The 8th International Flotation Conference (Flotation '17) is organised by MEI in consultation with Prof. Jim Finch and is sponsored by Axis House,Maelgwyn Mineral Services, FLSmidth, Aminpro, Outotec, Magotteaux & Promet101. Media sponsors are Mining Prospectus & International Mining.

Flotation '17 features 2 discrete symposia:

November 13-14: Flotation Fundamentals: Physics and Chemistry

Although now over a hundred years old, the fundamental aspects of flotation are still being intensively researched, and new machines developed. This two day symposium will focus on:

• Fundamental reagent and flotation chemistry

• Bubbles, froths, bubble-particle interactions

• Flotation cell hydrodynamics, kinetics and scale-up

The keynote lecture, "Developing a Flotation Model from First Principles", will be given by Prof. Roe-Hoan Yoon of Virginia Tech., USA.

Prof. Yoon is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where he currently serves as Director of the Center for Advanced Separation Technologies.

During the last 27 years, Professor Yoon has been working on hydrophobic interactions, which has led to the development of new flotation promoters, dewatering aids, and a first-principle flotation model. More recently, he has developed the hydrophobic-hydrophilic separation (HHS) process to recover and concomitantly dewater ultrafine particles. As part of his studies on hydrophobic interaction, Dr. Yoon's group has developed a method measuring both hydrodynamic and surface forces in the thin liquid films of water formed between air bubble and mineral surface.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Gaudin (2003) and Richards (2007) awards from the Society of Mining Engineers and the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the XXVII International Mineral Processing Congress, Santiago, Chile.

This two day symposium focuses on the application of flotation, and will include sessions on:

November 15-16: Flotation Applications and Plant Practice

• Plant Operations, particularly related to new technology, and process mineralogy problems

• Flotation Circuits, and their modelling, simulation, control and optimisation

• Flotation machine developments

• Metallic, non-metallic and coal flotation

• Environmental considerations

The keynote lecture "Existing Opportunities for Increasing Metallurgical and Energy Efficiencies in Concentrators" will be given by Dr. Bill Johnson, Senior Principal Consulting Engineer, Mineralis Consultants Pty Ltd and Adjunct Professor, JKMRC, SMI, University of Queensland, Australia.

Bill Johnson obtained a PhD in mineral processing from the University of Queensland in 1972. After working for ASARCO in Arizona until 1976, he lectured at the University of Melbourne. He joined the CSIRO Division of Mineral Engineering (1978-1982) where research on the Zinc-Lead Concentrator at Mount Isa Mines Limited was his main project. In 1982, he moved to Mount Isa where he continued applied research on the difficult ore treated in the Zinc-Lead Concentrator and other plants and ores of MIM Holdings, becoming the Minerals Processing Research Manager (1989-1997) of the laboratory and pilot plant facilities at the operating site in Mount Isa. Development of a circuit for McArthur River zinc-lead ore recommenced in August 1989 under his direction; this ore had even more difficult properties than the Mount Isa zinc-lead ore, well known for its difficult properties; one important outcome of the McArthur River project was the IsaMill technology.