple of photos from the event. Below, Mike Hallewell, then with Holman-Wilfley, is at the Wilfley booth with Amanda Wills. Sorry, I can't remember the name of the man 3rd left, but on the far right is Richard Burt, of Cabot Mineral Development, Canada, who reviewed the role of gravity concentration in modern mineral processing plants in his keynote lecture. I would love to know where Richard is now, as it has been a while since we last met. Mike Hallewell, I am pleased to say, will be at Physical Separation '19, representing MPH Mineral Consultants, UK. Holman-Wilfley is a sponsor of the Falmouth conference.

Richard's keynote was followed by 18 papers dealing with Plant Practice, Classification and Dewatering, Gravity Concentrators and Optimisation and Control, describing the utilisation of gravity techniques not only in mainstream mineral processing, but also in diverse areas such as soil remediation and the recovery of gold from jewellery waste.

In the picture below Peter Davies explains the S-W Minerals Spiral to Hylke Glass (2nd left) and others (names unknown).

It would be great to hear from any of you who were there so many years ago.

Twitter @barrywills

Memories of Complex Ores '97 Bulawayo

Process Mineralogy '17 gets underway tomorrow in Cape Town, and 20 years ago tomorrow, across the Limpopo, our first and only conference in Zimbabwe commenced.

Terry Veasey

Complex Ores '97 was organised by CSM Associates Ltd, and Camborne School of Mines, and was held at the Bulawayo Sun Hotel. The keynote lecture was given by Birmingham University's Terry Veasey, who at that time was a visiting Professor at the National University of Science & Technology in Bulawayo. Below are some photographic memories of that brief but enjoyable time in Zimbabwe.

With the Veasey's and John Hope

Pauline Veasey, BW and Nadine & Jose Leseigneur

Dinner at the Nesbitt Castle, Bulawayo

Post conference lunch in the Matopos Hills with the Veasey's,
Frank Crundwell and Yaw Asamoah-Bekoe

Hiking in the Matopos Hills with Frank and Yaw
 

Conference memories- the XVIIth IMPC in Sydney, 1993

Twenty years ago today the XVIIth International Mineral Processing Congress, the first to be held in Australia, commenced at Darling Harbour, Sydney.  The congress was attended by 642 delegates, and 220 papers were presented. Compare that with the second IMPC in Australia, held in Brisbane in 2010, where 1001 delegates attended, and 400 papers were presented!

Do any of you have particular memories of the event? Below are a few photos taken at the conference dinner:


With Gordon Agar and John & Cindy Herbst



With Errol Kelly and future IMPC Chairman Cyril O'Connor

With Richard Williams, Julie Holl, Andy Stradling, Ian Sheffield-Parker and Martin Moloney

From the MEI Archives #22: Antalya 1992

Twenty years ago today the 4th International Mineral Processing Symposium opened in Antalya, Turkey. Below are a few photos which may bring back memories of that very enjoyable conference and its associated social events.

Conference opening ceremony

At the exhibition with Selcuk Teker, Erkan Hacioglu,
Buran Omar and Sedat Bilgen

Doug Jenkinson, Barbara and me relaxing by the hotel pool

Lunch with delegates on Mediterranean

From the MEI Archives #21: Indian School of Mines, 1989

One of the great pleasures of travelling to international conferences is the surprise meetings with friends and colleagues from the past.

In 1989 I spent some time at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad (see also blog of 3rd December 2011) as a guest of Prof. T.C. Rao, who was then head of minerals engineering.

I am hoping to catch up with Prof. Rao at next week's IMPC in New Delhi, where he is scheduled to present a plenary lecture. It would also be great to meet up with any of the staff and students who were at ISM during my visit 23 years ago.

The photos below will bring back memories of that interesting two weeks. Can anyone fill in the gaps with names, and where are they now?

With Indian School of Mines staff, Dhanbad

Weekend break at Maithon

With TC Rao (centre) at ISM

From the MEI Archives #20- Chingola 1972

This time next week I will be visting Nchanga, Zambia's largest copper mine. It will be my first visit to the Copperbelt since Barbara, Amanda and I left in August 1973.

The photo below was taken 40 years ago of the Nchanga Metallurgists rugby team, a motley crew who played 'friendly' matches against other mine department teams.

I hope some of you might be able to fill in a few gaps, but the faces that I remember are:

Bach row: ?, Mike Blowers, Phil Cudby, Giles Day, Jock McGregor, me, ?, Stuart Mellor, Doug Edmunds
Front row: John Farthing, Crawford Masson, Sandy Lambert, ?, ?, ?

It would also be great to hear from anyone in the picture.

Phil Cudby I am still in touch with. He is retired and lives in the UK. Giles Day has his own business in Cyprus. Jock McGregor sadly passed away in the USA several years ago. Stuart Mellor I last saw in 1982 on the Harmony Gold Mine in South Africa. Doug Edmunds is in UK, and founded the World's Strongest Man competition. Sandy Lambert frequently attends MEI Conferences and is an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town.

After 40 years, I expect to see major changes to Chingola next week and will be sharing memories and photos if internet access allows.

From the MEI Archives #19- the FalBeach Hotel

The fire that destroyed the Falmouth Beach Resort Hotel on Monday brought to an end 13 years of MEI Conferences at this lovely venue, starting with Minerals Engineering ’99.

We have fond memories of all the people that we met there and the good times that we had. Hopefully the hotel will soon rise again from the ashes, but in the meantime the next Falmouth conference, Biohydromet ’12, will be held at the adjacent Hotel St. Michaels.

Below are a few memories of conferences at the ‘FalBeach’.

Reagents '04	Reagents '04
PDMIW '03	Computational Modelling '11
Physical Separation '11	 Precious Metals '10 

 Comminution '08 

Nickel Processing '10