Introduction

This, the 1st International Symposium on Magnetic, Electrical & Gravity Separation, was organised by Minerals Engineering International in collaboration with De Beers - DebTech and sponsored by Eriez Magnetics Europe Ltd and Axsia Mozley.

The conference was held at the Falmouth Beach Resort Hotel, situated on the beachfront of Falmouth.

Conference Report

The 1st International Symposium on Magnetic, Electrical & Gravity Separation, organized by Minerals Engineering International (MEI) in collaboration with De Beers-Deb Tech, and sponsored by Axsia-Mozley and Eriez Europe, was held at the Falmouth Beach Resort Hotel on the beachfront of Falmouth. Falmouth is a beautiful coastline town located in West Cornwall in the United Kingdom, and proved to be an ideal setting due to its marvelous environment and the historical mining heritage from which several technological innovations used in various industries were derived.

Over 70 delegates representing 26 countries from as far as Australia, North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe attended the Conference. The venue included 38 high quality presentations, which were selected from among the over 70 abstracts submitted to MEI. The papers were presented by 29 oral deliveries and 9 posters. The posters were exhibited in the social area of the conference, which provided an excellent atmosphere for technical discussions.

Papers presented at the conference will be peer-reviewed upon submission and those accepted will be published in Minerals Engineering journal, or in Magnetic & Electrical Separation.

The three-day conference covered the topics of Magnetic, Electrical and Gravity Separation processes. The first day (two sessions) was devoted to magnetic separation. The 10 presentations were either theoretical or experimental works on the magnetic separation survey or applications of new or improved magnetic separation equipment to relevant problems.

During the second day, 11 presentations were also delivered in two sessions. Developments and  trends in the design of gravity separation equipment and its applications were presented. In some papers the benefits from the use of  new equipment to redesigned plant operations were presented.

The third day (one session) was devoted to 8 presentations, which were referred to as Integrated Processes and covered applications on certain problems.

After the second day’s presentations, delegates were provided with a tour of the historic Basset mines, located in the Camborne-Redruth area of Cornwall. Mining began here in the stone age, but it was in the 19th century that mining reached its zenith, before foreign competition depressed the price of copper, and later tin, to a level which made Cornish ore unprofitable. The evening walk in this site provided excellent scenery of the Cornish engine houses intermixed with the beautiful landscape of the region. The delegates were able to walk through the processing facilities of the Basset mines, which were operated to extract copper at first, and then tin, mostly during the 19th and 20th centuries. The sites included the remains of stamp mills for the size reduction of the ore as well as vanners and buddles, in which the ore was concentrated by gravity methods. The delegates also walked through the labyrinths in which the arsenic was removed from the final product. The tour was truly an excellent educational experience.

The conference was clearly successful in bringing together many of the key players in magnetic, electrical and gravity separation from all over the world. Delegates commented very favorably on the organization of the conference, its technical content and also the venue. Falmouth and the Falmouth Beach Resort Hotel proved to be an excellent choice for the conference.

The next MEGS conference is provisionally scheduled to be held in Perth, Australia, in March 2004.

Dr. K.G. Tsakalakis, National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Email: mmmskt@central.ntua.gr

Publication of Papers

Papers presented at the meeting were refereed for publication in Minerals Engineering journal and Magnetic & Electrical Separation journal. The papers which were published in Minerals Engineering are listed below.

Volume 14 Number 11

A realistic description of the process of high-gradient magnetic separation
J. Svoboda (South Africa)

Advances in mineral flocculation
M.J. Pearse, S. Weir, S.J. Adkins and G.M. Moody (UK)

Volume 15 Number 1

Recovery of valuables from flue dust fines
J.M.A. Geldenhuis (South Africa)

Magnetic classification within magnetic separation
P.A. Augusto (Portugal)

Volume 15 Number 2

Applicability of Mozley Multi Gravity Separator (MGS) to fine chromite gravity tailings of Turkish chromite concentrating plants
T. Cicek and I. Cocen (Turkey)

Pilot plant trial of the reflux classifier
K.P. Galvin, E. Doroodchi, S.J. Pratten, A.M. Callen, N. Lambert (Australia)

Dry Magnus separation
N. Fraunholcz, P.C. Rem and P.A.C.M. Haeser (The Netherlands)

Volume 15 Number 3

Radial electrostatic separator
A. Mesenyashin and I.M. Kravets (Russia)

Volume 15 Number 5

Influence of path length and slurry velocity on the removal of iron from kaolin using a high gradient magnetic separator
A. Newns and R.D. Pascoe (UK)