July summary: Memories of 60 years ago; another heatwave and another PM

 Sixty years ago today Barbara and I were travelling from Lancashire to Kent for a family holiday. The roads were relatively quiet in those days, but on that Saturday they were almost deserted. The recently opened M1 motorway was eerily quiet, but the few vehicles on the road would periodically sound their horns and flash their headlights in unison. They were celebrating the four goals scored by England against West Germany in the FIFA World Cup final at Wembley.

It now seems so long ago; Barbara and I were 19 and 20 and now hat-trick scorer Sir Geoff Hurst, who. like us, was born in Ashton-u-Lyne, is the only survivor of the victorious England team, and only four of the German team are alive today.

1966: off to celebrate England's World Cup Win

The victory was expected to herald the beginning of a new era in international football, dominated by England. Unfortunately it has not turned out that way and England's 1966 triumph has now been followed by 15 subsequent World Cups, and England has not won another. Optimism that "football is coming home" at the start of each campaign has been followed by disapointment. They reached the semi-final in 1990 and 2018 and then this month hopes were that their third semi-final would surely end their disappointing run.

But the long wait continues,  as on the 15th of the month they met their old adversary, reigning champions Argentina and lost 2-1. There is not much love lost between the two footballing nations. Their first major World Cup meeting came at Wembley in 1966. England won 1-0 in a famously hostile match. Argentina captain Antonio Rattín (who died this month) was sent off, but refused to leave the pitch immediately, creating a major controversy. England manager Alf Ramsey later claimed that the Argentinians had behaved like "animals", a comment that deepened resentment and helped establish a fierce rivalry.

Argentina won the World Cup in 1986, the quarter-final being the most famous England-Argentina game, where Diego Maradona scored the infamous "Hand of God" goal and minutes later scored the "Goal of the Century", dribbling past several England players, to beat England 2-1.

So the usual disappointing end but congratulations to Spain, who dominated a scrappy final, beating a cynical Argentina 1-0, a scoreline which did not do justice to Spain's dominance. It was a poor game, which was a shame as this was a wonderful tournament with some great sporting moments.

No more so than England's scintillating encounter with France in the "runners- up" match in Miami. England endured extreme heat and humidity in Miami for their quarter final match against Norway, and they were back to the oppressive Florida conditions three days after the semi-final when they beat France 6-4 in a remarkable match, after being 4-0 up at half time. Winning the bronze medal made this England's best World Cup performance since 1966.

And talking of heat, Europe and the UK experienced the third heatwave of the year and the longest so far, at around 3 weeks in many places, with wildfires devastating many parts of Europe and the UK, leading to mass evacuations in France and Spain. Luckily, Falmouth's coastal location means temperatures are moderated by the sea, so while inland Cornwall has reached 29-30°C, Falmouth has more often been in the 22-27°C range, and the water, as always, has been the place to be.

Cooling off at a busy Falmouth beach and the tranquility of the nearby Helford River

As well as another heatwave in the UK, hot news is of a new Prime Minister, Labour's Andy Burnham, who becomes the 7th PM in ten years. If he can survive until the latest date for the next general election he would be in office for 3 years and 26 days and would be the longest serving PM since Theresa May took office in 2016, holding the position for 3 years and 11 days. Time will tell!

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June summary- dynamic Falmouth, birthday milestones and sad news from Germany

The month of May ended with a heatwave with unusually high temperatures down here in Cornwall, but the first two weeks of June were unusually cold and wet. The dismal weather continued to the middle of the month, when the annual UK Mining Conference in Cornwall was held in Falmouth. With a record attendance of 480 delegates it was good to catch up with familiar faces from as far away as Australia.

With Australian delegates Nigel Grigg and Ben Wraith, of Gekko Systems

And congratulations to Prof. Frances Wall, of Camborne School of Mines, who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the conference dinner.  Frances was a keynote lecturer at MEI's Process Mineralogy '18 in Cape Town.

Frances Wall (left) in Cape Town, 2018

There's always something going on in Falmouth, Cornwall's jewel in the crown, and the weekend after the conference crowds flocked into the town for the annual Sea Shanty Festival. It takes over Falmouth every June, filling pubs, quaysides, beer gardens, streets and waterfront stages with traditional maritime songs, folk music and huge crowd singalongs. There were pirates everywhere!

Also in the middle of the month we announced a keynote lecture for next year's Hydrometallurgy '27. Dr. Kathy Sole will highlight the Nchanga Tailings Leach-Solvent Extraction-Electrowinning process, showing how this elegant process conforms to the principles for a circular hydrometallurgy circuit and can be considered to have been ahead of its time with respect to these ideas. Today, some 20% of world primary copper cathode is produced using this technology, with the dominant contribution coming from the African Copper Belt, so those who undertook the bold decision to develop this technology can hold their heads up high.

It is now over half a century since the development and construction of the massive plant on the Zambian Copperbelt, and only a few of the members of the team are still alive, but I was pleased to hear from the survivors shortly after my posting of 8th June. 

Ken Severs said that he was a minor contributor to the plant, his association with it being merely the months before he was, in October 1970, transferred to the newly-established Zambian Engineering Unit in Ashford, England. but in January 1971 he worked with Les Stewart in Arizona, using the Bagdad commercial plant as an experimental test facility for the tailings leach plant.

Les Stewart, who now lives in Alderney in the Channel Islands, emailed to say that being Tailings Leach Superintendent was an exciting start to his career, much of which he owes to Jack Holmes, who led the project.

Paul Smithson, who is now retired in Malta, emailed to wish all the best to the remaining Nchanga hands. Paul was involved with the high grade leach plant when I was transferred there briefly in 1973, prior to my departure from Zambia.  As was Willem Duyvestyn, who became a member of the tailings leach project. Willem is now semi-retired in Colorado, developing novel technologies for various critical metals including a novel chalcopyrite leaching technology.

The man who will forever be associated with the project and who made the final recommendation for the go-ahead, is Jack Holmes. He and his wife live in Somerset West, just 35 miles from Cape Town and despite being in his mid-90s he is planning to attend Hydrometallurgy '27 next year to hear Kathy's keynote. 

We celebrated two special birthdays this month. Very best wishes from all the family to Jon, who reached the milestone of his 50th birthday on the 17th. 

A week later, the legendary flotation scientist Prof. Graeme Jameson celebrated his 90th birthday. Congratulations, Graeme, from all of us at MEI, on this remarkable occasion. Your contributions to the minerals industry have left an enduring legacy, and it has been a privilege for so many of us to know and work with you over the years. 

We hope that Graeme will be able to join us at Flotation '27 in Cape Town next year, as, although he formally retired at the end of 2022, he and his small research team are working on two long-term projects. In the first, making use of a new way of improving the flotation kinetics and ultimate recovery of floatable particles and in the second aiming to reduce the size of flotation cells significantly, to reduce footprint and volume, hopefully by an order of magnitude.

I will always treasure the photograph taken at Flotation '25 of Graeme and me with our grandsons, Sam and Will. A wonderful memory of a very special occasion, where we celebrated my 80th birthday!

Graeme and me with grandsons Will and Sam

In the photo below, taken nine years ago at the SME Annual Meeting in Denver, Graeme is with Dr. Hanna Horsch, who was then with Hazen Research, Colorado.  Yesterday I was shocked and saddened to hear that Hanna died eight days ago in Germany.

Hanna was a lovely person and an exceptional mineralogist with over 25 years' experience in academia, industry and research organisations, mainly in the fields of applied and instrumental mineralogy.  She had many years experience with Anglo American Research Labs, then Intellection, FEI, Hazen Research, Inc. and SGS. She was a contributor to six MEI Conferences, in automated mineralogy, process mineralogy and flotation and we would catch up regularly at SME Annual Meetings. Our thoughts are with Hanna's family and ex-colleagues.

And finally,  just as the month of May ended with a heatwave, a record-breaking heatwave hit Europe and the UK at the end of this month, with parts of southern England facing temperatures in the high 30s C.  This month's heatwave was hotter in peak temperature, more humid, and more disruptive than that in May. Although May in Falmouth felt like a brilliant early summer spell, last week felt more like proper heatwave conditions, but the sea stopped it becoming as extreme as much of southern England.

The sea is the place to be at 31C: Falmouth's Swanpool beach

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May summary: sad news from South Africa, and the first heatwave of the year

None of the MEI team were at home on the first of the month. Amanda was in the Isles of Scilly, competing in the annual World Gig Championships.

Jon and family were camping in Nommerlayern, Luxembourg and Barbara and I were enjoying our last day at Plettenberg Bay, before the long taxi ride to George airport the next day, a short flight to Cape Town, the long flight to London and the long train journey to Cornwall.

A farewell to Plettenberg Bay

There was also sad news from South Africa early in the month. A memorial was held at the University of Cape Town on the 8th of the month, for Martin Harris, who died the previous month at the age of 66.

After completing his Masters degree at UCT, Martin joined the Centre for Minerals Research (CMR) in 1987. and made many contributions to the research carried out at the CMR. His initial involvement was in coal processing under the tutelage of his Master’s supervisor Professor JP Franzidis. Subsequently he specialised in the area of flotation circuit modelling, playing a key role in the development of flotation models under the AMIRA P9 project as one of the lead flotation researchers in that international flagship project. He attended few conferences, apart from some IMPCs and his last MEI Conference was fifteen years ago at Flotation '11, although Jon has good memories of socialising with him at the Centenary of Flotation in 2005. Tributes to Martin can be found on LinkedIn.

It is a while since I undertook a serious hike on the Cornish coastal path, part of the 630 miles (1014 km) South-West Way. The Cornish section is 300 miles (480 km) long and is notoriously rugged with many up and down sections. I can cope easily with the uphill sections, but struggle going downhill due to ancient knees!

Although the north coast, exposed to the Atlantic Ocean, has the most strenuous walks, there are some tough walks on the south-east path from St. Mawes to the Devon border and I have only done a few hikes along this stretch, a tough one being Carne Beach to Portloe, then on to Portholland, and especially Mevagissey to Charlestown, probably the most demanding hike on Cornwall's south coast. This month Amanda and her rowing friend Mo, walked the 77 miles from St. Mawes to Plymouth in six days. 

Amanda at Mevagissey harbour ready for the gruelling walk to Charlestown

Replica of the Nao Santa María in Charlestown harbour.
The ship is a full-scale replica of the 15th Century sailing ship used by
Christopher Columbus on his first expedition across the Atlantic in 1492.

Although the hike is generally considered moderate overall, Amanda and Mo welcomed their overnight stops, remarking that there are definitely some demanding sections as the path constantly goes down into coves and back up cliffs, so the cumulative ascent is substantial.

A welcome stop at Portloe

Mixing with the locals in Plymouth

Luckily the weather was perfect for hiking, unlike the following weekend where the UK was hit by a heatwave, with temperatures well over 30C recorded. Temperatures reached 27C here in Falmouth, and the beaches were packed during the Bank Holiday weekend, when Jon and family called in for a few days, giving us the opportunity for a family reunion on the beach.

Falmouth's Gyllyngvase beach, Bank Holiday Saturday

Family reunion on the beach

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April summary: USA, South Africa and sad news from Canada

Two events of international importance took place this month in USA.

On April 2nd the Artemis II rocket, the biggest ever built, took off on its successful manned mission around the moon.The mission highlights just how extraordinary the original Apollo landings were over 50 years ago, revealing both how far technology has advanced and how challenging lunar exploration still remains. Despite today’s cutting-edge computing, advanced materials, and global collaboration, returning humans to the moon has required years of planning, massive investment, and the development of entirely new systems, highlighting the sheer ingenuity and boldness of the 1960s missions, which achieved the same goals with far more limited technology. Artemis not only builds on that legacy with ambitions for sustained lunar presence, but also serves as a reminder that the achievements of the past were not just historic, they were astonishingly ahead of their time.

Source: The Times April 4th

Another extraordinary event took place in America this week, with King Charles III's visit to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. Considering the strained relations between the UK and USA at the moment, and a third suspected assassination attempt on Trump a few days earlier,  it is a visit that he probably did not relish.

Source: The Times April 2nd

He needn't have worried. His visit stabilised relationships and the King received standing ovations in Congress and at a formal state dinner, his speeches emphasising democracy, NATO, climate, and unity, subtly pushing back against divisions without being overtly political.

In 1991 our first overseas conference, Minerals Engineering '91 in Singapore, was seriously affected by the first Gulf War, many delegates withdrawing due to travel restrictions.  Thirty five years later the present Gulf War also depleted our two conferences in Cape Town this month, Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26, many delegates, including presenters, being forced to withdraw due to problems with international flights, particularly those calling at Middle East hubs such as Dubai and Doha. But although the registration lists were depleted, delegates were able to enjoy unusually long breaks for networking and what was lacking in quantity was made up for with quality. And it is always great for Amanda, Barbara and me to catch up with Luxembourg-based Jon.

The Wills family at the Physical Separation '26 dinner at Kirstenbosch 

We missed the monthly Cornish Mining Sundowner in Falmouth, but it was good to have seven of the regulars in Cape Town.

Cornish Mining Sundowner regulars: Amanda and Barry Wills (MEI),
Cameron Dyer, David Cadwell and David Mildren (Gravity Mining),
Doug Caffell (Sepro Systems) and Dave Goldburn (Holman-Wilfley)

Amanda and Jon flew home after the conference, while Barbara and I spent a week on the Garden Route, relaxing at Plettenberg Bay.

It was interesting to visit Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary just outside Plettenberg Bay. This is the world’s first free-roaming, multi-species primate sanctuary, the monkeys and apes  living in a large indigenous forest and move around freely in natural social groups. The sanctuary was founded in 1998 and now cares for over 500 rescued primates across multiple species, including lemurs, capuchin monkeys, gibbons, spider monkeys, and langurs.

Some sad news from Canada this month, of the death of Dr. Gordon Agar, aged 94. Gordon was the Section Head of Mineral Processing at the former Inco Research Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, where he worked until his retirement in 1992.

Over his career, Dr. Agar made many significant contributions to mineral processing and published numerous technical papers. His work on flotation kinetics, locked‑cycle testing, and the scale‑up of laboratory results to flotation circuit design was pioneering and remains widely practiced today. His contributions to pyrrhotite depression and Cu/Ni separation in nickel sulphide ore processing continue to influence operating plants.

I first met Gordon at the NATO Advanced Study Institute in Bursa, Turkey, in 1984, where he inspired me with a lecture on flotation circuit design which I incorporated in the latest edition of Mineral Processing Technology. Gordon was a truly remarkable character, who didn't suffer fools too easily. Four years after the ASI I founded Minerals Engineering journal and he was one of the first people that I recruited to the Editorial Board. He became one of my most valued reviewers, although I sometimes had to edit his reviews a little to protect the sensitivities of some authors! 

I still have vivid memories of a hard drinking session with Gordon, and another of the NATO lecturers, Dick Burt, during a weekend break from the conference in Istanbul.

By the Bosporus,1984: Raj Rajamani, Bedri Ipekoglu, me, Cornelius Ek, Dick Burt,
Gordon Agar, Mrs. Ipekoglu and Jaques du Cuyper

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March Summary: an increasingly turbulent world

"I’ve restored American strength, settled eight wars in 10 months, destroyed the Iran nuclear threat and ended the war in Gaza, bringing for the first time in 3,000 years peace to the Middle East."  

Modest words from US President Donald Trump in a prime-time "Address to the Nation" from the White House on 17 December last year.

Less than 3 months later, the Middle East has seen a major escalation into a regional war after the USA and Israel launched large-scale strikes on Iran, including attacks in Tehran that killed Iran’s supreme leader and other senior officials. Having previously claimed Iran's nuclear programme was "obliterated" by US strikes on its enrichment facilities last year, Trump said Iran could have built a nuclear weapon "within two weeks" without the latest attacks.

Iran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel, U.S. forces, nine Middle East countries, as well as Cyprus and Azerbaijan, while Iranian allied groups began attacking Israel from Lebanon and Yemen, widening the conflict. The fighting has caused thousands of casualties, severe air-travel disruption, and economic shock-waves as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and regional airspace was disrupted. 

As 20% of the word's oil comes through the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices peaked, but besides oil, the Strait carries several commodities important to industrial supply chains, including mining. Major oil and gas producers in the Gulf export large quantities of sulphur, a by-product of refining. Sulphur is critical for producing sulphuric acid, which is widely used in copper leaching, nickel and uranium processing and phosphate fertilizer production. The Gulf also exports petrochemicals, used to make reagents for flotation and other processes.

In this increasingly turbulent world it is impossible to predict which safe haven will one day become a war zone. Cape Town is thankfully well out of the current firing line so hopefully will continue to be a safe venue for future MEI Conferences and this year's IMPC, but we are also looking at other countries, and in the middle of the month Amanda and son Will spent a few days assessing potential conference venues in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Amanda flew from Kuala Lumpur to Adelaide to represent MEI as a media partner at MetPlant '26, while Will and his girlfriend proceeded with their "Grand Tour" and are now in Bali, Indonesia.

Amanda with MetPlant convenor Janine Herzig and delegate Nobuzwe Makhotla

Amanda returned to London via Hong Kong, her original scheduled flight changing in Dubai, but she is now back in Cornwall, preparing to leave again in two weeks time, for Cape Town and Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26.

Whether the Middle East war will be resolved in April is anyone’s guess. Even President Trump appears unclear, claiming at various points that he has won the war, is currently winning it, needs help to win it, and needs no help at all. It brings to mind Schrödinger’s cat!

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February summary: Winter breaks and sad goodbyes

January had been an awful month in Cornwall with three major storms causing much devastation (January summary) so Barbara and I took ourselves off to the Spanish island of Tenerife in the first week of this month for a 10 day break in the sun and respite from the endless rain and wind.

We stayed at Los Gigantes, a small, quiet town on the west coast of the volcanic island, famous for its dramatic basalt cliffs called Acantilados de Los Gigantes, which rise 500-800 metres out of the Atlantic. To early sailors and to the island’s original inhabitants, these cliffs looked like enormous stone giants guarding the coast and Tenerife’s pre-Spanish inhabitants believed the cliffs marked the edge of the world.

Los Gigantes

Tenerife's volcanic landscape with Mount Teide, at 3715 m,
the highest point of any island in the Atlantic

Sunset over La Gomera, 15 miles from Tenerife
on the right is the Canary island of La Palma

Jon meanwhile escaped the Luxembourg winter to enjoy a few days gentle skiing with his daughter in the French Alps, before returning home for a minor leg operation, which precluded his attendance at the SME Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, although he will be fit for April's Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26 in Cape Town.

This is the first year that I have missed the annual SME event since 2008. After 23 SME Annual Meetings I passed the baton on to Jon, but his withdrawal  meant no MEI representation this year. Hopefully Jon will be at the meeting in Denver next year.

Grandson Will continued his South American adventure. He and his girlfriend Liv, were in Peru for the first half of the month, taking in some of the famous sites

Acclimatising in Cusco

Above Machu Picchu and at 5036m on Rainbow Mountain

From Peru they flew to Canada then on to Tokyo! It's turning out to be an epic journey, so far Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Japan, with Malaysia and Indonesia next on the list.

Meanwhile Amanda has been in the county all month, enduring the endless rain, but managing to get out on the Helford River regularly to train for the upcoming World Gig Championships in the Isles of Scilly.

The passing of an old friend is always a reminder of your own mortality, and early in the month I heard the sad news that my closest friend throughout my six years at Leeds University had died at the age of 81. Bob Schofield and I shared a flat in Headingley during our undergraduate days and then we went on to spend a further three years of PhD research, after which Barbara and I took off to Zambia, and Bob and his wife Jean to Newcastle upon Tyne, where Bob spent six years with British Gas researching into the materials used for gas transmission, distribution and production. He then spent many years travelling around the world, working on major oil and gas pipeline projects in the UK, France, Netherlands and the Middle East, before becoming an independent pipeline consultant. He was still working when we met for the first time in 44 years in 2013, when he had no plans to retire. Our thoughts are with Jean and family.

Barbara and me with Bob and Jean in Leeds, 1967 and London 2013

There was also sad news of the death of pioneering mineral processor Roger Amelunxen, who I first met at Flotation '15 in Cape Town, where he and his son Peter represented their family business, conference sponsor Aminpro.

Roger and Peter (3rd and 4th left) at Flotation '15

I met Roger briefly again in Phoenix in 2024 and I am pleased that he was able to see Peter receive the SME's prestigious Antoine Gaudin Award (posting of December 22nd 2024).

Roger was 77 years old and there is little that I can add to Peter's excellent appreciation of his father on LinkedIn. Our condolences to the family.

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January summary: Storm Goretti devastates Cornwall

In my first posting of the year I said "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."  Well, that hope flew out of the window in the first few days of 2026 and it looks like being another troublesome year on the world stage. I guess everyone has their own views on some of the outrageous things said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Here in Cornwall, we returned from mild weather conditions in the Alps at the end of December to icy conditions, with temperatures touching zero. On the 8th of the month alarms sounded on our phones with a rare red "danger to life" warning from the Government and Storm Goretti, one of the most severe storms to hit Cornwall in the last 30 to 35 years, arrived in the evening with winds of up to 99 mph. Many homes in Cornwall, including Falmouth, suffered severe damage and long power outages, but fortunately, apart from flickering lights, we escaped it. Reports suggest that tens of thousands of trees may have been blown down across the county including 80% of the trees on the iconic St. Michael's Mount at Marazion and the immense force of the wind was evident when walking around Falmouth.

Tregoniggie Woodlands, Falmouth

Falmouth Cemetery

Close on the heels of Goretti, Storm Ingrid, although not as severe, produced very heavy seas which damaged beach properties on Cornwall's south coast and disrupted train services within and out of the county.

Breach of the sea wall at Dawlish, Devon, on the London-Penzance main line
Source: BBC

The rain has been relentless and shortly after Ingrid moved on Storm Chandra brought more torrential rain, disruption and flooding. 

New MEI recruit Will missed all this, as he had taken off for warmer climes, flying to Rio for travels in South America with his friend Sam. While in Brazil they managed to see the Iguasu Falls, arguably the most impressive falls in the world (posting of 1st August 2016), Will favouring the Brazilian rather than the Argentinian side of the Falls.

After travelling through Paraguay they enjoyed Buenos Aires, where they were joined by Will's girlfriend, Liv, before moving on to Uruguay. Will resumes his apprenticeship with MEI on his return and hopefully you will see him with Amanda and me at the Cape Town IMPC in October.

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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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