Advocates

Michael Myllynen

ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Michael is a senior metallurgist at Magotteaux, Australia.  A minerals processing engineer from the University of South Australia, Michael started his career working at the renowned Broken Hill as a graduate-come-plant metallurgist where his love of flotation started.  Since joining Magotteaux in 2008, Michael has specialised in the effect of grinding media on downstream processing (flotation and leaching) as well as developed a keen interest in improving grinding efficiency through better ball size selection, liner design, cyclone operation and circuit configuration. 

During his time with Magotteaux, Michael has supported the mining industries in Australia, South America and North America working with clients to deliver technical studies to help to optimise their grinding, flotation and leaching performance.  This has exposed Michael to many different comminution circuit designs, philosophies, and practices and strengthened his appreciation for efficient comminution practices. 

JOHN VISSER

PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

John is an extractive metallurgist and engineer specialising in dust mitigation. He has more than 35 years’ experience operating beneficiation plants, and the smelting of iron, manganese and chrome ores, leading studies, managing projects, and designing plants and processes.

He has expertise in mineral sands, bauxite, coal and phosphates, with a working knowledge of diamonds, gold and PGMs. He also has extensive experience in delivering technical studies for all stages of the project lifecycle, including order-of-magnitude, feasibility, and detailed plant design. Also, John has experience in the construction and commissioning of processing plants.

He has held metallurgical, engineering and marketing roles with Samancor, African Rainbow Minerals (Anglovaal Mining), Rio Tinto, Wood PLC (GRD Minproc), METS, Amira Global, Johen Consulting, and Hollandia Reinsurance Group. He is currently Director of Johen Consulting.

John has written two papers and delivered many technical presentations. He was co-author of Airborne Contaminants, Noise and Vibration Handbook, one of the Commonwealth of Australia’s Leading Practice Sustainable Development Program for the Mining Industry series of handbooks. A fifth-generation African, John moved his family to Perth 15 years ago. 

ROMKE KUYVENHOVEN

SANTIAGO, CHILE

Romke is the Productivity Project Leader at SMI-ICE in Chile, and is responsible for the productivity portfolio of research projects. She has more than 20 years’ professional experience in geometallurgy, metallurgical process design, test work management, conceptual engineering and consulting studies. The main focus of her work has been in the field of mineral processing of Cu/Mo ores.

In 1998 she joined SGS Minerals (then Lakefield Research) in Santiago, Chile, where she became Manager Metallurgical Services a few years later. For almost 10 years Romke was actively involved in the organisation of mining conferences supporting the GECAMIN team as head editor and conference manager. This work included the annual PROCEMIN conference series and the 2014 International Mineral Processing Congress in Santiago, Chile. Since 2014, she has been involved in projects related to automation and process control services, geometallurgy and operational improvement. 

Romke is also part-time lecturer at the Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria in Valparaiso since 2011, where she in charge of the 4th year Mineral Processing course for metallurgical engineering students. She has a Master’s degree in mining and petroleum engineering from the Delft University of Technology (1997) and a double MBA from the University of Chile and Tulane University, USA (2008). Early in 2018, she completed the geo-mining-metallurgy executive program at the University of Chile.

Dr Vladmir Kronemberger Alves

BELO HORIZONTE, BRAZIL

Vladmir has 25 years' experience in mineral processing and has been working for VKA technology since 2014. He leads the team responsible for the development of new technology, the design of new circuits for greenfields projects, and the optimisation of comminution circuits. He also has expertise in cement and coal plants, and in consulting.

Vladmir graduated in Mining Engineering from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil, and holds a Master of Science degree and PhD from the same institution. He is the author of approximately 30 papers in mineral processing.

Chih-Ting Lo

VANCOUVER, CANADA

Chih-Ting is the founder and president at EELO Solutions.

She is a strategist, entrepreneur, and Independent Director committed to making global net-zero carbon future a reality focusing on high-impact industries. A professional engineer with 20 years of experience, her deep sectoral knowledge, expertise in environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance, and leadership in innovation has gained international recognition. Chih-Ting’s data driven approach uniquely compliments exercising governance best practices and overseeing risks. She is collaborative, deliberate, and authentic.

Chih-Ting founded EELO Solutions in 2011 and her team of experts and partners have delivered extensive energy and carbon reductions while increasing capacity in organizations they work with. Her global experience in mining, marine, energy, and international financial institutions has enabled $100M+ private sector investment and raised $45M+ for innovation and decarbonization projects in recent years.

Chih-Ting believes that ESG innovation and investment are necessary to reach climate action targets, and that the mining industry is a critical piece of the puzzle. Chih-Ting is a non-executive Director at Sherritt International, Board Vice Chair at the Metro Vancouver Zero Emissions Innovation Centre, Director at the Centre of Excellence in Mining Innovation (CEMI), and non-executive Director a Minviro. She is an Industry Advisor at UBC Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining and serves on the Advisory Board of clean tech companies such as Summit Nanotech and Invert Inc.

Peter Amelunxen

CANADA

Peter Amelunxen is Vice President of Technical Services at Capstone Copper Inc, in Canada, overseeing technical and operational processes and managing project review, due diligence, project and operations risk management. He has worked for 20 years in diverse roles including consulting, grinding and flotation circuit modelling, plant operations, engineering and laboratory testing.

Peter has operated a consulting business in Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru, and served as Director of Metallurgy for the Aminpro Chile, the metallurgical testing arm of the business. He is an expert in the geometallurgy and the geostatistical handling of point hardness data, and participated in SAG Power Index (SPI) test and CEET comminution model development, and testing and calibration procedures for inferring ball mill and crusher indices from drill core. He spent almost five years in plant operations with Phelps Dodge Mining Company, including mill superintendent of Cerro Verde HPGR-based concentrator in southern Peru. Peter completed his Bachelor’s Degree in Mining Engineering at the University of Arizona and his Master’s Degree in Mineral Processing at McGill University. He has authored many papers on the testing, modelling and design of mineral processing systems and received several awards and a patent for his contributions to mineral processing.

Levi Guzmán Rivera

LIMA, PERU

Levi is Applications Leader at Moly Cop in Peru. A Metallurgical Engineer from the Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa, Levi graduated in Mining Innovation Research at the University of Antofagasta in Chile, and completed a diploma in management skills in Technological de Monterrey in Mexico.

He has conducted training courses and specialization at the University of San Luis Potosi – Mexico as well as International Biomining program at the University of Antofagasta, Chile. During 20 years of activity in mineral processing, Levi has conducted several studies of circuit optimization grinding / classification, both conventional milling and grinding Semi- Autogenous, and has conducted research concerning optimization schemes of flotation reagents for different mining companies.

He has presented several research papers at national and international level and is an active speaker at mining sector events.

Laurie Reemeyer

VANCOUVER, CANADA

Laurie is the Principal Consultant at Resourceful Paths, a sustainability and strategy consultancy he established in 2016. Resourceful Paths is focused on reducing energy and water use in mining, mitigating climate change and maximising resource recovery.

Laurie has 24 years’ base metals and gold mining operations and consulting experience. As Plant Metallurgist at Mount Isa Mines, he worked with a team of metallurgists to configure the AG/SAG/ball mill circuit to operate efficiently at a range of throughputs through optimising ball charges, cyclone configurations and operating parameters. At Elura and Century mines, he improved operation of fine stirred mill regrind circuits.

He led the Process Engineering team at Amec Foster Wheeler in Vancouver. The team provided design, due diligence and operational support services for crushing and grinding, flotation, dewatering, smelting, hydrometallurgy, paste backfill and water treatment in commodities including copper, gold, nickel, zinc and diamonds. He has also led several studies, including the Oyu Tolgoi feasibility study update and Blackwater PEA.

Laurie is committed to using mineralogy and laboratory ore characterisation data to determine optimal flotation feed and regrind sizes that balance concentrate grades and metal recoveries with energy and media costs. He also assesses opportunities for selective mining and pre-concentration to reduce energy currently expended on grinding uneconomic particles. He has a Bachelor of Engineering (Minerals Process) from University of Queensland and an MBA (Certificate in Business and Engineering Sustainability) from UC Berkeley.

Robert McIvor

MINNESOTA, USA

Rob is founder and Chief Metallurgist – Grinding Systems, Metcom Technologies, Inc., based Marquette, MI, USA. He has devoted his career to the design and optimization of grinding circuits. He earned a B.Sc. in Mining Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan and a Masters in Mineral Economics from McGill University before going to work for Allis-Chalmers. There he worked in slurry pump and grinding mill application engineering, the latter as understudy of F.C. Bond and C.A. Rowland, Jr. He moved to Dominion Engineering to head mill application design, and then to Linatex Canada to manage pump and cyclone equipment process design.

Having discovered “The Functional Performance Equation for Closed Circuit Grinding”, he returned to McGill to earn his Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering by developing methodology for industrial plant grinding process improvement. Moving into private practice, he developed a comprehensive system and training program for plant grinding process management. He then worked for Cleveland-Cliffs in grinding process improvement and managed research and development before founding Metcom Technologies, Inc., in 2003.

Through Metcom, Rob has been providing consulting and delivering training to scores of companies worldwide. In 2010 the Canadian Mineral Processors awarded him the “Art MacPherson Medal for Significant Contributions to Comminution Technology”.