The IOM3 Minerals Processing & Extractive Metallurgy Group provides a focus for people to gain knowledge, information and best practices in all aspects of mineral processing and extractive metallurgy (covering hydro and pyrometallurgy processes amongst others).
Meet the Minerals Processing & Extractive Metallurgy Leadership Team
Andy Birtles CEng FIMMM
Andy Birtles is a Mining Engineer, Professional Engineer and a Chartered Engineer and has specialised in the coal mining sector since 1979 and in the metalliferous and heavy minerals sector since 1999. He has worked on coal mining operations both in the UK and South Africa in various levels of operational management. Subsequently he spent time with various international mining consulting groups, and is currently a Director of ANB Mining Ltd.
Currently he is active in doing work assessing business interruption and material risk on mining operations.
David Meadows
David graduated from Camborne School of Mines, England with a BSc (Hons) in Mineral Processing Technology. He has just under 40 years diversified international experience across six continents. His broad experience in minerals processing ranges from test programs, conceptual studies, feasibility studies, basic and detailed engineering, construction, commissioning and plant optimization. Recognized Subject Matter Expert in Copper and Gold Processing.
David started his career in operational roles for the gold and diamond mining industry in South Africa with Johannesburg Consolidated Investments and De Beers Consolidated Mines. In the late 1990’s he joined with Bechtel International Mining and Metals in San Francisco, Santiago, Brisbane and Belo Horizonte and was involved in the design development phases of a number of projects including Los Pelambres, Sossego and Escondida Phase IV. He then spent four years with Phelps Dodge working on the project development of Tenke Fungurume in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Climax Molybdenum Concentrator and joined Cerro Verde I team as commissioning manager in Peru. In 2008 he joined FLSmidth leading its process technology group globally, together with development of its world class ore testing and mineralogical analysis facility in Salt Lake City. He rejoined Bechtel Mining and Metals in the USA in 2015 and is now Bechtel’s Chief Technology Officer being responsible for its three Centers of Excellence located across the globe. He has several industry awards including the SME Arthur Taggart award for the best paper in the mineral processing space and SME mill person of distinction in 2024.
Dr. Arun Vathavooran
Dr. Arun Vathavooran is a mineral processing engineer with over 20 years of experience in the mining industry, spanning engineering, consulting, and research roles. His expertise covers base metal flotation, gold and silver extraction, hydrometallurgy, iron ore processing, coal preparation, and comminution circuit debottlenecking. He has worked with a diverse range of commodities including copper, zinc, tungsten, phosphate, potassium, niobium, manganese, tantalum, titanium, and vanadium.
Dr. Vathavooran has led laboratory and pilot plant test programs, plant audits, and conceptual process plant designs, with responsibilities in equipment selection, sizing, and capital/operating cost estimation. He has also contributed to flowsheet modelling, simulation, technical due diligence, trade-off studies, and the preparation of NI 43-101 and JORC-compliant technical reports. His experience includes serving as owner’s representative, managing client interests in project development, conducting due diligence on mining projects and acting as an expert witness
Currently a Consultant Metallurgist with SLR Consulting, Dr. Vathavooran previously held senior roles at Tetra Tech, Maelgwyn Mineral Services, and the Centre for Applied Energy Research in the USA. Known for his strong analytical approach and effective communication, he consistently delivers value across a wide range of mineral processing and metallurgical projects.
Ramachandran Kumar
Professor Kumar has obtained his PhD from McMaster University, and B.Tech (Hons) from IIT-Bombay. He is the Distinguished Research Professor and Head of Materials Chemistry Group and an Emeritus Fellow of Trinity Hall in University of Cambridge; Fellow of i) The Institute of Energy; ii) The Institute of Materials, Mining and Metallurgy; iii) The Royal Society of Chemistry; and (iv) The Institute of International Association of Advanced Materials.
He has supervised over 50+ PhD students, 50+ post-doctoral researchers, and hosted 35+ visiting scientists; has published 400+ papers, 25+ chapters in handbooks, 20+ patents and 2 edited books on Batteries (VCH-Verlag); and invited as Plenary lecturer in 35+ international conferences/seminars and as keynote/invited lecturer in 50+ conferences/seminars.
Professor Kumar is an Honorary Professor in 6 overseas Universities and received Honorary Engineering Degree in University of Malaysia; the Editor-in-Chief of “Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy” (Sage Publishing UK); Battery Materials (Pivot Sciences, Canada); Board Member of IOM3’s Technical Division (UK), and British Council of the International Association of Advanced Materials (Sweden) ; Advisory Board Member of TECHMET Ltd (Dublin, London), and Korea National Lithium Research Centre. Much of his research has led to licenses and industrial practices and he has helped found four start-up companies commercialising his inventions.
Emeritus Professor John Monhemius
Emeritus Professor John Monhemius is a non-executive director of Anglo Asian Mining plc. Professor Monhemius held the Roy Wright Chair in Mineral and Environmental Engineering at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, London until 2004, when he retired from full-time academic work. From 2000 to 2004, he was Dean of the Royal School of Mines. He has more than 50 years' experience of academic and industrial research and development in hydrometallurgy and environmental control in mining and metallurgical processes, particularly in the management of toxic wastes and effluents, and he has acted as a consultant to many large mining and chemical companies. Professor Monhemius has published over 150 papers in the scientific literature and he has supervised more than 30 PhD students. From 1986-96, he was a co-founder and director of Consort Research Ltd, a consultancy based in the Royal School of Mines, specialising in gold and base metal ore processing.
In retirement, he joined the board of Anglo Asian Mining plc, a junior gold mining company with assets in Azerbaijan, as a part-time NED, where he has helped the company develop from a simple, small, open pit-heap leach, gold operation into a multi-mine company with heap leaching, agitation leaching and flotation facilities, producing copper concentrates, as well as 70koz of gold per year.
Tony Francis BSc Eng Metallurgy, FIMMM, CEng, ARSM
Tony graduated from the Royal School of Mines in 1971. He is a Chartered, graduate metallurgical engineer with extensive knowledge and experience gained from more than fourty years of activity in the metallurgical processing industries. Presently he is a semi-retired Independent Consulting Metallurgical Engineer. Previously Tony was the owner/director of Francis Minerals Consulting Ltd. Formerly he was the corporate Senior Metallurgist reporting to the COO for European Goldfields Ltd, responsible for metallurgical and process issues related to operations and project development including managing engineering and testwork campaigns through to permitting and production. He has operated high tonnage ore processing plants at Superintendent level, including 15 years on the Zambian Copperbelt. Has wide experience of capital project work from inception and design to construction and commissioning.
Carried out due diligence studies for mining companies and financial institutions making recommendations regarding profit improvements to existing facilities, plant expansions and the development of new sites. Familiar, through first-hand experience, with many of the world’s significant mining arenas.
Tony has been a member of IOM3, previously IMM from 1979 and a chartered engineer since 1980. He has been a member of the Minerals Processing & Extractive Metallurgy group leadership team from 2005 being Chair from 2011-2019.
