April Cornish Mining Sundowner with good news of tin and lithium mining in Cornwall

There was a good turn-out last night at Falmouth's Chain Locker for the April Mining Sundowner with a few new faces swelling the ranks of the regulars.

Three of the "regulars" Dean Eastbury, Pete Shepherd and Steve Barber

CSM mining and geology students making their sundowner debuts

I was pleased to see Andy Wilkinson, a 1991 CSM mineral processing graduate, now with Metso-Outotec, a sponsor of MEI's forthcoming Comminution '23 and Flotation '23. Andy was accompanied by his Ukrainian fiancée Iryna Shopska who has only recently joined him in St. Austell. Although Iryna enjoys living in Cornwall her thoughts were very much on her family and friends in her war-torn country.

With Andy and Iryna

Mining ventures continue to push ahead in Cornwall and it was good to hear that Cornish Metals Inc. plans to raise up to £40.5 million via a share issue to advance its development of South Crofty tin mine. The mining company has secured a £25 million strategic investment from Vision Blue Resources, a vehicle founded by former Xstrata plc boss Mick Davis. In addition, Cornish Metals plans to raise a further £15.5 million from a private placing and subscription. The money will be used for mine dewatering, resource drilling, completion of a feasibility study, evaluation of further downstream opportunities, and early works in advance of a potential construction decision.

Demand for tin is expected to grow rapidly as it is essential for the high-tech, low carbon economy, which makes South Crofty a strategic asset with the ability to provide a secure, traceable, sustainable supply of this important metal. Tin is primarily used in the production of lead-free solder used in almost all circuit boards and semiconductors, as well as renewable energy systems where tin is used in the production of photo voltaic cells, and there is growing demand from the automotive sector where it is utilised in EV components and has been shown to enhance the performance of EV batteries themselves. At the same time there is no primary mine production of tin in Europe or North America and the metal has been designated as a mineral critical to economic and national security by the USA. 

South Crofty has one of the highest grade tin mineral resources in the world not currently in production and has the potential to be among the lowest cost producers globally. Having previously operated until 1998, there is significant mine infrastructure still in place, most notably several mine shafts that can be used for future production and ventilation purposes, and the operation is located within an industrial area with access to the national electricity grid as well as existing transport infrastructure. 

Braving the elements outside the pub were members of Cornish Lithium and Geoscience, who are much involved in the development of extraction of lithium from deep and hot geothermal brines. Second left is Cornish Lithium's ESG & Sustainability Manager Lucy Crane and standing is Pete Ledingham, a founding member of Geoscience, which he joined following six years at the Camborne School of Mines Hot Dry Rock geothermal research project. He was Project Manager of the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power project from its inception until May 2020. 

It is well known that lithium is critical to electric vehicle battery manufacture and the UK government has been warned it is falling dangerously behind in its plans to build a British battery industry, with manufacturing capacity forecast to be barely half the needed level by the end of the decade, according to data produced by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, one of the world's leading authorities on the battery industry. The report shows that the UK will have to increase the supply of lithium, cobalt and graphite, critical ingredients in battery production, by staggering amounts, as much as 90 times the current level, to have any hope of supplying that industry. 

Two Cornish companies, British Lithium and Cornish Lithium, are developing flowsheets for the extraction of lithium from mica in granite rocks in the St. Austell area and in west Cornwall Cornish Lithium is proceeding with its development of extracting lithium from geothermal waters and there was more good news that GeoCubed Ltd., a subsidiary company of Cornish Lithium, has successfully commissioned and delivered the Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) Pilot Plant at Cornish Lithium’s Geothermal Waters Test Facility at United Downs. The DLE Pilot Plant has been designed to process Cornish geothermal waters using DLE technologies and is the first time that a DLE system has become operational in the UK. The £4.0 million Pilot Plant is being supported by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership with £2.9 million from the UK Government’s Getting Building Fund. The Pilot Plant was successfully commissioned at the end of March, on time and on budget.

The pilot plant is expected to confirm that lithium can be produced in Cornwall from geothermal waters, and the pilot plant is expected to provide sufficient information to enable the design of a commercial lithium plant in the County. During the course of 2022, different DLE technologies will be tested, utilising the pilot plant, with a view to establishing the preferred technology for future DLE plants in Cornwall. 

A very interesting evening, and the next Cornish Mining Sundowner to look forward to will be at the Chain Locker on Thursday 19th May, from 5.30pm.

@barrywills

Process mineralogy of unconventional mineral deposits

We are looking forward to November and our first face to face conference since November 2019. Process Mineralogy '22 will be held in Sitges, Spain, and there is now a call for abstracts for this, MEI's 6th International Symposium on Process Mineralogy, currently sponsored by Bruker, Zeiss and Promet101, with our media sponsor International Mining (see posting of 28 March).

With declining ore grades and increased ore complexity process mineralogy is now of vital importance within the mining industry. The application of process mineralogy can be used to solve problems and challenges, and to aid in the optimisation of mineral processing operations, contributing to increased value of ore concentrates produced.

However, how can the knowledge from, and experience with process mineralogy be applied to unconventional mineral deposits? This will be the question discussed in a keynote lecture by Dr. Kurt Aasly, of the Dept. of Geoscience and Petroleum at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

“Unconventional mineral deposits” he will identify as non-metallic industrial mineral deposits, construction materials, and various types of deep-sea mineral deposits. Case examples will be provided from quartz and quartzites used for silicon production, deep-sea minerals, and the pyrrhotite problem in aggregates for concrete. Emphasis will be on important parameters for such deposits, where grades are at different scales than for many metallic ores, or where grade is not even relevant, but other mineralogical properties are crucial for the performance.

Kurt Aasly received his M.Sc. and PhD from NTNU and was appointed Associate Professor of Process Mineralogy in 2012.  His main field of research and teaching is within process mineralogy and geometallurgy, focusing on industrial minerals and iron oxides. He has been project manager for the MarMine project, focusing on technological challenges related to exploitation of seafloor massive sulfide deposits and has also been responsible for establishing a mineral characterisation laboratory, as part of a larger National Research Infrastructure. Recently, Dr. Aasly has been involved in a research project related to characterisation and analyses of minute concentration of pyrrhotite in concrete aggregates.

We look forward to his presentation in Spain.

#ProcessMineralogy22

New Book: Electronic Waste: Recycling and Reprocessing for a Sustainable Future

MEI's 7th International Symposium on Sustainable Minerals (Sustainable Minerals '22) takes place online in July, and there is currently a final call for abstracts, with a deadline of the end of this month. 

The recycling of electronic waste is likely to feature heavily in the final programme, so it is a good time to announce a new book on the subject edited by Maria E. Holuszko, Amit Kumar and Denise C.R. Espinosa. 

In Electronic Waste: Recycling and Reprocessing for a Sustainable Future a team of expert sustainability researchers examine methods for extracting value from electronic waste while aiming for a zero-waste scenario in industrial production. The book discusses the manufacturing and use of materials in electronic devices while presenting an overview of separation methods for industrial materials. There is also a global overview of various national and international regulations related to the topic of electronic and electrical waste. 

This is a useful resource for scientists and engineers working in the production and development of electronic devices, the authors providing comprehensive overviews of the benefits of achieving a zero-waste solution in electronic and electrical waste, as well as the risks posed by incorrectly disposed of electronic waste. 

We hope to see the editors and contributors to this book represented in July at Sustainable Minerals '22.

#SustainableMinerals22

Physical Separation '22 is now only a month away

Physical Separation '22 is MEI's first conference of the year, and will be held online from May 9-11. The provisional programme is available, and it is not too late to submit an abstract if you would like to make a presentation. 

The conference is sponsored by Hudbay Minerals, Gravity Mining and Steinert, with Media Partners International Mining and Imformed, and Industry Advocates the Coalition for Eco-Efficient Comminution (CEEC), the Cornwall Mining Alliance and the Critical Minerals Association.

The programme contains two keynote lectures. "New challenges for gravity concentration and classification of fine particles" will be given by Prof. Kevin Galvin, Laureate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and "The role of magnetic separation in the development of critical and strategic metal recovery flowsheets" will be given by Prof. Neil Rowson, Emeritus Professor, University of Birmingham and Laboratory Manager at Bunting-Redditch,UK.

Profs. Galvin and Rowson will also be panelists in the panel discussion "Looking to the future: Physical Separation in 2030", which will be chaired by Dr. Erin Bobicki, of the University of Toronto. The other panelists are Dr. Peter Amelunxen, of Hudbay Minerals, Canada, and Dr. Priscila Esteves, of Steinert, Brazil.

Registration is now open for this, MEI's 7th International Conference on Physical Separation.

#PhysicalSeparation22

March: out of the frying pan and into the fire

Exactly two years ago today I began my monthly updates and the April 1st posting of 2020 was entitled March: the month that changed the world.

This could equally apply to March 2022. With the pandemic apparently receding, one horror has been replaced by another, the war in Ukraine, a truly horrific invasion by Russia's despotic Vladimir Putin. The innocent civilians have suffered dreadfully and the early reaction of the inept UK Government to admitting refugees into the country did not make me particularly proud to be British.

The Times, March 2nd

I sympathise with young people throughout Europe, as the threat of a new World War looms in the background. To me it has echoes of that other standoff between Russia and the west, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. At the time I was just starting my final year at Grammar School, and failed my mock A-level GCEs as I felt that there was no point in working or studying, as we wouldn't be around much longer. Thankfully a compromise was soon reached and we can only hope that the Russia-Ukraine crisis comes to an end soon.

Although the UK only takes 4% of its natural gas from Russia, Europe's dependence on Russian gas has exacerbated the energy crisis and there is an urgent need for Europe to rid itself of its dependency on Russian oil and gas, and this has been helped by the announcement last week that the USA will supply Europe with liquified gas to reduce the reliance on Russia.

The UK government is considering delaying the closure of some of the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power stations and a task force is being set up to bolster the UK's oil, gas and nuclear supplies, two senior industry experts at its head reporting directly to the Prime Minister and advising on a 'transition period' focusing on fossil fuels, as the Government signals its clearest move yet away from the Net Zero target. The Government insists that the Net Zero 2050 target has not been scrapped and is still the ultimate goal. But they admitted that in the short term the focus will shift back to fossil fuels to ease the pain for British households. This will include oil and gas from the North Sea and Canada, while fracking is also now a possibility again.

Naturally many of the environmental groups insist that we switch immediately to renewables, with no account being taken of the enormous amounts of minerals needed for the transition. The graphic below shows a different way of looking at it:

Source: International Energy Agency

Although the pandemic is reportedly waning, in reality it isn't. Most of us know people who have Covid; Jon and his family all tested positive during the month. Work and education are being disrupted, and the NHS is under severe pressure again due to new patients and sick staff. Luckily the vaccinations are proving effective and symptoms now are generally mild but we have to wonder if lifting rules on face coverings was perhaps a little premature.

We are having to learn how to live with Covid, and it was good to be travelling again, and socialising with people of all nationalities. Early in the month I was in USA for the Annual SME Meeting, and my first international social event outside the conference was the International Reception in Salt Lake City.

With the International Mining team in Salt Lake City

The March Cornish Mining Sundowner was also well attended with CSM alumni from around the world, including an alumna from Moscow. Two days later over 200 crammed into the bar at the Falmouth Hotel for the CSM Annual Dinner, and there were a few reports of positive Covid tests a few days later.

A crowded Falmouth Hotel bar

With past and present CSM students at the CSM Annual Dinner

March has been a dire month, brightened a little by the arrival of spring. Let's hope that there are glimmers of hope in April.

Spring lightens the gloom

@barrywills

Process Mineralogy '22: Call for Abstracts

After a 4-year break due to the pandemic, we are pleased to announce that the Process Mineralogy series of conferences will resume in November. Process Mineralogy '22 will be the 6th in the series and will be the first MEI Conference at a brand new venue, the Melia Hotel, Sitges, Spain. 

Process Mineralogy '22 will be MEI's first face-to-face conference since the start of the pandemic. We are well known for face-to-face events but unfortunately the pandemic brought these to an abrupt halt and last year we successfully ran four conferences purely online. 

Online platforms are fine but do not capture the social interaction side of conferences, which serve an important function, particularly for early career researchers. Presentations in Sitges will be recorded and available on demand to all delegates. For those who are unable to attend the conference for any reason these recordings will also be available for a reduced fee. 

Abstracts are now invited for the conference, the deadline being the end of May.

The 3-day conference, November 2-4, will deal with the following topics:

• Quantitative mineralogy, including both X-ray and Electron Beam Techniques
• Geometallurgy
• Ore characterisation
• Mineral Liberation and Textural Analysis
• Application of process mineralogy on site
• Sampling and Statistics
• Advanced Process Control

If you are unsure about attending, why not check out the technical programmes, reports, photos, delegate lists etc from previous events.

Sitges is a coastal town in Spain's Catalonia region, southwest of Barcelona, backed by the mountainous Parc Natural del Garraf. It is known for its Mediterranean beaches and seafront promenade and its old town and surrounding streets filled with shops, restaurants, bars and nightclubs. It is only a 25 minutes train journey from Barcelona International Airport, and 35 minutes from the centre of Barcelona.

We are indebted to our current sponsors, Bruker, Zeiss and Promet101, and our media partner, International Mining, for their support, and to our consultant Dr. Megan Becker, of the University of Cape Town.

#ProcessMineralogy22