A great conference comes to an end

Flotation '13 lived up to all expectations, and came to an end this afternoon with a final 'networking' wine function in the Vineyard hotel gardens ( see YouTube video.

Barbara, Amanda and I return to UK next week, while Jon flies back tonight.

I will be posting a full report on the event on the blog on November 30th when we return to acceptable broadband speed. South Africa's relatively poor broadband has disrupted our usual MEI Online service. Apologies also to Minerals Engineering journal authors- I will be on you case as soon as I return to UK.

Guest Editor for Flotation '13 appointed

With Pablo (centre) and Elsevier's Dean Eastbury

We are pleased to announce that Elsevier this morning appointed Dr. Pablo Brito-Parada, of Imperial College, UK, as Guest Editor for the special Minerals Engineering issue of Flotation '13.

I look forward to working with you Pablo.

Flotation '13 Conference Dinner

Last night's conference dinner was held at Moyos in the Cape Town Waterfront.

This is a recently opened restaurant and the first time that MEI had used it as a dinner venue.

To be honest, we found it disappointing, but I would be interested to know what delegates thought of last night's event.

Major awards to a familiar figure missing from Flotation '13

A familiar and distinguished face is missing from this year's conference. Due to an accident to a family member, Prof. Graeme Jameson was unable to leave Australia for the conference. We send all or best wishes to him and his family.

Graeme Jameson (right) with Cyril O'Connor
and Kari Heiskanen at Flotation '11

He was due to present a paper tomorrow, and he will be greatly missed at the conference, as he has attended all previous events since the first in Adelaide in 2000.

Graeme is held in high esteem internationally, but this has been a particularly remarkable year for recognition. In March I saw him receive the Gaudin Award from the SME in Denver and a little later he was asked to give the Guillaume Delprat Distinguished Lecture by the AusIMM, which I attended in Perth. Delprat was co-discoverer of flotation and also laid the foundations for BHP as manager of the company 1898-1921.

A few weeks ago he was named as the 2013 Scientist of the year for New South Wales, at a ceremony hosted by the Governor, at Government House overlooking Sydney Harbour. And only a few days ago he received a very significant grant from the Australian Research Council - $1.2 million over three years- to study the flotation of composites, that has made him a minor hero in the University of Newcastle.

To crown it all, this morning I had an email from John Chadwick at International Mining to inform me that Graeme will be inaugurated in the Mining Hall of Fame in Salt Lake City in February, for his contribution to mineral concentration.

Quite a year, and more than well deserved. We hope all goes well with you Graeme, and look forward to seeing you at Flotation '15 if not before.

Flotation '13 gets underway

This morning MEI Consultant Prof. Dee Bradshaw and I opened the Fundamentals Symposium, the first of the two symposia which comprise Flotation '13, the 6th MEI conference in the series which began in Adelaide in 2000.

Over the next 4 days, around 250 delegates from 28 countries will discuss the latest developments in this all important process, and, I hope, have a thoroughly good time!

The consistently high turnout for these biennial conferences is testimony to the continuing importance of flotation in the minerals industry.  I have said it many times before that flotation is the most important technological development since the discovery of smelting. It is virtually ubiquitous, being used to treat metallic and nonmetallic ores, clays, coal and tar sands, and the tonnages treated are vast. Even small improvements in the process can reap huge dividends, which is why this conference series is now established as the regular meeting place for flotation scientists and practitioners from around the world and attracts corporate support from the major players in this field.

I asked the rhetorical question, why is a process which was patented over 100 years ago still so intensively researched?

Some people have argued recently that we are just going round in circles, and repeating the excellent work which was done many decades ago. To some extent this is true, but as we will see over the next four days, there are still developments taking place in new and existing reagents, flotation machines, the way that we control and optimise the process and in our understanding of the fundamental physics and chemistry of the process. Dee predicted at Flotation '11 that chemistry would dominate this conference series, but she now feels that process mineralogy does, as ore variability becomes increasingly of importance to flotation performance.

We have many eminent flotation researchers here today, including three recipients of the SME's prestigious Gaudin Memorial Award.  We are also fortunate to have the chairman of the International Mineral Processing Council, Prof. Cyril O'Connor, as well as national representatives of that council, including the chairmen of the next two IMPCs, Prof. Juan Yianatos of Chile, and Prof. Jim Finch of Canada.

Recently the IMPC published a monograph on the shortage of young minerals engineers in our profession. We are fortunate to have two of the editors of that monograph with us, Profs. Jan Cilliers and Kari Heiskanen.

We also have many young people who will be attending a major international conference for the first time. One thing that I have noticed over the last few years is that although the quantity of young minerals engineers may be under strength, those that do commit themselves to careers in our wonderful industry are with few exceptions highly motivated and ambitious. My message to them was to make the most of the opportunities that will arise this week, and talk to and get to know the researchers, manufacturers and operators who make this industry work.

Mount Isa Mines- true pioneers of mineral processing technology

Here's a great photo of the Mount Isa Mines mineral processing research team in 1995. Can anyone put names to faces?

For a period in 1980, Mount Isa Mines was Australia's largest company, having pioneered several significant mining industry innovations which have been widely accepted around the world. The focus on paving the way in industrial innovation was a result of the difficult nature of the Mount isa ore bodies and in response to declining metal prices and rising operational costs in the 1970s and 1980s. By the 1990s Mount Isa Mines had become a world leader in innovative mining technologies and state-of-the-art processing technologies.

These included the ISA PROCESS copper refining technology, the ISASMELT smelting technology, the IsaMill fine grinding technology and the commercialisation of the Jameson Cell flotation technology, all of which are now marketed by Xstrata Technology, Glencore's technology subsidiary. Go to a mineral processing conference anywhere these days, and you will hear of innovative uses of at least one of these technologies.
The full story of Mount Isa Mines Research can be found here.