Minutes from the MPD Executive Committee meeting at MINEXCHANGE 2025

The regular meeting of the Executive Committee of the Mineral & Metallurgical Processing Division (MPD) of the SME was called to order at 9:02 am on Feb. 23, 2025 in Denver, CO by Jaeheon Lee. Present were Jaeheon Lee, Chair; Dave Meadows, Past Chair; Tarun Bhambhani, Associate Chair; Aaron Noble, First Vice Chair; Kimberly Mills, Second Vice Chair; Nick Gow, Secretary-Treasurer; Jim Wickens, Technical Program Associate; Adam House, Membership Associate; Zach Zanetell, incoming MPD Executive Committee member; and Chee Theng, SME Liaison. Guests included Sumedh Gostu, Fangyu Liu, Michael Spicher, Rino Guajardo, Raghav Dube, Thom Seal, Jordan Rutledge, Scott Shuey, Lei Pan, Pengbo Chu, Jayson Ripke, Nickey Powell, Mohammad Rezaee, Weston Hartzell, Mike Moats, Katy McDowell, Tim Myers, Thomas Stauder, Triveni Gangadari, Chandima Subasinghe, Joelson Alves, Younes Shekarian, Mohsen Rabbani, Jim Metsa and Garland Davis. The agenda and minutes of the previous meeting were unanimously approved as distributed, and a safety share was discussed. Programming The MPD technical program for the MINEXCHANGE 2025 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, CO consisted of 21 sessions, including sessions for the Symposium in Honor of Professor Komar Kawatra, organized by Jayson Ripke. The Monday afternoon plenary session will feature lectures by the division’s major award recipients, and a certificate presentation to the Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Scholarship Award recipient. World Gold 2025, organized by Nick Gow and Tom Rauch, was co-located with MINEXCHANGE 2025. The program consisted of one additional short course, hosted by Jaeheon Lee, and 37 submissions covering all aspects of gold processing. The MPD technical program for MINEXCHANGE 2026 in Salt Lake City, UT will be led by Aaron Noble. All attendees were encouraged to attend the MPD Unit Committee Meeting in the afternoon to discuss session topics and special session ideas. Noble and Kim Mills will attend the 2026 Program Committee meeting later this week. Adam House noted that Responsible Mining and Underground Construction is scheduled for the 2026 programming, with MPD contributing one session. Social functions and fundraisers The MPD Scotch Nightcap will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The event raised $36,500 from three title sponsors and four supporting sponsors. The Bass Metals band will once again perform, and Secretary-Treasurer Nick Gow will serve as the host. Pre-sale tickets were capped at 450 and are sold out. More tickets will be made available at the door. Sales revenue will be determined after the conference. Whiskey glasses, designed by Jim Wickens and sponsored by Molycop, and T-shirts featuring the Bass Metals, designed by Adam House, will be sold at the event for additional fundraising. Based on the success of last year, an ad hoc planning committee led by Dave Meadows, MPD Past Chair, held periodic meetings with SME staff in the months leading up to the date to ensure the event ran smoothly. The speaker for the MPD Luncheon is Mike Blois, who will speak on “The Application of Contingency in the Development of New Technologies.” The 2025-2026 MPD Calendar was distributed to all registered attendees of MINEXCHANGE 2025. Eight sponsors were secured for a total of $17,700. Awards The committee recognized this year’s award recipients: Antoine M. Gaudin Award — Zhenghe Xu; Robert H. Richards Award — Jaisen Kohmuench; Milton E. Wadsworth Award — Michael L. Free; Arthur F. Taggart Awards — Naci Duru and Carl C. Nesbitt; MPD Outstanding Young Engineer Award — Jordan Rutledge; Mill Gentleman of Distinction Award — Jaeheon Lee; Frank F. Aplan Award (shared with Coal & Energy Division of SME) — Jack Groppo; James Douglas Gold Medal Award (shared with TMS) — Kathleen A. Altman; and Fred C. Bond Award (inaugural) — Kaveh Asgari. This year, the MPD Outstanding Young Engineer award was renamed in recognition of Raj Rajamani, honoring the significant contributions he had made in engineering education. The Fred C. Bond Commemorative Award is a new MPD award this year, managed by the Comminution Unit Committee. Following last year’s MINEXCHANGE, the MPD Program Committee also selected and recognized the best presentations from each of the unit committees. The Best Presentation Awards were given by the Flotation Unit Committee to Brian Cook for “A Study on the Process Development of Fluorspar Flotation from the Zeerus Fluorspar Deposit,” by the Comminution Unit Committee to Alex Doll for “Secrets of the Bond Ball Mill Grindability Test,” by the Plant Design Unit Committee to Eldwin Huls for “Tech QB2 Project Design,” by the Physical Separations Unit Committee to Kelly Nunes for “Additives for Magnetic Separation of Iron Ore Ultrafines” and by the Chemical Processing Unit Committee to Naci Duru for “Thermochemical Model Comparison of Gold Sulfide Ore, Copper and Molybdenum Flotation Concentrate Pressure Oxidation Processes.” Scholarships The following MPD scholarships were awarded this year for a total of $22,500: the Richard Klimpel Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Senior to Kathleen Troy of Virginia Tech, the Outstanding Graduate Scholarship to Chandima Subasinghe of the Pennsylvania State University, the Outstanding Junior Scholarship to Khushi Barnwal of Indian Institute of Technology, the Graduate Student Scholarship to Paula Gallego of West Virginia University, the Undergraduate Student Scholarships to Andrea Oviatt and Ellah Olson, both of the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Scholarship Award to Mohit Gupta of Virginia Tech. MPD committees The MPD Nominating Committee will be held on Tuesday, March 4, after the annual conference.The MPD Unit Committee will meet in the afternoon of Feb. 23. There are still questions arising from people who are new to the division on how to get involved, so the committee discussed sending an email in advance of the meeting to announce the purpose of the Unit Committee Meeting and to remind everyone of the time and place. It was also discussed that session chairs should be reminded that they need to immediately discuss any changes in travel plans with the unit committee chair to ensure replacements can be found immediately. Fine Grind The Fine Grind article schedule this year filled quickly with a number of monthly submissions, seeing continued submissions such as the Colorado and Nevada MPD meeting recaps and a review of the Metallic Student Design Competition. The editorial responsibilities for next year will be handed over to the incoming Secretary-Treasurer, Jim Wickens, starting with the article due on March 1, 2025. Member engagement The MPD Volunteer Interest Online Form was used this year to coordinate focused communication with the leads of the interest areas and new volunteers. Most submissions tend to come after MINEXCHANGE and the MPD Coffee Break held in December. The MPD Coffee Break was held virtually by members of the Executive Committee to discuss how to get involved in the division and its benefits. A “best mug” competition was held. Elizabeth Toledo, a student at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM), was the winner with a homemade SME mug. She received a Starbucks gift card. Student engagement The MPD Student Poster Contest was led by Michael Spicher and will feature 37 accepted posters, by three undergraduate and 34 graduate students. The committee reminded everyone to attend the poster session on Wednesday morning and to encourage the students. Adam House, Jordan Rutledge and Hanna Spicher are serving as judges. The committee is using a new structure this year, narrowing the initial submissions to a top tier who will be asked to present in deeper depth during Wednesday morning’s session. Winners will be announced during the MPD Luncheon that afternoon, and all student participants are provided with a complimentary luncheon ticket. Aaron Noble discussed plans for an MPD Student Video/Elevator Pitch Contest intended to build a year-long cycle of student engagement to be held in the late summer or early fall as an opportunity to present research work or internship experience. Sumedh Gostu and Fangyu Liu will help to lead the endeavor. The group discussed advertising the contest in a Fine Grind article early in the year prior to internships starting. The Nevada MPD has committed to providing seed money to kick off the contest with sponsors to be considered in the future. The Metallic Student Design Competition finals consisted of six teams: one from Canada, two from U.S. schools and three from South America. The team presentations occurred on Sunday morning, and the top three teams will be announced later this evening. Diana Rodriguez of Newmont, Isabel Penaloza of Rio Tinto, Wendi Cooksey from FLS and Miguel Pugmire of Rio Tinto served as the industry judges. Financial review Secretary-Treasurer Nick Gow reviewed the division finances, which will also be discussed at the Business Meeting after the MPD Luncheon on Wednesday. Division finances are strong, and all accounts are in good standing due to sponsorship and fundraising efforts over the past years. Other conferences Updates were provided on other MPD-affiliated conferences, including Extraction 2025/Copper 2025 (Kimberly Mills overall chair, Nick Gow and Adam House SME co-chairs). A total of 463 submissions were received for oral presentations, covering the Copper, Ni/Co and cross-cutting symposia. The committee has received 376 manuscripts, which are currently being reviewed. New business Thom Seal announced that the Heap Leach 2025 conference will take place this year in Reno, NV Oct. 19-21. Abstracts are currently being accepted.A special session on waste reprocessing held jointly by the MPD and Mining & Exploration divisions is being planned for MINEXCHANGE 2027. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 10:22 am by Jaeheon Lee.

Minutes from the MPD Executive Committee meeting at MINEXCHANGE 2025

Authored by: Nick Gow

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