Canadian Mineral Processors 36th Annual Operators Conference
Ottawa, Canada, January 20-22, 2004

The last CMP conference that I attended was in 1991, and it is interesting to see how the conference has developed in the past 13 years from a fairly parochial meeting, into what is now an emerging international event.

Always held at the same venue, the Westin Hotel in Ottawa, this years's conference was attended by around 350 delegates from 13 countries. Among countries represented were, Canada, United States, Mexico, Nigeria, Brazil, the Netherlands, Chile, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, Finland France and the United Kingdom.

Over 25 companies, including MEI, provided sponsorship, to allow mineral processing students from across Canada to attend the conference and provide technical assistance.

Over the years, the CMP has become a great meeting place, the conference not only providing a fine technical programme, but also lively social events- a beer and sandwich lunch, a light-hearted hockey challenge between East and West, and the reception, banquet and awards celebration.

The conference was opened by the outgoing chairman, Steve Wilson of Inco, who introduced the two keynote speakers.

Chuck Edwards, of Cameco Corporation, the world's leading supplier of uranium fuel, put forward a convincing argument for the increasing need for nuclear power to meet the growing demand for electricity without greenhouse emissions.

Hans de Ruiter, of Delft Technical University, discussed the new "Erasmus World" programme, which will stimulate the offering of joint programmes by European Universities, and offer third-world country students and lecturers a greater opportunity for mobility and an enhanced European added value.

After the keynotes, 36 papers were presented over the 3 days in six technical sessions. Thankfully there were no parallel sessions and the timetable was strictly adhered to.

The sessions were:

Operations I: Papers on Cu/Ni separation, tailings disposal and the Gekko InLine Pressure Jig

Industrial Minerals: Papers on oil-sands, talc, kaolin and, incongruously, PGMs.

Process and Predictive Tools: Papers on process mineralogy of PGM and gold ores, geometallurgical mapping, on-stream analysis for chemical composition and pulp reactivity.

New Technologies: Papers on comminution, methods to control acid mine drainage, real-time performance management, dust control technology and speciation of sorbed gold.

Operations II: Papers on gold, uranium and zinc operations in Canada.

Flotation: The four papers in this session included two from the JKMRC in Australia.

The 4th East/West Hockey Challenge took place after the Technical Sessions on Tuesday. Hockey enthusiasts from near and far squared off to play for the coveted Kilborn Cup at Ottawa’s Barbara Ann Scott Arena. For the first time in the history of the challenge Team West, with coaching excellence from Ray (Whipper) MacDonald and his assistant Ernie Marcotte came out triumphant in the exciting and hard fought battle winning by a score of 5-3. Coach of Team East, Willard Thomas was proud of the effort of his team.

Later on Tuesday evening, Steve Wilson hosted the always lively Chairman’s Reception in the Les Saisons Room at the Westin Hotel.

At the Annual CMP Business Meeting, held on the Wednesday morning Steve Wilson, reviewed highlights of the year’s activities, including the following:

• The continuous support of the CMP by CANMET was acknowledged and appreciated and hoped that the long-standing relationship continued.
• Well deserved thanks were extended CMP Executive for their hard work through the year. A special thanks was extended to Jennifer Abols, who assembled a timely and interesting Technical Program, and with the assistance of John Starkey coordinated the sponsor program.
• As well special thanks was extended to Ray MacDonald and Lucky Amaratunga for putting together the Student program this year.

CMP 2004/2005 Executive

On Wednesday evening, delegates assembled in the Westin Hotel’s Confederation Ballroom for the annual reception, dinner and presentation of awards. Prior to dinner, Steve Wilson opened the evening by welcoming the delegates. He went on to thank the conference organizing committee Ray MacDonald, Janice Zinck, Jean-Francois Fiset, Al Kuiper, Dave Hardy and Wesley Griffith and members of the Executive specifically Jennifer Abols for organizing an outstanding technical program and Past Chair Jan Nesset for coordinating the Award winner selection process.

In addition, he thanked the corporate sponsors, which provide the funding for the very successful CMP student program. He then introduced the 26 students, sponsored by the CMP and selected from each of the Universities and Technical Schools across Canada offering studies in the Mineral Processing field:

University of British Columbia – Harold Lu and Stephan Wozniak
British Columbia Institute of Technology – Shalini Devi and Erika Kloess
University of Alberta – Crystal Bunnell and Carol Mak
Keewatin Community College – Sabrina Anderson and Richard Olver
Laurentian University – Sylvain Brunet and William C. Quesnel
Haileybury School of Mines – Dallas Mann and Jamie Power
University of Toronto – Jason DeVellis and Eliza Ngai
Queen’s University – Gabriela Rappell and William McCombe
McGill University – Patrick Heroux and Jason Doucet
CEGEP de Thetford Mines - Frederic Bergeron and Bruno Gamache
CEGEP de L'Abitibi-Temiscamingue - Kevin Morin and Karine Dion
Université Laval – Christine Filion and Nadia Ouellet
DalTech – Tracey Whitehead and Ryan Mueller

CMP 2004 Sponsored Students

Presentation of the Award winners followed the culinary delights provided by the Westin Hotel.

Details of the awards and recipients can be found on People News - North America.

Jennifer Abols, of Gekko Systems, Vancouver, is to be congratulated on putting together the excellent programme, and for compiling the Proceedings Volume, which was available to delegates in book and CD format.

All involved in the CMP conference should be congratulated on a well organised and attended event. With a little more publicity outside Canada, this could, and should, be one of the 'majors' on the international mineral processing calendar.

The proceedings is available from Janice Zinck (Email: jzinck@NRCan.gc.ca) at $75 Cdn. Details on CMP publications and the order form can be found at www.c-m-p.on.ca/Publications/publications.htm.

Barry Wills, MEI, UK. Email: bwills@min-eng.com