5th International Conference on Hydrometallurgy
Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, China
July 6-8 2009

The conference was sponsored by the Nonferrous Metals Society of China and National Natural Science Foundation of China. It was organized by Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province. Secretary General was Professor Shijun Liu of Central South University who looked after every detail. The opening ceremony included the following 8 Plenary Lectures:

• Recent trends in hydrometallurgy
• Developments in the processing of copper sulfides
• The recycling industry of nonferrous metals in China
• Advances in bio-hydrometallurgy
• Current developments in the hydrometallurgical treatment of copper concentrates
• Green hydrometallurgical process with sub-molten salt media
• Application of hydrometallurgical process for treatment of secondary resources
• Solvent extraction of zinc from ammonia/ammonium salt solution

This was followed by presentations arranged in the following parallel sessions:

• Conservation and exploitation of resources and environments, continuous development [34 papers]
• Physical chemistry, modeling and analysis for hydrometallurgical processes [64 papers]
• Leaching [48 papers]
• Purification, analysis, and pre-treatment [44 papers]
• The application of new technique and equipment in hydrometallurgy [55 papers]
• New materials and chemical products in hydrometallurgy [63 papers]

Participants received a copy of the Book of Abstracts, a copy of List of Participants, a CD containing the Power Point presentations of the Plenary Lectures, a group photo of participants, and photos of the banquet and closing ceremony. In addition they also received a DVD containing selections of authors presenting their work and a nice present.

The conference was held at Hotel Wuling Yuan in the resort town Zhangjiajie which is about 200 km northwest of Changsha, the capital city of the province. There are three main ethnic minority groups: Tujia, Bai, Miao and other 29 minority groups living harmoniously with the Han nationality. The Maoyan River is the upper reach of the Li River in Yongding District of Zhangjiajie City. There are marvellous geological scenes on the Maoyan River. A tour of the magnificent Yellow Dragon Cave was organized for the conference participants. The cave is not only a geologic wonder of stalactites and stalagmites but it is so well managed and prepared to receive visitors. On the bank opposite the waterfall there are several huge rocks which provide a perfect observation platform.

About 275 participants took part in the conference, mainly Chinese with few from Australia, Canada, India, Iran, Korea, and USA. The conference was very well organized - - thanks to the large number of student volunteers. Previous conferences were held at irregular intervals as follows:

[1] Beijing 1988
[2] Kunming 1998
[3] Kunming 2002
[4] Xian 2004

Congratulations to the Organizing Committee for a well done job.

Fathi Habashi, Laval University, Quebec City, Canada, Fathi.Habashi@arul.ulaval.ca