Last Monday evening’s (February 16) gala dinner during the week of the 2015 SME Annual Conference here in Denver, Colorado, celebrated the 2014 inductees into the International Mining Technology Hall of Fame in the Brown Palace. It was a glorious evening, attended by the great and the good, including a large group from the Benavides family – considered by many to be the ‘first family’ of Peruvian Mining – the Peruvian ambassador to the USA, three former CEOs of Newmont Mining, the President of Freeport-McMoRan Americas and many other notable figures of the mining industry, too numerous to mention. Remember to get your nominations for this year in before end July – for additional information, visit www.im-halloffame.com
The inductees were:
OUTSTANDING INNOVATOR – Alberto Benavides de la Quintana, founder of Compañia de Mínas Buenaventura
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND STEWARDSHIP – Andy Robertson funder of SRK, Gemcom and Infomine
UNDERGROUND SUPPORT – Tom Melbye, Mike Rispin, Odd Bjorn Kleven, Janne Lehto, Ismael Anabalon, Jouko Tenhunen, Rick Kraft (Normet wet shotcrete)
UNDERGROUND PRODUCTION – Wilhelm Löbbe and Konrad Grebe, the coal plow
UNDERGROUND LOAD AND HAUL – Joe Joy, founder of what today is Joy Global
UNDERGROUND DEVELOPMENT – Udo Fischer, Torbjörn Hartzell and Jan Åkerman (Sandvik rock cutting tools)
SURFACE PRODUCTION – Mark Cooper, Jeff Flahive, Jim Hutchins of Vermeer, Terrain Leveler surface excavation machines
SURFACE LOAD AND HAUL – Dr James White, founder of Modular Mining Systems – DISPATCH®
SAFETY – Jim Joy (G-MIRM)
MINING SOFTWARE – Fred Banfield, founder of MineSight
METALLURGY – Rami Saario, Jussi Vaarno, Henri Fredriksson, Jussi Pajala, Juri Matinheikki, the development team for Outotec’s Modular SX-plant, VSF®X
EXPLORATION – Ray Roussy, Sonic Drilling
CONCENTRATION – Byron Knelson, father of the Knelson concentrator
COMMINUTION – Professor Klaus Schoenert, developer of HPGR
BULK HANDLING – John Frater, internationally renowned pump designs
Mark Cooper, Managing Director of specialty excavation for Vermeer Corp said: “Today this technology is being adopted by leading mines across the globe and it is an honour to be recognised by our peers.”
The evening got off to a great start with a keynote presentation by Sandy Watson, Vice President, Mining – US and International for Stantec, the lead sponsor of this year’s International Mining Technology Hall of Fame. Particularly interesting were the details he provided of some of the work Stantec is doing at the Grasberg underground block cave operations in Indonesia, which is becoming the biggest underground mine in the world.
All the other sponsors joined in celebrating these great innovators and technology facilitators of the global mining industry – SRK Consulting, The Graña y Montero Group, Hexagon Mining, ThyssenKrupp Industrial Solutions, FLSmidth, Sandvik, Orica, Joy Global and Metso. Thanks to them all for supporting what really was a triumphant event and a celebration of innovators.
All the inductees and their representatives had interesting observations to make about the industry and in many cases poignant reminiscences about the struggles and challenges they faced, both personally and professionally, to achieve their successes. A detailed report will appear in the May 2015 issue of International Mining and all the 2014 inductee citations can be found on www.im-halloffame.com. Nominations are sought for next year’s event that will be held during the SME Annual Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, February 21-24, 2016.