MEI Twits

MEI is definitely in the 21st Century now. Not only do we have a blog but Amanda is tweeting on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MEIchat.

If you are young and cool enough to understand this (I am not) then we invite you to follow us.

Francis Petersen calls in

Our old friend Prof. Francis Petersen (pictured left with Cyril O'Connor) called in at the conference this morning. I first met Francis when he was at the Cape Technikon; he then became executive vice president at Mintek before moving on to Anglo Platinum as executive head- strategy.

In April 2008 he took over from Cyril O'Connor as Dean of Engineering and the built environment.

He has many fascinating interdisciplinary projects in the pipeline, which will be highlighted soon in the MEI Online news section.

Face from the past

The first speaker this morning was Barun Gorain, of Barrick Gold Corporation, Canada. His name was familiar to me, but I wasn't aware that we had met exactly 20 years ago in India.

I spent two weeks at the Indian School of Mines in Dhanbad in 1989, lecturing to final year students, and Barun was in that group!

During my stay the staff and students had a picnic and impromptu cricket match at Maithon. In the photo below, Barun can just be seen, 3rd from the right. I am in the middle, signing the cricket bat!

Barrick Gold are sponsors of Precious Metals '10, so I hope to see Barun again in Falmouth next June.

Flotation '09- relaxing after Day 3

A very pleasant evening at the Vineyard after a long day of excellent technical presentations. Left to right: Norm Lotter, Cyril O'Connor, me, Barbara, Jon, Nanette O'Connor, Jim Finch and Amanda.

The great thing about this conference is how relaxed everyone seems to be- a combination of great people and great venue!

Flotation '09- Applications Symposium

Despite last night’s revelries, a packed audience heard Prof. J-P Franzidis open the Applications symposium, and introduce Prof. Graeme Jameson of the University of Newcastle, Australia. Graeme’s keynote lecture highlighted recent advances in flotation technology, with a focus on scalping or flash flotation, improving the flotation rate of ultrafines, extending the upper limit for coarse particle flotation, and reducing the energy consumed in the flotation process.

The programme of technical presentations has been very full today, but there was still time for delegates to view and discuss the 20 poster presentations.



In the photo below Amanda views the poster of Prof. Antonio Peres of UFMG, Brazil. Antonio currently holds the record for the highest number of attendances at MEI Conferences. A grand total of 18!!

Floation '09- Conference Dinner at Spier

After a 40 minute drive through torrential rain, we arrived at the Spier Wine Estate near Stellenbosch, for the dinner at Moyo Restaurant.

Great food and a great atmosphere. Below are a few of the photos taken during the evening. There are many more, and these and other conference pictures will be published on MEI Online in a week or so. I will advise on the blog when they have been published.