General Notes

123 delegates attended Minerals Engineering '98 (see Conference Report below).

The papers from the conference were referred and published in Minerals Engineering journal. The current status of publication of the papers is displayed below.

Conference Report
By C. Magnus Evertsson, Machine & Vehicle Design, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden

The 8th Minerals Engineering conference was held in Edinburgh, the historic and beautiful capital of Scotland. As usual the conference was well organised with a carefully chosen venue.

The Minerals Engineering Conferences have had a steadily increasing number of attendants. This year there were over 120 registered delegates. The number of different nationalities is impressive 25 different countries were represented. With participants from Europe, North and South America, Australasia, Asia and Africa the conference was truly international.

The conference was opened by Prof. J.A. Finch, McGill University, Canada, who gave an interesting keynote lecture entitled "Innovations and future trends in flotation cell design". The following technical sessions comprised almost 50 papers. The topics of the technical sessions covered the following areas:

• Flotation Technology and Practice Process Control
• Simulation and Optimisation
• Bio and Hydrometallurgy
• Gold Metallurgy
• Gravity
• Magnetic and Optical Separation
• Froth Flotation Fundamentals
• Comminution

During and after the technical sessions more than 45 posters were displayed. The posters comprised a wide variety of areas within minerals processing.

After the three intensive days at the conference the delegates had the opportunity to take part in a guided excursion to the Kingdom of Fife. Golfers played at the Jubilee course at St. Andrews, while non golfers visited the 16th century Falkland Palace. The day ended at Glenturret Distillery, where Highland Malt Whisky were tasted.

Next year's Minerals Engineering Conference is to held in Falmouth, Cornwall, England. The meeting is strongly recommended for the reasons already indicated above high quality presentations, well attended sessions, the mix of academic and industrial interests. Another important thing is the social aspects, Minerals Engineering Conferences provide a good opportunity to meet people with similar interests and ideas. We look forward to Minerals Engineering `99!

The following papers have been published in Minerals Engineering:

Volume 11 Number 11 (November 1998)

Acoustic monitoring of hydrocyclone performance
R. Hou, R.A. Williams and A. Hunt (UK)

Volume 12 Number 2 (February 1999)

Application of a vegetative cover on phosphogypsum stacks
K. Komnitsas (Greece), I. Lazar and I.G. Petrisor (Romania)

Volume 12 Number 3 (March 1999)

High temperature superconducting permanently magnetised discs and rings: prospects for use in magnetic separation
J.H.P. Watson (UK)

Mechanics of coal spirals
H.J. Glass, N.J. Minekus and W.L. Dalmijn (The Netherlands)

Process design for gold ores: a diagnostic approach
V.M Torres, A.P. Chaves (Brazil) and J.A. Meech (Canada)

The empirical prediction of bubble surface area flux in mechanical flotation cells from cell design and operating data
B.K. Gorain, J.-P. Franzidis and E.V. Manlapig (Australia)

Treatment of waters polluted with radioactive elements and heavy metals by means of a laboratory passive system
S.N. Groudev, S.G. Bratcova (Bulgaria) and K. Komnitsas (Greece)

Volume 12 Number 4 (April 1999)

Investigation of the importance of particle shape and surface wettability on the separation of plastics in a Larcodems Separator
R.D. Pascoe and Y.Y. Hou (UK)

Studies on the mechanism and kinetics of bioleaching
A.W. Breed (UK) and G.S. Hansford (South Africa)

Counter-current vs. co-current flow in carbon-in-pulp adsorption circuits
J.W. Coetzee and D.E. Gray (South Africa)

Processing a spodumene ore to obtain lithium concentrates for addition to glass and ceramic bodies
M.M. Amarante, A. Bothelo de Sousa amd M.M. Leite (Portugal)

Reduction of copper with cellulose in an autoclave: an alternative to electrolysis?
J.L.T. Hage, M.A. Reuter, R.D. Schuiling and I.S. Ramtahalsing (The Netherlands)

Volume 12 Number 5 (May 1999)

Applied mineralogical studies on Australian sand ilmenite concentrate with special reference to its behaviour in the sulphate process
T. Chernet (Finland)

Interrelation of stratification and passage in the screening process
M. Soldinger (Sweden)

Potential use of carbon felt in gold hydrometallurgy
A. Stavart, C. Leroy and A. Van Lierde (Belgium)

Characterization of an industrial flotation column at Division Andina, Codelco-Chile
J. Yianatos, L. Bergh, R. Lopez, P. Molinet and P. Gimenez (Chile)

Volume 12 Number 6 (June 1999)

Interparticle forces, interfacial structure development and agglomeration of gibbsite particles in synthetic Bayer liquors
J. Addai-Mensah, C.A. Prestidge and J. Ralston (Australia)

Effect of ultrasonic preconditioning of pulp on the flotation of sulphide ores
C. Aldrich and D. Feng (South Africa)

The cell attachment and oxygen consumption of two strains of thiobacillus ferrooxidans
M.I. Sampson (UK) and R.C. Blake II (USA)

Volume 12 Number 7 (July 1999)

A new magnetic separator and classifier: prototype design
P.A. Augusto and J.P. Martins (Portugal)

Supervisory control at Salvador flotation columns
L.G. Bergh, J.B. Yianatos, C.A. Acuna, H. Perez and F. Lopez (Chile)

Fundamental batch mill model identification
P. Radziszewski (Canada)

Interfering ions in the flotation of a phosphate ore in a batch column
R.C. Guimaraes and A.E.C. Peres (Brazil)

Effect of particle size on flotation performance of complex sulphide ores
D. Feng and C. Aldrich (South Africa)

The application of statistical control
H. Ipek, H. Ankara and H. Ozdag (Turkey)

Analysis of alkylxanthate collectors on sulphide minerals and flotation products by headspace analysis gas-phase infrared spectroscopy (HAGIS)
A.J. Vreugdenhill, J.A. Finch, I.S. Butler and I. Paquin (Canada)

A study on the intergrinding of clinker and limestone
S. Tsivilis, N. Voglis and J. Photou (Greece)

Volume 12 Number 8 (August)

Removal of cadmium from a liquid effluent by ion flotation
I.B. Scorzelli, A.L. Fragomeni and M.L. Torem (Brazil)

The characterisation and behaviour of carbonaceous material in a refractory gold bearing ore
B.L. Pyke, R.F. Johnston and P. Brooks (Australia)

An acidic pressure oxidation pre-treatment of refractory gold concentrates from the Kwekwe roasting plant, Zimbabwe
F.P. Gudyanga, T. Mahlangu, R.J. Roman, K. Mbeve (Zimbabwe) and J. Mungoshi (South Africa)

Volume 12 Number 11 (November)

Dynamic characterization of column flotation processl laboratory case study
T. Carvalho, F. Durao and C. Fernandes (Portugal)

Monitoring of metallurgical reactors by the use of topographic mapping of process data
C. Aldrich (South Africa) and M.A. Reuter (The Netherlands)

Assessment of expert fuzzy controllers for conventional flotation plants
D. Osorio, J.R. Perez-Correa and A. Cipriano (Chile)

Volume 13 Number 1 (January 2000)

Role of calcium ions in the mechanism of action of a lignosulphonate used to modify the wettability of plastics for their separation by flotation
C. Le Guern, P. Conil and R. Houot (France)

Bubble spargers in column flotation: adaptation to precipitate flotation
L.O. Filippov, R. Joussemet and R. Houot (France)