2021 GD Delprat Distinguished Lecture Series
The Metallurgical Society is very pleased to announce that the 2021 GD Delprat Distinguished Lecturer is Fran Burgess.
This will be the eleventh series of lectures hosted by the Metallurgical Society, with the support of our sponsors: AMML, Ausenco, Extreme Metallurgy, Magotteaux, Newcrest Mining.
Fran has worked in the mining industry for over 40 years in operational metallurgical roles. She has worked for companies such as North Broken Hill, Minerals Mining and Metallurgy (MMM), Normandy, Pasminco, Zinifex, OZ Minerals, MMG, Perilya and Glencore. Most recently she was the General Manager of Processing, for Glencore Zinc in Mount Isa, and now works as a consultant.
The 2021 Delprat Lecture is entitled “Achieve excellence in metallurgical operations - The Challenges and Opportunities”. Fran will reflect on her years in metallurgical operations and share some real insights into how to be effective, efficient and deliver some critical outcomes.
“To do this the overwhelming thing is a belief in people. The people are what make you or break you in any situation. The orebody, the equipment is important, however it is the people that make the difference.”
Planned lecture dates are as follows:
• Kalgoorlie – 18 May
• Perth – 19 May (With Perth MetFest)
• South West WA – 21 May
• Brisbane – 22 June (With Mill Operators Conference)
• Adelaide – 19 August
With more dates to be announced.
Look out for local event registration details.
The lecture series celebrates the life of Guillaume Daniel Delprat, who was an engineer and metallurgist, and a pioneer of Australian mining industry. He came to Broken Hill in 1898 to become General Manager of BHP. BHP had become very prosperous through mining the rich silver-lead secondary or oxidised ores but could not extract the valuable zinc from the primary ore: the so-called ‘sulphide problem’.
Working with Potter, Delprat had observed in the laboratory that they could make the zinc sulphide in the tailings dumps attach to gas bubbles and float, thereby effecting a separation. A large scale processing plant was quickly built to put this research into practice and the process worked. Delprat had changed processing practice by building one of the first industrial flotation plants and zinc production became a major industry.
The GD Delprat Distinguished Lecture series was initiated in 2010 by Albyn Lynch and has welcomed many well respected industry figures as guest lecturers.