April summary: USA, South Africa and sad news from Canada

Two events of international importance took place this month in USA.

On April 2nd the Artemis II rocket, the biggest ever built, took off on its successful manned mission around the moon.The mission highlights just how extraordinary the original Apollo landings were over 50 years ago, revealing both how far technology has advanced and how challenging lunar exploration still remains. Despite today’s cutting-edge computing, advanced materials, and global collaboration, returning humans to the moon has required years of planning, massive investment, and the development of entirely new systems, highlighting the sheer ingenuity and boldness of the 1960s missions, which achieved the same goals with far more limited technology. Artemis not only builds on that legacy with ambitions for sustained lunar presence, but also serves as a reminder that the achievements of the past were not just historic, they were astonishingly ahead of their time.

Source: The Times April 4th

Another extraordinary event took place in America this week, with King Charles III's visit to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence. Considering the strained relations between the UK and USA at the moment, and a third suspected assassination attempt on Trump a few days earlier,  it is a visit that he probably did not relish.

Source: The Times April 2nd

He needn't have worried. His visit stabilised relationships and the King received standing ovations in Congress and at a formal state dinner, his speeches emphasising democracy, NATO, climate, and unity, subtly pushing back against divisions without being overtly political.

In 1991 our first overseas conference, Minerals Engineering '91 in Singapore, was seriously affected by the first Gulf War, many delegates withdrawing due to travel restrictions.  Thirty five years later the present Gulf War also depleted our two conferences in Cape Town this month, Physical Separation '26 and Mineral Processing Circuits '26, many delegates, including presenters, being forced to withdraw due to problems with international flights, particularly those calling at Middle East hubs such as Dubai and Doha. But although the registration lists were depleted, delegates were able to enjoy unusually long breaks for networking and what was lacking in quantity was made up for with quality. And it is always great for Amanda, Barbara and me to catch up with Luxembourg-based Jon.

The Wills family at the Physical Separation '26 dinner at Kirstenbosch 

We missed the monthly Cornish Mining Sundowner in Falmouth, but it was good to have seven of the regulars in Cape Town.

Cornish Mining Sundowner regulars: Amanda and Barry Wills (MEI),
Cameron Dyer, David Cadwell and David Mildren (Gravity Mining),
Doug Caffell (Sepro Systems) and Dave Goldburn (Holman-Wilfley)

Amanda and Jon flew home after the conference, while Barbara and I spent a week on the Garden Route, relaxing at Plettenberg Bay.

It was interesting to visit Monkeyland Primate Sanctuary just outside Plettenberg Bay. This is the world’s first free-roaming, multi-species primate sanctuary, the monkeys and apes  living in a large indigenous forest and move around freely in natural social groups. The sanctuary was founded in 1998 and now cares for over 500 rescued primates across multiple species, including lemurs, capuchin monkeys, gibbons, spider monkeys, and langurs.

Some sad news from Canada this month, of the death of Dr. Gordon Agar, aged 94. Gordon was the Section Head of Mineral Processing at the former Inco Research Laboratories in Mississauga, Ontario, where he worked until his retirement in 1992.

Over his career, Dr. Agar made many significant contributions to mineral processing and published numerous technical papers. His work on flotation kinetics, locked‑cycle testing, and the scale‑up of laboratory results to flotation circuit design was pioneering and remains widely practiced today. His contributions to pyrrhotite depression and Cu/Ni separation in nickel sulphide ore processing continue to influence operating plants.

I first met Gordon at the NATO Advanced Study Institute in Bursa, Turkey, in 1984, where he inspired me with a lecture on flotation circuit design which I incorporated in the latest edition of Mineral Processing Technology. Gordon was a truly remarkable character, who didn't suffer fools too easily. Four years after the ASI I founded Minerals Engineering journal and he was one of the first people that I recruited to the Editorial Board. He became one of my most valued reviewers, although I sometimes had to edit his reviews a little to protect the sensitivities of some authors! 

I still have vivid memories of a hard drinking session with Gordon, and another of the NATO lecturers, Dick Burt, during a weekend break from the conference in Istanbul.

By the Bosporus,1984: Raj Rajamani, Bedri Ipekoglu, me, Cornelius Ek, Dick Burt,
Gordon Agar, Mrs. Ipekoglu and Jaques du Cuyper

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Welcoming Paterson & Cooke as New Sponsors for Hydrometallurgy ’27 and Flotation ’27

Paterson & Cooke is a specialist engineering consultancy that works with mining and minerals companies worldwide. Founded in 1991 it was originally headquartered in South Africa but is now a global company with offices across the UK, Europe, North and South America and Australia.

Paterson & Cooke provides engineering design, consulting, and technical services across the mining lifecycle, specialising in difficult, high-risk aspects of mining, helping mines meet environmental and safety standards and providing expertise in critical minerals processing. The company has more than thirty years of industry experience in slurry pipelines and mining related systems and has expertise in tailings and mine waste handling, long distance concentrate and bulk water supply pipelines, mine backfill process plants and underground distribution systems, marine dredging, and mineral processing. 

The company's first involvement with MEI Conferences was in Falmouth, UK, for Computational Modelling '15 and then Computational Modelling '19, where the USA office was represented. At Physical Separation '19 in Falmouth it was the UK office that was represented, and then at Flotation '23, Critical Minerals '24 and Flotation '25 in Cape Town, representation came via the South African office.

Paterson & Cooke exhibited for the first time at Critical Minerals '24 and then again at Flotation '25, but we are now delighted to welcome them as first time sponsors, of Hydrometallurgy '27 and Flotation '27 in Cape Town.

Albert du Toit and Ron Rampersad, of Paterson & Cooke, with Amanda Wills at Critical Minerals '24

Hydrometallurgy '27 is the first in what we hope will be a series, and Paterson & Cooke join early sponsors Capstone Copper and Maelgwyn Mineral Services.

A spokesman for Paterson & Cooke said "Events like these play a valuable role in moving the industry forward. At Paterson & Cooke, we continue to support the advancement of hydrometallurgical solutions through practical metallurgical and process test work, engineering excellence, and deep industry collaboration. Looking forward to the conversations and shared insights that help shape the future of our industry".

Flotation '27, although 18 months away is already off to a great start, and we welcome Paterson & Cooke who join many of our regular sponsors who committed early to the 13th conference in the series.

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#Flotation27
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Friday at Mineral Processing Circuits '26

Another beautiful sunny day to end this two-day conference, with ten presentations today and a last chance to check out the four exhibitors during the long coffee and lunch breaks.

Doug Caffell, of Sepro Systems, Canada, is based in Devon, UK, and is a regular at the Cornish Mining Sundowners. Sepro is known for innovation in gravity separation technology and the company is looking forward to a strong year. While there has currently been reasons for concern or anxiety in the world, there is also a fair bit of optimism in the mining sector. In particular with gold, tin and tungsten, Sepro's specialist areas. The application of the new Frontier bowl for additional fine gold recovery as well as Continuous Falcon concentrators for fine and ultrafine tin and tungsten recovery sees Sepro well placed to service this strengthening demand.  

Amanda with Ernest Wermuth and Doug Caffell of Sepro Systems

FLS is a regular supporter of MEI Conferences, and was showcasing its latest gravity separation technologies, which allow for gravity separation into sub 75 micron scale, which is unprecedented in the industry. On display were models of the Reflux Classifier and the GradePro, which uses the same core technology as the Reflux Classifier, but is refined and optimised for recovering value from lower-grade, more challenging material, which is where the mining industry is heading. We have been fortunate to have the inventor of these machines (and the Reflux Flotation Cell), Prof. Kevin Galvin, at both conferences this week. In the photo below Kevin and FLS' Lance Christodoulou and Anson Gilbert show models of the Reflux Classifier and GradePro to Paul Miller, of Bactech Environmental Corporation, Australia and Rex Zietsman, of Globe Metals and Mining, Australia.

Paul, Lance, Kevin, Anson and Rex

Amanda closed the conference, thanking our sponsors, the exhibitors. speakers and delegates and inviting attendance at the 2nd Mineral Processing Circuits event, which will be held in February 2028, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

Those remaining then joined us in the hotel gardens, for the first time this week, for a farewell sundowner.

A summary of the presentations, with links to the draft papers, is scheduled for publication on the blog on Thursday 7th May.

An album of photos taken during the conference is available and you may download any of these photos for your own use. For commercial use please acknowledge the source as MEI Conferences.

Reactions to the conference on LinkedIn can be found via #MineralProcessingCircuits26.

If you would like weekly alerts to MEI blog postings by email you can subscribe by adding your email address to this link.

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Thursday at Mineral Processing Circuits '26

Mineral Processing Circuits '26 was held at the Vineyard Hotel, Cape Town, and MEI's Jon welcomed the 46 delegates from 14 countries, a number considerably diminished due to the Gulf War's restrictions on international travel. He gave a special thanks to our sponsors, Promet101 and Capstone Copper, and our media partners International Mining and Minerals Engineering.

The conference got underway with a fine keynote lecture from Prof. Kevin Galvin, of the University of Newcastle, Australia, who introduced a new paradigm for mineral processing circuits, and what might underpin the philosophy. This was followed by six morning presentations dealing with circuits for rare earths and lithium, and reduction of energy in mineral processing circuits.

Thanks to the now beautiful weather it was good to get outdoors during the coffee break to relax in the lovely conference centre gardens.

A small exhibition provided a focus during the lunch break, the four exhibitors also having exhibited at Physical Separation '26.

Germany based GeoEnergy Consult is new to MEI Conferences. The team specialises in the management of natural radioactivity material (NORM), extending its support to mining/processing projects that have been impacted. For instance, GeoEnergy Consult assists in the compliant Class 7 transport of relevant preconcentrates that require careful handling. The company also offers its expertise in exploring safe options for the disposal of processing residues that may be impacted. Their commitment lies in ensuring that all necessary precautions are taken to manage the challenges posed by natural radioactivity effectively and responsibly. Hagen Gunther Jung, of GeoEnergy Consult is shown below talking to Sebastian Urrejola and Pablo Pichinao, of Anglo American T&O, Chile.

Australian company Scantech International is a mining and industrial measurement technology company which develops real-time material analysers used on conveyor belts, to measure the composition of bulk materials.  George Tabi, of Scantech, was talking to Kalyani Mohanti, of UPC Barcelona, Spain and  Oliver Samukute, of Molycop, South Africa.

Following lunch, a short afternoon session of six presentations ended with a coffee break prior to boarding a coach for the conference dinner at a brand new MEI venue, the Wild Fig Restaurant, built around a restored historic estate dating back to the 1700s.

We enjoyed it!  Hope you did too

#MineralProcessingCircuits26

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Welcome to Mineral Processing Circuits '26

A little after 3 hours since the close of Physical Separation '26 we welcomed the first of our delegates to Mineral Processing Circuits '26. We look forward to the start of this 2-day conference, the smallest in the MEI series, tomorrow morning.

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Wednesday at Physical Separation '26

The weather has changed at last, and it was great to see people out on the terrace taking group photos with the glorious Table Mountain backdrop.

Cornish Mining Sundowner regulars: Amanda and Barry Wills (MEI),
Cameron Dyer, David Cadwell and David Mildren (Gravity Mining),
Doug Caffell (Sepro Systems) and Dave Goldburn (Holman-Wilfley)

Despite the improvement in the weather there was a good turnout for the final morning of the conference, which focused on gravity separation, the oldest form of ore concentration.

The biggest group at the event is from sponsor Mineral Technologies representing Australia, Mauritius and South Africa. Mineral Technologies has just completed a transaction to acquire MetQ, a South African based spiral and cyclone supplier. This will give the company a central hub in Africa from which to serve its customers even better. 80% of the world's spirals come from Mineral Technologies.

This has been a week of firsts for sponsor Gravity Mining, manufacturer of Multi-Gravity Separators (MGS), who are based in Cornwall, UK. They have presented for the first time at an MEI conference, with their first exhibition stand, and a first team visit to Cape Town.  Africa, however, is far from new ground for the company, as demand across the continent continues to keep the Cornwall factory at full stretch, with current programmes spanning tin, rare earths, chromite and iron ore. They are proud to be shipping their first MGS unit to Japan in the coming weeks for Incinerator Bottom Ash processing, a new application that demonstrates the breadth of fine gravity separation, unlocking value from streams beyond the reach of conventional flotation.

David Mildren, Cameron Dyer and David Cadwell, of Gravity Mining,
with Albert Jan Venter, of Coremet Mineral Processing, South Africa

Amanda closed the conference after the morning session, thanking our sponsors, the exhibitors. speakers and delegates and inviting attendance at the 10th Physical Separation event, which will be held in the first quarter of 2028, the venue yet to be decided. It may be Cape Town again, or a complete change, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We would greatly appreciate your thoughts on this.

A summary of the presentations, with links to the draft papers, is scheduled for publication on the blog on Monday May 4th.

An album of photos taken during the week is available and you may download any of these photos for your own use. For commercial use please acknowledge the source as MEI Conferences.

Reactions to the conference on LinkedIn can be found via #PhysicalSeparation26.

If you would like weekly alerts to MEI blog postings by email you can subscribe by adding your email address to this link.

#MEIBlog