The launch of the latest book on Process Mineralogy

Last week in Australia the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (SMI-JKMRC) (part of the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the University of Queensland) celebrated the launch of the latest book in its series of Monographs on mineral processing. This most recent book, Process Mineralogy, is edited by a team of three people whose names will be familiar to those working in this field - MEI's process mineralogy consultant Dr Megan Becker, of the Centre for Minerals Research at the University of Cape Town, and Drs Elaine Wightman and Cathy Evans of the SMI-JKMRC. 

The launch party at SMI-JKMRC celebrated the hard work of the three editors of Process Mineralogy and their 50 contributors from around the world, which has culminated in the production of this comprehensive review of the current state of the art in applied mineralogy. The support of Dr Ying Gu, Prof Dee Bradshaw and Prof Ben Adair in the initial stages of the book helped the editors to build a team of contributors which spans our industry in terms of both commodity type and geographical location. While the list of contributors is too long to be included here, readers of the Process Mineralogy book will recognise many of them as regular attendees at the biannual MEI Process Mineralogy Conferences. The breadth and depth of the knowledge shared by the contributors in each of the book chapters reflects their expertise in mineralogy tools, techniques and their application and make this book unique.

Prof Neville Plint, Director of the SMI and Prof Alice Clark, Director of Production Centres at SMI welcomed a number of the Brisbane-based contributors, including Dr Bill Johnson, Dr Greg Wilkie, Dr Graham O'Brien, John Knights and Prof Malcolm Powell who came along to join JKMRC staff, students and alumni in the celebrations.

Prof. Alice Clark (Director, Production Centres, SMI), Dr Graham O’Brien (CSIRO), Dr Greg Wilkie (CRC-ORE),
Dr Elaine Wightman (SMI-JKMRC), John Knights, Dr Bill Johnson (Mineralis/SMI-JKMRC),
Dr Cathy Evans (SMI-JKMRC), Prof. Malcolm Powell (SMI-JKMRC),
Prof. Neville Plint (Director, Sustainable Minerals Institute)

Process Mineralogy '17 provided an opportunity for a 2nd launch, and for Cathy and Elaine to catch up with Megan and the contributors based in South Africa. 

Elaine, Megan and Cathy

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Evening dinner by the lagoon

A beautiful location tonight for the Process Mineralogy '17 conference dinner, overlooking Lagoon Beach in Milnerton, with its stunning view of Table Mountain and Lion's Head.

After the 35C heat of the day, it was great to relax in the warm late afternoon sunshine, with drinks on the terrace before an excellent buffet meal in the impressive Lagoon Beach Hotel restaurant.

There will be many fond memories of the evening, and cameras were clicking furiously to provide permanent reminders of the evening and the very interesting and amiable people who make up the world of process mineralogy. Some of the images are shown here- there will be more next week on the conference report.

Representatives from conference sponsor Cornwall Mining Alliance
Barry, Barbara, Jon and Amanda Wills (MEI), Nick and Flee Wilshaw (Grinding Solutions Ltd),
Yousef Ghorbani, Rob Fitzpatrick and Hylke Glass (Camborne School of Mines),
James Strongman and Chris Brough (Petrolab Ltd) 

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MEI's Conference bags proving popular

It's not often that you hear positive comments on conference bags, but many of this week's delegates have provided positive feedback on MEI's colourful bags. We are particularly pleased about this as the bags are hand-made in Cape Town's sprawling Khayelitsha township by Learn to Earn, as part of their Feel Good Project, which is dedicated to creating opportunities for employment and alleviating poverty in South Africa. Together with TFG (The Foschini Group), Learn to Earn provides unemployed individuals with the skills required for the retail sector so that they may enter and sustain careers in this fast-paced industry.

It is also nice to have positive feedback on the conference lanyards, made by Kidzpositive, a non profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of children and families affected by HIV/AIDS and other chronic diseases.

Dr. Norm Lotter to be honoured in Mexico

Amongst the eminent mineral processors at this week's Process Mineralogy '17 is Dr. Norm Lotter, President and Consulting Engineer, Flowsheets Metallurgical Consulting Inc, Canada, who was a keynote speaker at Process Mineralogy '10. Norm has been nominated for the Fray International Award recognising his contributions to the profession of mineral processing across his career. The award will be presented at the SIPS summit conference in Cancun, Mexico, in October, at which there will be a symposium honouring his contributions.

Norm is pictured left with Prof. Dee Bradshaw of the University of Cape Town, who is on the organising committee for the Lotter Symposium.

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Happy hour under the trees

A baking hot day today, just what Cape Town does not need. As two of our presenters, travelling from Tasmania, have been very seriously delayed, their papers have been postponed until Wednesday, so this afternoon's Happy Hour was slightly earlier than scheduled.

I talked this morning in my opening remarks of the importance of networking, and the shade of the trees in the Vineyard gardens provided the perfect setting to relax and chat over a few glasses of pinotage and sauvignon blanc.

A Camborne School of Mines reunion

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Process Mineralogy '17 off to a great start

I opened the conference this morning, welcoming the 97 delegates from 21 counties, and thanking our sponsors for their support.

Eric Pirard of the University of Liege, Belgium then presented his keynote lecture on process mineralogy's role in boosting the circular economy.

It is great to see my old friend Alan Butcher back at an MEI Conference. Alan played a big part in the development of the concept for the Process Mineralogy conferences. While at Intellection in Australia, Alan forged a link between the company and MEI to run annual conferences on Automated Mineralogy in Brisbane. Commencing in 2006, these proved successful until the collapse of Intellection in 2008, after which we moved the conferences to Cape Town in 2010, as the biennial Process Mineralogy series, of which Process Mineralogy '17 is the 4th in the series.

Alan and I at the first Automated Mineralogy conference in 2006

Alan and I were colleagues at Camborne School of Mines before he joined CSIRO in Australia, and then Intellection. He joined FEI when Intellection's assets were taken over by FEI, and he has recently been appointed to a senior research position at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), as professor of geomaterials and applied mineralogy. It is a brand new role at GTK and reflects the recent changes in strategy by the organisation, which is developing new areas of innovative research that can lead to growth in areas not traditionally carried out by geological surveys in any detail, such as the detailed study of commercially important geomaterials (for example the applied mineralogy of ores, building stones, aggregates, soils, and various mineral based-man-made materials).

Particular topics expected to be targeted in the future include innovative approaches to geometallurgy, process mineralogy of ores, man-made product manufacture, and advanced mineral analysis methodologies. One area of general operating philosophy in Alan’s work is the concept of cross-disciplinary research, whereby engineers and scientists closely work together in collaborative teams, and use their combined experiences and skills to solve common challenges. This is a practice he has learnt, to great effect, from his time spent working with, for example, geophysicists, reservoir engineers and reservoir quality geologists, on petroleum industry projects whilst at FEI.

An emotional Alan receives his honorary MEI cap!

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