Grinding to sizes as fine as this is inefficient and uneconomic in ball mills, and mining companies are now having to assess alternative technology, such as stirred milling.

Such technology has been in use for some time in other industries, such as chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the aim of this meeting is to bring together scientists and engineers from different disciplines, to discuss common aims and problems.

Papers were invited, therefore, not only from the minerals industry, but also from any industry employing ultrafine grinding methods.

This conference immediately preceded Hydrocyclones 06, which brought together technologists from disparate industries to discuss the use of the hydrocyclone, a device often indispensable in ultrafine grinding.