A memorable Knight's Dinner

I have always said that a successful conference is about people, and bringing them together in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

ESCC '13 has done just that and last night's medieval banquet was a memorable evening in what has been a memorable conference. I won't even try to explain what is going on in the photos below!

Location:A memorable Knight's Dinner

The end of a very good first day at EESC '13

A very interesting first day at the European Symposium on Comminution and Classification ended with a guided tour of historical Braunschweig, followed by an excellent conference dinner, where it was announced that EESC '15 will be held in Sweden in September 2015, under the chairmanship of Prof. Magnus Evertsson of Chalmers University.

European Symposium on Comminution and Classification gets underway

Chairman of ESCC '13 Prof. Arno Kwade, head of the Institute of Particle Technology, TU Braunschweig, welcomed the 190 delegates to the conference this afternoon. This is very much an international event, with 26 countries represented, many outside Europe, with a sizeable contingent from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Egypt, India, Ireland, Israel, Korea, South Africa and USA. I look forward to the next 3 days and my report and photos will be on the blog next week.

Arrival in Braunschweig

I arrived in Braunschweig, Germany this afternoon, after flights from Johannesburg to Heathrow and then on to Hannover.

The European Comminution Symposium starts tomorrow evening with a cocktail reception. I don't know what to expect from this conference, as it is the first that I have attended, but when I called in the bar (always my first port of call), it was good to see familiar faces, Paul Cleary of CSIRO, Australia, Peter Radziszewski of Metso, Canada and Chris Martin of RSG inc., USA.

There is much interest in comminution at the moment, and Jon emailed yesterday to let me know that there is a record number of sponsors for Comminution '14 in April - 21 in total at the moment.

A note from Mpumalanga

The SAIMM Base Metals '13 at White River finished yesterday. Despite the depressed metal prices, it was well attended with around 130 delegates, 83% being from South Africa.

Ironically the low metal prices did not deter the thieves who stole the copper bringing broadband to the conference venue, so I have been out of internet contact since Saturday!

Barbara and I are now relaxing, and lunching at the excellent Wild Fig Tree Restaurant in nearby Sabie, and quickly catching up on my backlog of emails.

My report on Base Metals '13 will be posted in a couple of weeks time, after my return from next week's European Comminution Symposium in Germany.

Student Extractive Metallurgy Conference

The University of Laval’s Fathi Habashi has sent me this photo of the opening of the Conference on Extractive Metallurgy, an annual event organised by students of the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile. The conference, held between August 21-23, was well attended by students from all over Chile, and was preceded by a short course given by Prof. Habashi.