Showing posts with label People. Show all posts
Showing posts with label People. Show all posts

Friday, 18 September 2026

September Mining Sundowner and SW England's strategic minerals hub

A fine autumn evening yesterday for the September Cornish Mining Sundowner at Falmouth's Chain Locker. Although a modest turnout, it was an interesting one, with two former CSM Associates secretaries, past and current presidents of the Camborne School of Mines Student Union, one "fresher" and Sam Wood, all the way from Buxton in Derbyshire to celebrate 50 years to the day that he began his student years at CSM. I was one of his lecturers and as far as we know only one of two still alive! 

It has been an exciting few months for critical minerals in South-West England, and particularly for the old mining districts of Cornwall and Devon. The most dramatic development came last month, when the UK National Wealth Fund announced an investment of up to £71 million in Tungsten West to help restart the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine near Plymouth in Devon. The package includes £36 million of equity and up to £35 million of debt, while the Government will have the right to secure up to half of the mine’s annual tungsten production. With tungsten now firmly recognised as a strategic mineral, and China dominating global supply, the decision is a significant indication of how seriously the UK Government is now taking domestic mineral resources.

This is particularly interesting when viewed alongside developments further west in Cornwall. At South Crofty, near Camborne, Cornish Metals continues to advance its plans for a return to tin production, following further National Wealth Fund support announced in May. Lithium developments are also progressing, with Cornish Lithium's projects seeking to demonstrate that lithium can be extracted from the region's granites and geothermal waters using innovative, lower-impact processes. The Government's new Critical Minerals Strategy specifically highlights Cornwall's work on Direct Lithium Extraction and the potential to combine lithium recovery with geothermal energy.

The really significant change is therefore not simply that individual projects are progressing, but that Cornwall and Devon are increasingly being viewed as a strategic UK mineral province. Tin, tungsten and lithium all feature prominently in the Government's critical minerals thinking, while the region is also developing expertise in processing, recycling, geothermal energy and other parts of the supply chain. The South-West has always had the geology; what has been lacking in recent decades has been the investment and confidence to turn that geological potential into operating mines and supply chains. The events of 2026 suggest that this may finally be changing.

#MEIBlog

Monday, 3 August 2026

Congratulations Mari Lundström on the award of the Faraday Medal

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Electrochemistry Interest Group Faraday Medal is one of the most prestigious international awards in electrochemistry. It is presented annually by the RSC to recognise outstanding mid-career electrochemists working outside the UK and Ireland.

The 2026 Faraday Medal has been awarded to Mari Lundström, Professor of Hydrometallurgy at Aalto University, Finland. The award will be presented this month at Electrochem 2026 in York, UK, where she will also deliver the Faraday Medal Lecture.

Mari (2nd left) at an IOM3 conference in Cambridge in 2015 with
Barry and Barbara Wills, Stephen Neethling and Nick Wilshaw

Professor Lundström is internationally recognised for her pioneering work in electrochemical and hydrometallurgical processes for the sustainable recovery of critical and precious metals. Her research focuses on:

  • Electrochemical extraction and refining of metals.
  • Recycling of lithium-ion batteries and electronic waste.
  • Recovery of critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and precious metals.
  • Designing low-carbon, circular-economy processes for metal production.
  • Bridging fundamental electrochemistry with industrial-scale implementation.

Her work has become particularly important as demand for battery materials has grown rapidly due to electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies. We are hoping that Mari might present her work at Hydrometallurgy '27 in Cape Town next year and that we might also see her at Critical Minerals '26 in November.

#MEIBlog

Friday, 19 June 2026

June Cornish Mining Sundowner- new and familiar faces and a great historical video

Despite the Cornish 'mizzle' there was a good turnout last night at Falmouth's Chain Locker for the June mining sundowner.

For the first time we almost had a full MEI team present. Jon, in the Luxembourg office, was missing but it was good to see Amanda and her son, Will Collins, who recently joined the MEI team.

As well as a few current Camborne School of Mines students, it was good to see a number of "old boys", who always have interesting stories to tell.

With CSM alumni Connor Spollen, Andy Wetherelt, Alun Jones,
Mark Alcock, Mark Shimmield and Nick Wilshaw

I was particularly pleased to see Connor Spollen, who graduated in mineral processing in 1990 and has had extensive experience in Chile, Ireland, Canada and USA. He is now based in USA as CEO of Jervois, a leading global supplier of responsibly sourced and produced cobalt and nickel materials. 

With Connor and son

It is 35 years since I last saw Connor. His final year project at CSM was on mass balancing and he produced a paper, co-authored by me and maths lecturer Nigel Powell, which was presented at the SME Annual Meeting in Denver. After the conference we headed for Copper Mountain where he, Barbara and Nigel skied for the first time.

Denver, 1991. Connor right and Nigel left

Sundowner regulars Dave and Treve Milden of Gravity Mining were missing last night, but were at last week's UK Mining Conference in Cornwall. Dave was also at Physical Separation '26 (YouTube video) in Cape Town in April, promoting the world's largest gravity concentrator, the C910 MGS.

The Multi-Gravity Separator (MGS) was invented by the late, great Richard Mozley and is now manufactured by Gravity Mining, a sponsor of Physical Separation '26. The C910 is a far cry from the MGS which was launched in Stockholm in 1988 by Richard and his team.

C910, and prototype MGS in 1988

Richard Mozley 1993

Dave came across this great video last week which was made in 1993 two years before Richard's death. It details the development of the MGS on the Wheal Jane concentrator, near Truro, and features Richard Mozley and two familiar faces at the mining sundowners, Kevin Ross, who was Managing Director of Carnon Consolidated, who owned the mine, and Mike Hallewell, who was then Metallurgical Superintendent. The MGS helped the concentrator at Wheal Jane to continue operating after mining stopped in 1991, as it processed ore brought in from the South Crofty tin mine. It finally closed in 1998, when South Crofty shut down. 

Mike and Kevin, 1993

Mike Hallewell continues his involvement with South Crofty. He is consulting metallurgist to Cornish Metals Inc., the mining developer whose success largely depends on successfully reopening the historic tin mine and benefiting from long-term demand for critical minerals. Mike will be a co-author of a paper at Critical Minerals '26 in Cape Town in November. Presented by James Strongman of Redruth company Petrolab, the paper will assess the economic impact of ore sorting, which will be used to pre-concentrate the ore at South Crofty.  Petrolab is a sponsor of the conference, and for Process Mineralogy '26 which precedes it, and James will be presenting papers at both events.

Amanda and Will with James Strongman

It was an excellent sundowner last night and I look forward to more surprises at the next one, which will be on Thursday July 16th at the Chain Locker, from 5.30pm.

#MEIBlog

Friday, 22 May 2026

May Cornish Mining Sundowner, with welcome guests from the North

There was a good turnout for the May Cornish Mining Sundowner last night, with around 25 represented at Falmouth's Chain Locker.

A surprise guest was a CSM student from half a century ago, Sam Wood, who had travelled the 350 miles from his home in Buxton just for the sundowner.

Sam Wood 2nd right

And from the opposite side of the Pennines it was good to see Laura Smith again, from the School of Earth, Environment & Sustainability at the University of Leeds. She attended the May sundowner last year, when she was visiting Cornwall as her group of social scientists was conducting research on UK sourcing of critical materials in the context of the energy transition and was developing case studies of Cornwall's lithium and tin as well as Aberdeenshire's nickel. 

This year the group has two mining-related projects, the first a piece of research looking at the dynamics of tungsten mining in Europe, with Hemerdon mine (Tungsten West) in Devon and Salau mine in France as case studies. Laura would like to speak to a range of stakeholders about the past, present and future of Hemerdon Mine. If anyone is interested please email Laura: L.e.smith1@leeds.ac.uk. Luckily last night she got the chance to talk to Klaas (KP) van der Wielen, consultant with Ausenco, who was plant metallurgist at Hemerdon from 2015-17.

Laura and KP

The other project is ‘Grounded Engagement’ and is a participatory film project, bringing together mining stakeholders to create stories about the revival of mining in Cornwall. This will involve geologists, anthropologists, community groups and sustainability consultants coming together to talk about community engagement during mineral exploration and how creative methods can help us better understand people’s experiences and perspectives. The workshop will take place in Redruth on June 3rd and 4th, and Laura would like to hear from you if you are interested in getting involved.

The price of tin has risen 45% this year, to $55,000 per tonne and China has a stranglehold on supplies so it was good to see Cornish Metals featured in an article in The Times last week. Cornish Metals' South Crofty mine in Camborne struggled after the tin price collapsed to $4000 per tonne in 1985, where it remained for two decades.

Hopefully the mine will start production again in two years time, producing 4,700 tonnes/year at an operating cost of $13,400/tonne. Pumping water from the mine is well under way and mining permits are agreed until 2071. It is hoped that the project could directly employ up to 300 people and bring more than 1000 jobs into this deprived area. There is a strategic need for more tin supplies outside of Asia and a future market expected to drive demand for tin, a critical metal, an essential ingredient in the solder required for nearly all electrical equipment.

The next Cornish Mining Sundowner is on Thursday June 18th at the Chain Locker from 5.30pm.

#MEIBlog

Monday, 6 April 2026

2025 MEI Young Person's Award to Túlio Moreira Campos

We are very pleased to announce that Túlio Moreira Campos is the winner of the 2025 MEI Young Person's Award.

Túlio is a Metallurgical Engineer who graduated from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. He completed his Master of Science in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the Alberto Luiz Coimbra Institute for Postgraduate Studies and Engineering Research (COPPE/UFRJ), and he is currently a PhD candidate in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the same institute. 

Túlio works as a Research and Development Engineer at the Laboratório de Tecnologia Mineral (LTM/COPPE/UFRJ), focusing on mathematical modeling of comminution, process simulations, fundamentals of particle breakage, optimisation of grinding circuits, online model application, data analytics, multicomponent comminution, and mineral liberation. He has already made substantial contributions to the understanding of particle breakage under compression, to the modeling of HPGRs, including its implementation online as digital twin in controlling the unit, to the modeling of size reduction in ball mills, using both the population balance and the UFRJ mechanistic models, to the application of machine learning to circuit data.

In 2020, Túlio was appointed as the second-in-command of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's group within the Global Comminution Collaborative (GCC). Furthermore, in 2022, he earned the distinction of being named an associate member of the GCC Foundation e.V. He presently holds a position within the Management Team of the GCC.  Túlio has been the recipient of several awards, including the IMPC Young Author's Award,  delivered by the IMPC Council in 2021, the Best Student Paper Award for papers presented at Comminution '23 and Comminution '25, and Vale's Technical Recognition for a paper presented at the 9th Brazilian Ore Agglomeration Symposium.

Túlio is characterised by his proactive, communicative, and dedicated nature. His primary research focus lies in the development and application of mechanistic, practical, and robust process models. These models aim to enhance and integrate overall process simulations as tools for fostering innovation within the minerals industry.

Túlio's nomination came from Prof. Luís Marcelo Tavares, who is his PhD supervisor at UFRJ, together with Prof. Malcolm Powell, Emeritus Professor of the University of Queensland. Prof. Tavares' long citation can be found online and is supplemented by support from Prof. Powell, who says that Túlio has been outstanding in terms of dedication, application and quality of outputs. His work on breakage modelling builds off previous concepts, some of which have been overlooked in general comminution application, and extends these based on careful and detailed experimental test work. "This is the calibre of work that is needed to move the science forward, rather than general trends and empirical backfitting", said Prof. Powell.

Also supporting the nomination is Prof. Holger Lieberwirth, of TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany, who sees exceptional capabilities in Tùlio as "one of the coming top researchers in the field of minerals processing, shaping the future in this area".

Tùlio (3rd left) at Comminution '25 with his nominator Marcelo Tavares (2nd left) and
supporters Holger Lieberwirth (1st left) and Malcolm Powell (3rd right)

Congratulations, Túlio, we look forward to presenting you with your award.

#MEIBlog

Thursday, 26 March 2026

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!

Friday, 20 March 2026

March Cornish Mining Sundowner: some good and some not so good news from Cornwall

A very average turnout for last night's mining sundowner at Falmouth's Chain Locker, but it was good to welcome two visitors from the Czech Republic, Jan Vrba and Martin Fiser. They represent Asekol, a major environmental organisation based in the Czech Republic that focuses on recycling electronic waste. It is a non-profit "compliance scheme" that represents manufacturers and importers of electrical and electronic equipment, its main job being to help companies meet legal requirements for collecting and recycling old electronics.

Jan and Vrba are in Cornwall to talk to Gravity Mining, one of MEI's Physical Separation '26 sponsors, about Multi-Gravity Separators, and Holman-Wilfley about shaking tables, for the recycling of WEE to recover precious metals. Left to right in the photo are Dave Goldburn, of Holman-Wilfley, Martin, Treve Mildren, of Gravity Mining, and Jan.  Dave Goldburn is also involved with Physical Separation '26 and will be co-chairing the first session at the conference.

There was some disheartening Cornish Mining news a few weeks ago.  British Lithium has been extracting lithium from the decomposed granite at a china clay pit, owned by Imerys, a French multinational company, which, in 2023, acquired an 80% stake in British Lithium. The transaction brought together Imerys’ expertise in mining, R&D and process development capabilities, as well as its lithium mineral resources, with British Lithium’s bespoke technology and state-of-the-art lithium pilot plant, which in 2024 began producing battery-grade lithium carbonate. Sadly Imerys recently announced a strategic decision to place Imerys British Lithium (IBL) into a care and maintenance phase, suspending active development for the foreseeable future. The decision was driven by capital allocation constraints and the need to find a long-term partner to support the project at this time.

Some good news, however, that Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL) has commenced electricity generation at its United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project near Truro, marking the first commercial deep geothermal power production in the United Kingdom.

The plant is designed to deliver approximately 3 MW of continuous, renewable baseload electricity, sufficient to supply around 10,000 homes. Electricity generated at the site is being supplied to the grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with Octopus Energy.

The United Downs facility utilises geothermal water from depths of more than 5 km beneath the surface. In addition to electricity generation, the project is also progressing lithium recovery from geothermal brines, creating a combined renewable energy and critical minerals operation (see also posting of 18 September 2020).

The start of generation represents a significant milestone for GEL and for the development of geothermal energy in Cornwall and the wider UK.

And finally, it is always good to hear of my past CSM students being awarded for their endeavours. Dave Meadows is Chief Technology Officer with Bechtel Mining and Minerals, USA. He graduated from Camborne in 1985 with an honours degree in Mineral Processing Technology. After 12 years in South Africa he moved to the USA with Bechtel, and then had 10 years with Freeport McMoRan and FLSmidth before settling with Bechtel in 2015, I missed the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City last month, where Dave was named a Fellow of the SME. Well done Dave!

Dave with Mary Korpi, SME President

The next Cornish Mining Sundowner is at Falmouth's Chain Locker on Thursday April 16th, from 5.30pm.

Friday, 20 February 2026

February Cornish Mining Sundowner with visitors from far afield

A tremendous turnout last night for the February sundowner at Falmouth’s Chain Locker, helped by a welcome break in the relentless rain.

Camborne School of Mines alumni were out in force, with visitors from outside the county, and two from as far away as Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

There is usually a good student presence at the Chain Locker, as it is only a few miles from the Camborne School of Mines in Penryn.  This week, however, they were involved with other activities, as CSM has been holding an International Student Week, with Mining and Geology students from across Europe coming here to explore the School of Mines, gain insight into the projects currently underway in Cornwall and experience the overground and underground activities our region has to offer. Students have been at CSM from International Federation of Mining & Metallurgical Students member institutions in Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands and Finland. The visits have been organised by Harry McTiernan, an Engineering Geology and Geotechnics student at CSM, who provided this photo taken early in the week in Falmouth.

Welsh company Maelgwyn Mineral Services (MMS) has been involved with MEI Conferences, particularly comminution and flotation, for many years and are sponsors of next year's Comminution '27 and Flotation '27. It was great to catch up with Chairman Mike Battersby and General Manager Steve Flatman last night. They are down from Cardiff to visit GT Jones in St Austell, specialists in designing, engineering and manufacturing process equipment, to look into the manufacture of the MMS Ro-Star ultra-fine grinding laboratory and pilot mills. The USA patent has now been granted for the Ro-Star mill concept, and in conjunction with Ersel, a Turkish mill manufacturer, MMS has just completed the construction of a 500kW Ro-Star mill for an industrial application. Mike and Steve are also meeting with Cornwall based Simon Bailey, of Comminution '27 sponsor Global Met Tech, who is helping with testing and scale-up of the Ro-Star, together with advice on the best ceramic grinding media to use.

With Mike and Steve

Finally, it takes big money to start up a mine so very good news that Cornish Metals has received a non-binding Letter of Interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States outlining potential financing support of up to US$225m for the South Crofty tin project.

The next sundowner is at the Chain Locker on Thursday March 19th, from 5.30pm.

#MEIBlog