The first of the +200 delegates from 24 countries arrived at the Vineyard during Sunday, a day of preparation for MEI and the exhibitors.
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| Just in from Sweden and Germany |
Conference sponsor Glencore Technology hosted an afternoon IsaMill workshop, attended by around 40 delegates and then late afternoon the conference got under way with the welcoming reception, a first chance to mingle with the 18 exhibitors.
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| Glencore workshop |
We are back in sunny Cape Town again and it was a relief after 3 and a half years absence to see the Vineyard Hotel and Gardens looking as spectacular as ever.
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| Early arrivals at the Vineyard, the team from Keramos, Charlie Ingham, Matthew Toll (Australia) and Simon Bailey (UK) |
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| Sunset at the Cape Town waterfront |
In a few hours time I will be on my way to Cape Town for Comminution'23, which begins on Sunday afternoon with a welcoming reception. It will be interesting to see how Cape Town and the Vineyard Hotel have changed since my last visit for Africa Mining Indaba '20 in February 2020, just before the world changed forever.
There is obviously a great desire to return to face-to-face meetings and Comminution '23 has a record number of papers in oral and poster sessions. It is not too late to register- you can even turn up at the door and register next week and join the +200 delegates already registered.
Following Comminution '23, we will be back at the Vineyard Hotel in November for Flotation '23 and this is an opportune time to remind all you flotation practitioners that the deadline for abstracts is the end of next month. If your company would like to exhibit then please contact us as soon as possible, as only eight booths currently remain for rental.
I will be posting daily updates on Comminution '23 next week, with a full technical report early next month.
A few weeks' ago UN chief Antonio Guterres said that a major new report on climate change is a "survival guide for humanity". The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the scientific body that advises the UN on rising temperatures, was agreed on by all governments involved. At a meeting in Switzerland to agree their findings, climate scientists warned a key global temperature goal will likely be missed and their report lays out how rapid cuts to fossil fuels can avert the worst effects of climate change.
In response to the findings, Antonio Guterres said that all countries should bring forward their net zero plans by a decade, from the previously agreed deadline of 2050 (posting of 21 July 2019). Many who say this cannot be done argue that the reasons are essentially political, but forget, or are unaware, that mining is the most important industry for the eventual attainment of net zero, whether this be in 2040, 2050 or further in the future.
Many environmental groups have ludicrously called for a ban on mining altogether, as it is one of the world's greatest producers of CO2 and a massive consumer of energy, and indeed a number of new mining developments have had to cease recently due to environmental concerns.
Although many major mining companies are striving for net zero carbon, in many cases by up to 30-40% in the next 10-15 years, and to place themselves in a net-zero emissions position by 2050, it is true that the minerals industry is a major source of CO2 emissions. The cement industry alone is the source of about 8% of the world's CO2 emissions, and cement is the most widely used man-made material in existence, being second only to water as the most-consumed resource on the planet. But, while cement - the key ingredient in concrete - has shaped much of our built environment, its massive carbon footprint is such that, if the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest emitter in the world, behind China and the US. It contributes more CO2 than aviation fuel (2.5%) and is not far behind the global agriculture business (12%). We look forward to Prof. Jannie van Deventer's keynote lecture at June's Sustainable Minerals '23, where he will propose a pathway for the adoption of new technology to decarbonise cement and concrete.
Despite the high carbon footprint of mining it is essential for the green transition, in the manufacture of renewable sources such as wind turbines and electric vehicles. Many metals and non-metals are essential in their manufacture and it must be remembered that huge amounts of energy are required just to mine and extract these materials so non-renewable sources of energy, either fossil fuels or nuclear, will be needed for some time in the transition.
The lithium-ion battery is the heart of an EV and the figures below show estimates of the commodities in a typical battery pack, and how the demand on commodities would change if all cars became electric by 2050. In order for all vehicles to be electric, we will need around 400 extra graphite, Li, Ni, and Co mines by 2035, an EV requiring about six times the mineral content of a comparable international combustion engine vehicle.
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| Source: UBS estimates |
The most important metal in wind turbines and electric vehicles is copper, which is at the heart of either producing electricity or providing motive power. A large turbine requires around 4.5 tonnes of copper, and electric vehicles up to 100 kg. Average mined copper grades fell from 1.31% in 2000 to 0.94% in 2018, raising operating costs and slowing the enthusiasm to develop new mines, exacerbated by ESG concerns. Last month Chile, which accounts for a quarter of the world’s mined copper, posted its lowest monthly production in six years. Codelco said this will only get worse this year as it strives to tap new areas of its aging deposits after decades of under-investment.
When Cornwall was the world's biggest producer of copper in the mid 19th century, worldwide production was around 60,000 tonnes. Now it is well over 20 million tonnes of mined copper, even though Europe, for example, recycles around 50% of its copper.
In 2021 the world consumption of copper was over 25 million tonnes, and it is predicted that demand for copper could nearly double by 2050. The interesting graphic below shows that over the next 27 years the world will demand nearly twice the volume of copper that the world has produced over the last 3000 years!
So the minerals industry is crucial to achieving these goals, and mineral processing is at the forefront of the battle. What would we do without froth flotation, probably the world's most important technology, as without it the essential metals, such as copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese would be classed as precious metals. This is why we feel that our flotation series of conferences, such as November's Flotation '23 are of prime importance in helping ensure a plentiful supply of these and other metals and minerals as grades decline and ores become more complex.
It is ironic that in a few days time I will be on my way to Cape Town, for Comminution '23, which begins next Monday. In many hard-rock mine sites, comminution constitutes over 50% of the total energy consumption, and there are claims in published papers and the popular press that comminution in the mining industry may consume upwards of 7% of global electricity use, so I look forward to lively discussion on comminution and energy next week.
If it can't be grown it must be mined!
In just over a week's time Comminution '23 begins in Cape Town. One of our regular sponsors is Australian company Keramos, which has been servicing the requirements of the mining and minerals industries for nearly two decades, with emphasis on wear components and particularly ceramic product solutions. These product specialisations have given rise to growing involvement with comminution processes with their obvious ties to wear and the importance of optimisation of wear on both economics and process performance.
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| Keramos at Comminution '16 |
In the last decade Keramos has strove to become an industry leader in the “stirred mill space”, offering a wide range of high performance products and services to support the operation and optimisation of these comminution processes. Based on these successes, the decision has been made to separate the comminution sector of Keramos from other areas of the company. The comminution sector will separate out from the Keramos group and become its own entity, allowing that new company the freedom to continue to develop and forge its future specifically in the field and industries of comminution.
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We look forward to working with Global Met Tech as the future of Keramos’ involvement in comminution. Those of you attending Comminution '23 will have the opportunity of discussing this further at the Keramos booth.
On the 1st of the month I left Denver for London, after a very successful SME Annual Meeting at the Colorado Convention Centre. Denver had always been my favourite American downtown and this was my 10th visit, so I'm very familiar with it, but after a gap of four years since SME '2019, I was shocked to see how Denver has changed post-Covid. The pandemic obviously hit it hard economically and the once pristine 16th Street Mall is looking tired with many of the familiar restaurants, including the iconic Paramount Cafe, which we have frequented regularly, now permanently closed.
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| With Camborne School of Mines colleagues at the Paramount Cafe in 1991 |
And although this was my 20th attendance at an Annual SME Meeting, this was the first at which the SME felt it necessary to email all delegates to warn of the dangers of walking alone at night. How times change!
Back home preparations were well under way for MEI's four conferences this year, with Comminution '23 now only a couple of weeks away, and around 200 delegates already registered.
The programmes for the June conferences in Falmouth, Biomining '23 and Sustainable Minerals '23 are now published and there is a final call for abstracts for Flotation '23 in November.
It was good to be back at Falmouth's Chain Locker on the 16th for the Cornish Mining Sundowner, and there was good news of tin and lithium mining in the county. Not such good news, however, from Cornwall's proposed space port at Newquay. In January the much anticipated inaugural orbital space launch from the UK ended in failure. Virgin Orbit's jumbo jet, Cosmic Girl, took off from Cornwall’s Newquay airport with the LauncherOne rocket attached beneath its wing. The rocket appeared to be ascending correctly but then suffered an "anomaly" and the rocket and the satellites it was carrying were lost, but the carrier jumbo jet returned safely to base.
It was hoped that further launches would be attempted but last month Virgin Orbit paused operations in an apparent attempt to shore up its finances and almost all employees at the satellite launch company were furloughed. Spaceport Cornwall said, however, that it is working with other space flight firms and Cornwall Council, which owns the Spaceport, said its "focus" was to "continue to grow".
Two days after the sundowner over 250 current and past students and staff of Camborne School of Mines were at the Falmouth Hotel for the Annual CSM Association dinner, always a good opportunity to catch up with old friends from around the world.
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| Barbara with 1977 alumnus Kwabena Kwakwa and his wife Marie |
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| Two distinguished alumni, Jeremy Wrathall and Nick Wilshaw, CEO's of Cornish Lithium and Grinding Solutions Ltd (gsl) |
The new Director of CSM, Pat Foster, gave an excellent overview of the current status of the school and the visions for the future. It is certainly a very different CSM from the one that I left 27 years ago, most notably the number of young women studying and graduating in mining engineering and geology. When I began my 22 years at CSM in 1974 there were no women, and never had been any women at CSM, apart from secretarial staff. The first female student, Julie Holl, came to CSM via a local comprehensive school and graduated in mineral processing with a first class degree three years later, before continuing to PhD. Julie opened the floodgates to female students but back then we could never have envisaged that within a couple of decades there would be a female head of school, a position held by Frances Wall, currently Professor of Applied Mineralogy, who was head of CSM from 2008-2014.
Laura Tyler, Chief Technical Officer at BHP, Adelaide was only the second woman to be guest speaker at a CSMA dinner, and what an inspirational speech it was, urging the young people in the audience to follow their dreams and to grasp any opportunities that arrive. After leaving CSM in 1991 with an MSc in Mining Engineering Laura has had a glittering international career, working across operations spanning civil engineering, open pit mining and underground mining, with world class mining companies, including Western Mining Corporation, Newcrest Mining, Mount Isa Mines and BHP in various technical and operational roles. She joined BHP in 2004, where she served in operational and technical roles at Ekati Diamond Mine in Canada, Asset President of the Cannington Mine in Queensland and Asset President of Olympic Dam in South Australia. She also has significant executive experience having worked as Chief of Staff to the previous CEO and now in her role as Chief Technical Officer.
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| With Laura and Pat |
And a very different social event a week later, the Mabe village pantomime, back after 3 years due to the pandemic. Amanda plays a big part in village life, and as in previous years, was a star in this year's panto, The Emperor of Mabe's New Clothes.
A reminder that if you would like to present a paper at Comminution '27 in April, the deadline for short abstracts is the end of next w...
