Ferocious Storm Hits Falmouth

Relentless!  Is there any end to this 'conveyor belt of storms' that is causing chaos in the UK?  This afternoon's storm was the biggest to hit Falmouth, and never in my 40 years here have I seen a sea as big on this stretch of coast.  The photos below I took an hour ago on the MEI Conferences walking route, and this YouTube video, taken from the window of the MEI office, gives some idea of the strength of the wind.  All around the world there are extreme weather conditions at the moment, so let us know how you are fairing, no matter where you are.



The road to Swanpool Beach

Swanpool Beach

Swanpool Beach

Falmouth Seafront

Gyllingvase Beach

 

The Future of Biohydrometallurgy for Gold Processing

In opening Biohydromet '12, MEI Consultant Dr. Chris Bryan, of the University of Exeter, spoke about the history of biohydrometallurgy, from the ideology of the early 80's, where it was going to revolutionise mining and replace pyrometallurgy completely, to the abrupt dose of reality in Corale Brierley's IBS 2005 keynote address "we need to wake up to the fact that this is, and only ever will be, a niche technology", and the need for pragmatism. Chris remarked that biohydrometallurgy has a poor reputation in certain circles, as a technology that is too unpredictable, but he highlighted that it is often used as an avenue of last resort on ores that are untreatable with other methods.

Biohydromet '14 is something to look forward to as it comes at a time when rapid advances in our understanding of the science of microorganisms may in effect have awoken biohydrometallurgy from its long slumber, and it now looks as though it might start to realise its true potential and provide real benefits to the minerals industry. A glance at the timetable for June's meeting confirms this view.

Biohydrometallurgy's greatest success has been in the treatment of refractory gold ores, the first industrial scale plant being started at the Fairview Mine at Barberton, South Africa, in 1986. Since then, biooxidation operations have been commissioned in a number of countries, such as Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Peru, China, Uganda, USA, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Russia. A number of commercial bioreactor processes have been developed, such as BIOX®, which will feature on the 3rd morning of Biohydromet '14.

Researchers at Australia's highly esteemed CSIRO will be presenting three papers at Biohydromet '14 and one of the authors, Dr. Anna Kaksonen has co-authored an excellent review on the role of microorganisms in gold processing and recovery, which has recently been published in Hydrometallurgy. The paper shows how several microbial processes are relevant for gold leaching and recovery. Some of these may be applicable for in situ or in place leaching of low grade gold ores, which the industry will increasingly depend on into the future. Other microbial processes need to be considered as potential risks for lixiviant stability and gold recovery. The understanding of these processes will enhance future industrial applications of biotechnology and lixiviant use by the minerals industry.

Outotec ranked the world's 3rd most sustainable company on the Global 100 list

Giant Finnish company Outotec is a sponsor of two of MEI's upcoming major conferences, Comminution '14 and Flotation '15, but also, and perhaps more appropriately, Sustainability through Resource Conservation and Recycling (SRCR '14), as the company has been ranked 3rd on the Global 100 list of the world's most sustainable companies.

The annual listing was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland last month. This was the second consecutive year Outotec was included in the index (ranking 12th in 2013).

Congratulations Outotec, MEI is proud to be associated with you, not only for your sustainability record, but also for your recognition of outstanding young people in our industry.

A few simple questions for climate scientists

Porthleven, Cornwall

A report this week from the UK Met Office warns that the "conveyor belt" of storms which has battered us since early December is likely to last for at least the next few weeks. It suggests that the UK's floods and storms are just one element of a global disruption of weather patterns, the origin of which lies thousands of miles away in the tropical Pacific. According to the report, the changes are consistent with climate change.

Climate change science, and in particular government policies determined by scientific reports, are of great importance to the minerals industry, a major consumer of energy and producer of CO2. It is interesting to read the intense debate which took place on this blog over three years ago,  the overwhelming consensus among the many minerals industry correspondents being that if humans are contributing to climate change, the extent to which they are contributing is open to much doubt and debate.

Since the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report the media are again reporting that all scientists agree that climate change is taking place and that there is little doubt that human action is the main contributor via CO2 emissions. I wonder if the correspondents of 3 years ago now fall into line with these views?

Personally I don't want to get embroiled in the debate between climate change believers and deniers again. There appears to be little doubt that climate change is now taking place, and that humans are playing some part in this, but to what extent is still open to debate.

My scepticism has always been about the reliability of models describing this immensely complex system and the IPCC report also casts some doubt on the models and their predictions of what will happen by the end of the century.

The debate is essentially about carbon dioxide levels and temperature, but for me some aspects have never been satisfactorily explained. My questions may be naïve, but if they are simplistic then maybe someone can provide simple answers:

1. It is said that the average temperature of the atmosphere has risen by 1.5 C over the last 100 years. How do we know this? There must be sophisticated methods of measuring the temperature now, but how was average temperature measured 100 years ago?

2. Apparently the CO2 level is now around 400ppm. Is this a global average or is this a uniform figure ie is the CO2 level in the UK the same as that in India and of that over the centre of the Pacific? If it is not uniform is it reliable to compare levels now with levels inferred from CO2 trapped only in Antarctic ice? And would CO2 in this air be dissolved into the ice with time, thus giving falsely low readings?

3. If a country is told to cut its CO2 levels by X%, how does anyone know if they have done this or not? How are a country's emissions measured (or calculated)?

Please help me understand!

SME 2014 is only 2 weeks away

In two weeks time I will be in Salt Lake City, Utah, for the American Society of Mining Engineers (SME) Annual Meeting.  This is one of the industry's great networking events, the attendance last year being around 7000 delegates. MEI is, as always, a media partner and I shall be spending much of my time in the giant exhibition (585 booths last year), looking for interesting news of people and innovations and photographing proceedings for the MEI report. I am also looking forward to hearing Dr. Osvaldo Bascur, of OSIsoft, USA, present the prestigious Antoine Gaudin Memorial Lecture.

So if you are attending, and have any interesting mineral processing news that you would like to share, look out for me at the event (wearing my shirt with the distinctive MEI logo) or contact me before the event to arrange a suitable meeting time.
 

Cornwall's iconic engine house under siege

The 19th century Crown Mines, perched on the granite cliffs at Botallack near Land's End, are the county's most photographed engine houses. There must be thousands of photos of these ruins but probably none as dramatic as this one, taken by Peter Hulance, and posted on Facebook. This is the bigger of the two engine houses, the pumping house, totally at the mercy of the Atlantic storms which are still sweeping through Cornwall.

 

Meanwhile in Devon, work has commenced on repairing the break in the Great Western rail line between London and Penzance. It is expected to take at least 6 weeks, and in the meantime rail travellers are being bused between Exeter and Plymouth, where they resume their train journey into Cornwall. Hopefully all will be back to normal in June for Biohydromet '14 and SRCR '14 in Falmouth.