ISSN 2056-6735 (Online)

The Internet of Things
In Conversation with Nick French
Selenium and the Birth of TV

The magazine of the Minor Metals Trade Association

10th Edition 2016/November www.mmta.co.uk 1

THE MMTA’S INTERNATIONAL MINOR METALS CONFERENCE 2017
TAKING PLACE AT THE CONRAD HOTEL, DUBLIN, IRELAND, 24-26 APRIL 2017
Organised by Metal Events Ltd

Speakers for 2017 include:
The MMTA’s Popular Science Talk: Laurence Knight, Producer, BBC World Service, and Andrea Sella, Professor of Inorganic
Chemistry, University College London, will take a tour around some of the amazing minor metals elements that make up ourindustry. The BBC World Service has just completed its Elements programme, which took a close look at chemical elements, the basic
building blocks of the universe. Where do we get them, what do we use them for and how do they fit into our economy?
“Developments in aero-engines and material choice”, by Bill Reid, Strategic Sourcing Manager: airfoil castings, forgings and millproducts, Pratt & Whitney, USA;
“Delivering a conflict-free supply chain”, by Carolyn Duran, Director, Global Supply Management, Intel Corp, USA;“An update on specialty and stainless markets”, by Markus Moll, Managing Director, SMR GmbH, Austria;“Coatings for gas turbine blades”, by Dr Lisa O’Donoghue, University of Limerick, Ireland;“Tomtor — an alternative source of supply for scandium and niobium”, by Alexander Malakh, Chairman of the Board, TriArc
Mining Ltd;
“Energy storage and its applications”, by Professor Peter Hall, Chair in Chemical Engineering, The University of Sheffield, UK;“Lithium and cobalt supply requirements for batteries”, by Simon Moores, Managing Director, Benchmark Minerals Ltd, UK;“Future applications for minor metals: Bi, In, Se, Ge & Ga”, by Dominic Boyle, PPM Pure Metals GmbH, Germany;

Be sure to take advantage of the current excellent early-bird rates:
MMTA Members will pay the exceptional rate of £700 (+ VAT where applicable) for all registrations received by
11th January 2017
The current fee for Non-Members is £950 (+ VAT where applicable) for all registrations received by 11th January 2017
To find out more, contact gina@mmta.co.uk or to register for the conference please visit www.metalevents.com or
www.mmta.co.uk/conference, or alternatively email sales@metalevents.com

MMTA Conference Golf Tournament, hosted by
ICD Alloys & Metals LLC
For our first golf tournament, taking place on Monday 24th April before the start of the conference, we will beat the prestigious K Club, previous venue of the Ryder Cup.

The tournament fee of EUR150 (+ VAT where applicable) will include transport by coach from and back to theconference hotel, breakfast on arrival, 18 holes of golf, electric buggy, and lunch
Registered conference delegates wishing to join this event, should contact admin@mmta.co.uk
2

NEW MMTA MEMBER COMPANIESINSIDE THIS ISSUEMMTA News & Events2

Letter from North America

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Lunch and Tea With MMTA

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Selenium and the Birth of TV

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Disclaimer: The information and data contained inthis edition of the Crucible (the Material) has been
compiled by the Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA)
from sources believed to be reliable at the time of writing
but the MMTA makes no representation or warranty(express or implied) as to the accuracy, timeliness orcompleteness of the Material. The Material is provided for
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3Letter from North America
Dear Members
By the time you read this letter, we will have a new president here in the U.S. However, as I write it this bright, crisp, afternoon here in
Manhattan, it is anybody’s guess who it will be. Even at 0615 hrs this morning, when I arrived at my local polling station, I had to wait some
35 minutes before I could fill in with black ballpoint pen the requisite ovals on my voting form. After I’d shoved it into the counting
machine (by which it was swallowed up), I declined a round sticker indicating that I had voted.
This whole election can only really be described as having been a cringe-inducing
embarrassment. When we asked a friend of ours (newly arrived in NY from
Sydney), what she and her friends thought about the whole thing in Australia, theanswer was: “A joke!” Would that it had been. Sadly, it was neither a joke, nor was it
funny. I believe that, whoever wins, the spectacle to which we have all been
subjected has, potentially, done this country irreparable reputational damage.
In a couple of my letters over the summer, I took a look at what the two leading
presidential candidates thought about trade and, in particular, both theTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership (TIPP) with the EU. Neither, as you will recall, had much positive to say
about TPP. Both have stuck to their guns right up to the bitter end. So, it remains tobe seen what the winner will actually do. And, if he does win, whether Donald
Trump will impose punitive tariffs on Mexico and China, and renegotiate NAFTA!

Steve Conlin, Gina Evangelidis, Noah Lehrman and Vincent
Bocchimuzzo all seemingly optimistic with the outlook for global
metalsOn to more pleasant things. It was great to see Gina Evangelidis of the MMTA here
last month when Ed Meir of INTL FC Stone Inc. gave his metals outlook at HSBC’s
offices on Fifth Avenue. I certainly went away considerably the wiser from his assessment of the global outlook for aluminium, copper, zinc, and nickel. Since thesituation has been somewhat unclear for a while, I found particularly interesting
the light he was able to shed on what is happening in the nickel industry in thePhilippines (and Myanmar).
Finally, as is my wont, I continue to scan the news for interesting scientificadvances involving minor metals. Since I have always been interested insuperconductivity, I was especially interested to read about the results of someresearch being undertaken at the University of Houston, Texas. Researchers there
have demonstrated a new method for inducing superconductivity in
non-superconducting materials. And have, thereby, proved a concept that has
been around for decades.
They were able to demonstrate that superconductivity in the well-known
non-superconducting compound CaFe2As2 (calcium iron arsenide) can be induced
at high critical temperatures by antiferromagnetic/metallic layer stacking. Since
superconductivity usually involves cooling, which is expensive, Paul C.W. Chu, chief
scientist at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston
said that “the method used to prove the concept offers a new direction in the
search for more efficient, less expensive superconducting materials.”* That would
be exciting.
Not really wanting to know the election result, but wishing you all the best from a
pre-result New York, I remain

Guests at the MMTA’s Global Metals Outlook event at HSBC’s
offices in New York.

Yours
Tom Butcher © November 8th, 2016
* Phys.org: Physicists induce superconductivity in non-superconducting materials, http://phys.org/
news/2016-10-physicists-superconductivity-non-superconducting-materials.html

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5Lunch and Tea with the MMTA
My second candidate for Tea with the MMTA, Nick French, arrives –dare I say it – looking remarkably relaxed. It is not six months since
this metal merchant with a voice like a BBC newsreader gracefully
left the cobalt stage, retiring from the company, SFP Metals UK Ltd.,he founded in 1999.

But what, I ask, does he take from a life in metal, and was there
another path he might have taken? As with most of us, he says,
metal was not a trade on the radar of the average careers tutor in
the 1970s. No one said ‘Have you heard about the metal trade?
I think you should get into it.’

In an elegant, but well-worn, blue suit, and open-top, Nick can stillboast a full head of hair, even if fair has now faded to white.
However, there is still much of the blue-eyed boy who was first
employed by Colin Williams’ Wogen Resources in 1976 in the headydays when a trader was a trader and a broken cathode was abroken cathode.

Born in Paris in 1952, Nick lived there until the age of four when his
shipbroking father took the family to Lausanne and finally (where
else?) Reigate. Father hit hard times and Nick went to a direct grantschool – Haberdashers’ Aske’s. Gaining straight A’s, his father had
wanted him to go out to work, but it was his mother who argued forher son to go to Cambridge.

With Nick now a free man, what
better time to reflect on aworking life at the heart of oneof the MMTA’s major minor
metals markets? (The ‘majorminor’ phrase was first coined byPeter Robbins of Wogen in the
1970s when the rather short listofminor
metalsat the MMTA’s
Photo
Credit:Factor-TechMagazine
inception in 1973 consisted of
antimony, magnesium, nickel,
cadmium, bismuth, selenium
and mercury.)

After University, Nick’s first job on theouter edges of the commodities
universe was as an account executive
at U.S. commission house EF Hutton
who promptly posted him – to Paris. It
was there that he shared a flat with afellow Cantabrigian, Sam Blyth, who
was busy attending the then strikebound Sorbonne. While Nick was out
marketing cocoa, coffee and sugar byday, Sam was exploring the othergoals that Paris life could provide. In
those days too - then, as now - Pariscame alive with Rugby in the winter,and it was this that happened to draw
Sam Blyth’s cousin, the pipe-smoking
and laconic Colin Williams, over the
Channel. It was on one such visit, that
Nick found himself answering
questions about what he did for aliving and explaining to Colin withgreat seriousness what commodity
trading was about, rather unawarethat his answers were being
addressed to someone not entirely
unestablished in the business. This
proved to be Nick’s interview; and, upon returning to London, he
was invited to the offices of Wogen in Devonshire Street andoffered the job that would mould or, shall we say, cast, his metal life.

The first procedural problem isthat, due to an earlier meeting,morning tea has already segued
into lunch, so it is agreed that we
adjourn to The Mute Swan,
conveniently placed three doors
down from the office. By thisstage Nick is keen to ask what
are the terms of reference andaim of this interview, modestly
suggesting he is not a worthy
subject. I try to explain that I feelproud of the way the MMTA has developed in the last few years
and how our parish magazine, The Crucible, has become an uniqueorgan amongst metal trade magazines – a vessel for the full arrayof issues relating to our trade, the comings and goings of people,
the folklore, the science, the announcements and notices, andmany small matters that bind a group of people linked to acommon trade.

For a home counties boy, metals opened a whole new world, aworld of merchant adventuring (as Colin Williams would describe it)
one which could find you visiting countries as far flung as
pre-liberalised China, Cold War Russia and a varied smattering of
It is not long before Nick further proves the point about community Eastern and Central European satellite states. Equipped with aby recalling how our longest serving MMTA Chairman, Howard
metal shopping list, an absence of a credit limit, and the confidence
Masters, and he, had bonded over sport (in his case rugby, for which of youth, French describes the excitement of obtaining resources
Nick has a Cambridge Rugby Blue) and cricket (in which Howard is a and selling into the market. As Nick says, ‘It felt like a kind ofmember of the MCC), and how welcome Nick had been made to
fantastic sport’. Metal aside, the mix of characters in the world offeel in his salad days all those years ago. He tells me that at thistrade spilled as if from a fantastic novel containing minor Spanish
year’s MMTA Anniversary Dinner, he has been invited to Howard’s
counts, semi re-conditioned post-war Germans who had served onoldies table which will also be his 64th Birthday and a fitting bookend the Eastern Front, Politburo KGB apparatchiks and Jewish traders
to this major minor metal trader’s minor metal career.
6

who had emerged from the European maelstrom into aninternational trading network that encompassed East and West. It
was, Nick noted, a trade that took all sorts.
But, to take a metal term, there is a kind of hallmark to a notable
metal career, and, in Nick’s case, the one imprinted like a stick of
Brighton rock states ‘Cobalt 99.9%’. Still perhaps the most politicalof the minor metals, in those days it was a state-run businessassociated mostly with Zambia and Zaire (Congo) – before Nickel
by-product tonnages drew attention away from Africa. By his
involvement in cobalt, Nick was witness to the way geopolitics could
influence price - such moments as the invasion of Katanga Province
in the 1970s, when such an event had the power to move the world
market for this high temperature metal that was just maturing in its
applications in the new jet age for turbines in the expansion of air
travel. Cobalt hit $50 per lb in 1978.

known good. It allowed nations of different political systems tocommunicate with each other, it brought wealth and jobs.
But today, I am not so sure. I am not sure the jobs are as good asthey could be, and I am not sure our system is superior to theprocess for Empire building based on trade that was epitomised by
the ambition of Cecil Rhodes. Nick is not more optimistic. Over theyears, like many who worked with Zambia in particular, he gained atrue affection for the country and its people. However, because ofwhat he calls ‘vested interests’, he worries - as much as I do - forthe future.

Perhaps this brings us neatly to a subject that links cobalt to a
subject about which we are both of like mind - that is our wish for
Zambia to do well and Congo to do better. In Zambia a new
President was elected only a few weeks ago and, almost uniquely
amongst African nations, without bloodshed. We have discussed
Heady times for sure, excitement, adrenalin, macho games,
how hard it is for the wolf to change its clothing. The morewhich many of us have had the chance to experience in ouraggressive of our breed, those removing resources from Africa, seek
youthful business life; and when what we think of most is the game only profit where it may be found. Is there any means to makeand the risk. But, as we get older, I ask him, to what extent do werelations more equitable? Could a blunt ‘tonnage tax’ redress thelook back and reflect on the moral complexities of trade?
balance as regards lack of tax collected by African states on metals
activities? Even as I mention this, I can hear the gnashing of teeth
As we walk back up the road from lunch, we touch on some of thefrom a metal community countering that, with such a tax,
moral issues of the trade.
competitiveness will be reduced and business will move to nations
But before going any further, I notice it is almost 4.00 pm, and I
without this barrier. But, I am not so sure. My greatest hope, which I
recall, from working alongside Nick at Wogen, it is the moment in
put to Nick, is that the growing population of young well educatedthe afternoon when Nick would customarily request a nice strong
graduates coming out of University in Zambia may be ready to takecup of tea and an aspirin. This afternoon he courteously declines
on the challenge. In 1964, at Independence there was only a handful
the aspirin.
of graduates in the country, today not only is education morewidespread but the benefits of the internet mean access to
I continue, gently, that there are events in relation to African
information, once generally held only at state level, is accessible topurchases and sales of cobalt - certain smoke and mirrors - that doall. Surely in this there must be hope? It is a moment to reflect on
not add lustre to the cobalt market in relation to Africa, and ask ifchange and in this spirit, Nick agrees to accompany me to Zambia
he sees any room for optimism? This leads to a discussion about thenext year on my usual trip to Mufulira where the MMTA does work
issues that we know to be endemic - levels of corruption,and has links which are trying to make a positive contribution to astate-owned companies that did not pay their workers, the legacy
country from which we in the metals world have all benefited.
of the end of colonialism, the lack of investment by the newly
Asking him about his most lasting achievement – the answer is a
independent African nations, and today’s privatisations that cansurprise – the many young people who came to learn and develop
lead to transfer pricing, with costs so easily retained in the country
with SFP and whom he set on their way. It is a fitting end to ourof production, and profit all too easily re-patriated abroad.
interview.
I say to him that, when I was first into the trade, I was just rather
Anthony Lipmann, Lipmann Walton & Co Ltd
proud to be a trader. Trading, it seemed to me, in my youth, was a

MMTA EVENTS FOR YOUR DIARY
MMTA Christmas Lunch,
15th December, London

MMTA New York Dinner,
19th January, 2017, New YorkThis year’s event at Ironmongers’ Hall will begin with
networking drinks and carols, and is followed by a festive
This year we will be returning to the Cornell Club for
4-course lunch including wine. It will be - as always - a great networking drinks & canapes, followed by a topical speaker
and a 3-course meal.
way to end the year with industry colleagues and friends.
To book, visit www.mmta.co.uk or contact
admin@mmta.co.uk

To register your interest in either of these events, pleasecontact admin@mmta.co.uk
7

Selenium and the Birth of TV
Adapted from Teletronic, the television history site
The conditions for the birth of television can be traced back to 1817,
when the Swedish scientist Berzelius discovered selenium, ametalloid in the oxygen group with electrical properties. Then, in
1873, a telegraph operator in the West of Ireland, accidentally
discovered that some selenium rods, which were used as
resistances, altered in value under the influence of strong sunlight.
The discovery of the photosensitive properties of selenium led tothe possibility of converting light waves into electrical impulses andwas communicated to the Society of Telegraph Engineers, creatingwidespread interest. It was not long before selenium "cells” wereconstructed by Bell, Siemens and others.

illuminated, a human face simply did not reflect back enough light.
Solving what seemed like a simple problem in theory had proved
insurmountable in practise, and by the time John Logie Baird
decided to begin experimenting with it, almost fifty years had
passed with no real progress being made, despite much effort fromresearchers of all nationalities.

Using an assortment of second-hand equipment, Logie Baird
assembled crude television apparatus, described in Ronald F.
Tiltman's book as follows: "An old tea chest, purchased for a few
pennies formed the base that carried a motor, which rotated the
Despite many attempts and suggestions for transmitting moving
exploring disc, while an empty biscuit box housed the projection
pictures before the end of the nineteenth Century, difficulties inlamp. Scanning discs were cut out of cardboard, and the mountings
amplifying the impulses had halted progress. Nevertheless, many
consisted of darning needles and old scrap timber. The necessary
predicted that it would soon be possible to obtain vision over anlenses on the optical side of the apparatus were procured fromordinary telephone line.
bicycle shops at a cost of four pence each, while electric motors
ready for the scrap-heap were pressed into service on duties for
Paul Nipkov's disc scanner made use of the selenium cell, but itwhich they were never intended. At the time there were a great
appeared that selenium was unable to respond to the enormous
deal of ex-Government wirelesses available for a very minimal cost,
signalling requirement. The whole idea of television was to transmit and Baird bought scraps of these for his own use, adapting them toimages with such rapidity that they appeared instantaneous to the his needs. One or two old hat boxes were also utilised, and theeye, with movements as smooth and natural as that seen on awhole conglomeration of bits and pieces was precariously heldcinema screen, and selenium seemed unable to achieve this.
together with glue, sealing wax and odd lengths of string. These
early experiments also demanded a high use of electricity and thisSelenium had not been the only means of turning light into
was supplied by accumulators, (storage batteries similar to thoseelectricity available to the earlier television experimenters, for in
used in motor vehicles), for lighting."
1888 Hertz and Hallwach made discoveries which led to theconstruction of photo-electric cells. These new cells seemed at first Baird realised that despite the theoretical simplicity of the task, theto offer an alternative to the slowness of selenium as they weretask of creating a practical solution had eluded many. The main
capable of being instantaneous in their action. However, thedifficulty lay in the light sensitive cell and therefore he concentrated
photoelectric cells proved insufficiently sensitive and would not
Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television
respond to the small amount of light available: even massively

8all his efforts on that part of the system.

for Baird to give personal demonstrations of the new device forthree weeks at his Oxford Street store. He agreed to pay the
In this he enlisted help from Victor Mills, a schoolboy at the time.
inventor £25.00 a week and supply the necessary electrical current
Baird had read reports of a sophisticated wireless set built by aand material. Baird accepted this unexpected windfall withoutschoolboy at Hastings Grammar School, and went to the boy’s home reservation and Selfridge arranged for a circular to be issued
to meet him. Called to the door by his mother, Victor Mills
advertising the demonstration in April 1925, stating that: “our friends
encountered Baird for the first time with the inventor telling him
will be interested in something that should rank with the greatest
about his work on television. "What’s television?” enquired young
inventions of the century. SELFRIDGE & CO., LTD”.
Victor. "Seeing by wireless,” replied Baird. "You probably know
These demonstrations were packed daily by scientists and general
something about resonance. I’m getting a picture but can’t dovisitors from around the country, but those expecting to see aanything with it. I’m getting too much noise.” Mills claimed that hesoon discovered the cause of Baird’s problem was that his selenium combination of the cabinetmaker’s art and scientific equipment (ascells were too big. Mills also claims that on his second trip to Baird’s the public had come to expect from wireless receivers) were to be
makeshift laboratory he took some of his own radio equipment with sadly disappointed. Instead, what their eyes beheld was a lens discconsisting of a circle cut from a cardboard box (the lenses being
him. Whilst making adjustments, Mills put his hand in front of the
fixed between two layers of cardboard), whilst other parts of theilluminated apparatus. "I decided I’d got it right and just then Baird
apparatus showed the clear markings of a soapbox. The receiveryelled out, "It’s here, it’s here!” And according to Mills the firstconsisted of a cardboard disc with sixteen holes arranged in two
pictures ever transmitted were of his hand.
spirals. Synchronisation was obtained by using two little
synchronous motors, one attached to the shaft of the transmitterand one to the shaft of the receiver, the motors being kept in stepby a signal sent out from the transmitter, which was used to control
the receiver.

Image Source: http://www.teletronic.co.uk/john_baird_2.htm

There are contradicting reports of exactly when the first image wastransmitted (and of what), but by the time Baird made his firstreported breakthrough in transmitting a picture, his meagre funds
were completely exhausted. Realising the full necessity of getting
financial assistance he demonstrated his crude results to the press.
An account of his experiments appeared in the 'KinematographWeekly' on 3rd April 1924. Reporter F.H. Robinson wrote that Baird
had demonstrated to the writer’s satisfaction that radio vision wasalmost "a commercial proposition.” Robinson informed readers that
all of the apparatus used in the experiment could be purchased for£40.00, and that, " undoubtedly wonderful possibilities are opened
up by this invention.”
Progress continued, but it was incredibly slow. Gradually Baird
advanced from the transmission of his "shadowgraphs” andsucceeded in transmitting outlines of simple objects in black
and white.
In March 1925, Mr Gordon Selfridge Junior got to hear of Baird’s
experiments that had resulted in the transmission of simple“shadowgraphs”. He was given a demonstration and saw
transmitted from one room to another a crude outline of a papermask. Tiltman's book explains: "This was made to wink by covering
the eyeholes with white paper, and it could be made to open andclose its mouth by covering and uncovering the slot corresponding
to the mouth opening." Selfridge was impressed enough to arrange

Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television

In spite of the publicity the inventor and his invention was receiving,his business partner grew tired of the lack of progress and told
Baird that he would not invest one penny more. Baird remained
convinced that he was within grasp of the vital missing link thatwould allow him to progress to the next stage of development. But
without further funding, he found himself almost on the point ofgiving up. He was now living in poverty. His health again began tosuffer, and in spite of trying to arouse interest in his project fromthe offices of several newspapers, he found that he was now being
dismissed as nothing short of a crank. To save himself fromstarvation he had to realise a few shillings by selling vital parts of his
apparatus. Finally, his work had stopped.
When his family in Scotland discovered the conditions that John
Logie Baird had been living in, they responded by purchasing£500.00 worth of shares in the little known company now formed
and known as Television, Ltd. Baird immediately set about
remodelling his apparatus and improving its optical system. The
effect of this rendered the transmitted images more sharply than
9Image Source: Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Image source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television“Mr Baird has definitely and indisputably given a demonstration ofreal television. It is the first time in history that this has been doneever before but still with no detail. On the evening of 1st October
1925 Baird concluded a series of tests using the latest light-sensitive in any part of the world.” Furthermore, in an article on television in
the 'New York Times' of 6th March 1927, reference was made to thesystem that he had devised. The following morning, October 2nd
1925, was spent fitting the device and generally overhauling thefact that “no one but this Scotch minister’s son had everequipment. Early on this Friday afternoon he placed “Bill” in front of transmitted and received a recognisable image with its graduations
the transmitter. Bill, was a rather dilapidated ventriloquist’s doll that of light and shade.”
Baird had been using for many months in his experiments.
Normally the dolls head came through on the receiving screen as a With new capital investment, Baird’s research now led to graduallywhite blob with three black blobs marking the position of the nose improved results and as he worked towards turning his apparatus
and eyes. But on this occasion Bill suddenly appeared as a
into a commercial success, he began to achieve results with the use
recognisable image, with shading and detail. The nose, eyes andof normal lighting.
eyebrows could be distinguished and the top of the head appearedrounded. In his autobiography, Baird described this historic
Baird’s success and growing reputation caused his contemporaries
occasion: “The image of the dummy's head formed itself on theto redouble their efforts. In April 1927 the American Telephone andscreen with what appeared to be almost unbelievable clarity.”
Telegraph Company staged the first television demonstration overany distance outside of England. Images were sent by wire for a
Flushed with success, Baird rushed downstairs where he came
distance of 200 miles between Washington and New York. The
across William Taynton, a young office boy working on the floor
demonstration was staged amid great publicity and relied on about
below. Baird convinced the office boy to go upstairs and sit before
1000 engineers. Baird made no comment on the American test but
the transmitter where enormous electric lamps gave out a glaring
the following month he arranged his own demonstration whenlight and a great deal of heat. Baird rushed to the next room to see pictures were transmitted over the 438 miles of telephone line
the results on his receiver but was dismayed to discover that it was between London and Glasgow.
entirely blank. No amount of adjusting the equipment would
produce a picture, and a crest-fallen Baird went back to the
Adapted by Maria Cox, MMTA
transmitter. Under the intense heat, Taynton had moved awayfrom the lamps and had moved out of focus. Baird explained to theboy that he must remain exactly where placed. This time Taynton’s
image appeared on the receiving screen.
On the 27th January 1926 nearly fifty scientists answered Baird’s
invitation, entering Baird’s accommodation one small group at atime. Tiltman recorded: "When news reached the USA of Baird’s
achievement ’Radio News’, one of the country’s foremost journals,
sent a commissioner to investigate. In their issue of September
1926 an article appeared that included the following paragraph:10

Sources:
http://www.teletronic.co.uk/john_baird_3.htm
BFI Screenonline Seeing By Wireless, Elen, Richard G. http://
www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/technology/technology1.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_television

MMTA’s 43rd Anniversary Dinner

We would like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors,
Alex Stewart International and RC Inspection, once again for
helping to make the MMTA’s 43rd Anniversary Dinner a great
success.
Thanks to the generosity of our guests, we were able to raise£3,413.50 to fund three medical electives in Mufulira, Zambia in
2017
See you all again next year!

11

A simple and innovative way to treat industrial effluentsfrom the production of Alumina

Red mud field at the French alumina producer Alteo, Gardanne, France

Due to the growing level of environmental awareness in the last

Extracthive thus proposed a bio-inspired process to obtain a neutral

few decades, legislation about industrial waste disposal has become metal-free effluent. According to the designer of the process,more and more exigent about the environmental impact and theQuentin Ricoux, “the idea is to reproduce the chemical reaction thatquantity of final waste produced. However, for companies that

happens when the effluent comes into contact with seawater”. The

generate large amounts of industrial residues, the real challenge isprocess uses magnesium chloride to precipitate aluminates,

to manage the correct disposal of their waste. Disposing of the

producing hydrotalcites. The formation of hydrotalcites extract

waste in expensive hazardous waste storage sites is sometimes thealuminum from the effluent and reduces its alkalinity. The highonly short-term option, but the high costs that this solution implies

affinity of hydrotalcites to oxy-anions also allows the extraction of

are not sustainable. In addition, landfilling often competes withheavy metals such as arsenates, chromates and vanadates. The

other land use options and the space in dedicated waste storage

reaction is detailed as follows:cannot be extended infinitely. Aware of this problem, two former
employees of the French Atomic Energy Council (CEA) decided tofound the company Extracthive in 2015. With the know-how in
waste treatment using hydrometallurgical processes, Extracthive
offers innovative ways to valorise industrial residues through theextraction of valuable metals, and ultimately neutralize the final

2[Al(OH) 4] − (aq) + 8OH − (aq) + 6Mg 2+ + CO 3 2− (aq) → Mg 6Al 2(CO 3 )(OH) 16.4H 2O (s) .

Hydrotalcite is separated using a flocculation-decantation step, andis further centrifuged to increase the solid content of the final mud
to 12%. After a successful development at labscale, this process wastested in pilot scale in September 2016, treating 1 m³ per day ofwaste for an optimal, low cost, disposal.
An example of the innovative approach that Extracthive canpropose is the successful partnership with the French alumina
producer, Alteo. Alteo used to discharge red mud, the final residueof the Bayer process, directly into the sea. In the Bayer process,strip-mined bauxite is treated with hot caustic soda, which
selectively extracts aluminium from a range of other mineralised
metals. The problem is that for every ton of alumina extracted,
more than a ton of red mud is produced. The huge amounts of red
mud disposed into the sea slowly changed the marine environmentof the region. Since 2015, Alteo has implemented two filtration
steps at the end of the process in order to separate the solid
fraction of the red mud, so called Bauxaline®, from the liquid part,which is still released to the sea. Despite these efforts, the final
effluent still has a high alkalinity (pH > 12) and a high concentrationof heavy metals, both above the limits set by French environmental
regulations. The French administration thus gave the company until
2021 to find a solution to enhance the quality of its waste water.
12

Quentin Ricoux, process engineer at Extracthive, installing the pilot scale process at
Alteo

effluent resulting from red mud filtration. Chemical analysis of theeffluent after treatment shows a reduction of 99% of thealuminium content and 85% of the arsenic content. The pH was
reduced to 9, thanks to the extraction of aluminates. Both the pH
and the residual metal content are acceptable, according to French
environmental regulations.
After achieving this promising result, the efforts are now in findinga market for the valorisation of the hydrotalcite extracted from theeffluent. For that, Extracthive is working on a process to extract
heavy metals trapped in the crystal matrix. Hydrotalcite iscommonly used as a stabilizer for Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as it canadsorb the chlorides generated during the thermal degradation of
PVC. Other applications also include the use of Hydrotalcite as
catalysts.

Iron extracted from the red mud in the first lab-scale experiments

In order to seal the partnership with Alteo, Extracthive is also
from the highly alkaline red mud. The first laboratory tests haveshown encouraging results, where pure iron could be extracted
from red mud residue. This process is the subject of a doctoral
thesis at Extracthive, in which the process is expected to develop
up to pilot scale in a couple of years. If successful, this process canbe expanded for the recovery of metals in other types of muds.

Vanessa Amaral de Oliveira, Research Engineer at Extracthive
Red mud after processing and before iron extraction

For more information: http://www.extracthive.com/

working on the valorisation of the filtered red mud. This mud ismainly composed by hematite, representing approximately 50% in
mass of the total composition. The goal of Extracthive is to develop
a process to recover electrolytic iron from hematite, which has ahigh value in the market. The innovative process is based on
ancient methods to extract iron using electrowinning, but with anovel design of the electrolytic cell that simplifies the extraction

Pilot scale of the bio-inspired process to obtain a neutral metal-free effluent
developed by Extracthive

13

The Internet ofThings: A Connected
World…
James Walsh, MMTA
The internet of Things (IoT) has become a well recognised phrase
over the last few years, and for good reason. It’s about connecting
devices over the internet and letting them talk to us, applications
and each other. It’s set to revolutionise the way we interact with the The examples are endless, and we can expect connected devices toworld around us and everything in it. For example, what if yourcreep into most businesses, similar to how computers and the

fridge could tell you it was out of milk, or, even better, what if itinternet have. In manufacturing, efficiency is very important andcould automatically order some more through an online

the IoT is already being utilised for organising tools, machines andsupermarket for home delivery? The potential of the internet ofpeople; tracking where they are and ensuring they are being

things is much broader than simply making our domestic lives thatutilised effectively.

little bit easier.

A network of over 20 billion devices will create an immense

A year ago, no more than 15% of the population had heard of IoT,

amount of data, which all needs processing if businesses are to

but the first connected objects date back to the mid 70’s with themake effective use of it. The wireless communications tech

introduction and growth of ATMs. Now there are around 5 billion

industry is working on its next big development, the 5G revolution.

connected things and by 2020 some predict there will be as many

Though 4G is still being deployed in many countries, and is

as 20 billion. Obvious things that already form part of the IoT are

adequate for now, in five or ten years time it will not be able tosmartphones and vehicles, but many other “smart devices” such as

meet requirements for new applications. When 5G is deployed it

healthcare products and environmental monitoring equipment arewill be 100 times faster than 4G, will have one fiftieth of the latency

also adding to the IoT.

and be over 50 times more instantaneous in terms of getting data

But, IoT is more than just smart homes and wearable tech. The
scale-up potential is huge for industry and a significant amount ofdata can now be collected, analysed and put to use saving
companies a substantial amount of money. This could be done, forexample, through tracking objects as part of a supply chain by using

to and form a device. This is expected to usher in entirely new waysof doing business, create new industries and drive unprecedented
economic and societal growth. Commercial deployment is expected
to happen in 2020, with both industry and academia working
towards this common goal.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, or in agriculture,

IS IT SAFE?

monitoring crops and boosting maximum yields through a leaner

The biggest challenge for IoT are the security and privacy of data

use of water.

floating around online. There have been high profile cases recently,
including attacks on websites such as Twitter,
Spotify and Facebook, where hackers usedinternet-connected home devices to launch a
distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack,forcing them offline. These devices can also be
hacked to compromise your privacy. For
example, your smart meter knows when you are
not at home and also what kind of technology
you use when you’re there.
This issue is especially important forgovernments and businesses where this data
could be considered sensitive.

14

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY‘SMART’ ROCK BOLT

IoT technology has the potential to help us create a more

A classic example of IoT tech is a rock bolt, that are used forsustainable world. Agriculture accounts for a high percentage ofreinforcing mines once rmaterial has been removed, and help towater use, especially in hot places where it doesn’t rain much. Soil

distribute the immense stresses from rock mass above. Whatsensors could tell us exactly when crops needed watering. Foodmakes the new rock bolts ‘smart’ is a strain sensor that’s been

waste, air pollution, and more could all be mitigated by IoT

added which can monitor the ‘health’ of the bolt, i.e. if a bolt breaks,

technologies.

operators can be alerted and it can be replaced. Each bolt can talk to

The concept of ‘big data’ has been around for a while but theexponential volume of terabytes and zetabytes that are being

each other creating a mesh network and giving operators the big
picture on the condition of the mine.

created have paved a way for a new era that is only beginning to be One of the limiting factors is the battery life of the sensor, which
realised. In manufacturing, the potential data collected throughout would be limited to a few years, but typically, if a rock bolt fails, it
the supply chain via IoT enabled devices could inform direct

happens within the first couple of months of deployment.

sustainability policy. IoT could potentially be great for developing acircular economy, through tracking the lifecycles of objects withembedded chips and sensors. When technologies, such as our cell
phones, small appliances, and televisions become obsolete we canquickly discard and forget about them. There are huge
opportunities to repurpose, reuse and create new value from these
unused technologies.
MININGThe mining industry certainly haven’t waited around to takeadvantage of developing technology and IoT connected devices andsensors. Companies like Rio Tinto employ the technology by using
driverless trucks in the mining process and have also implemented
mining automation systems removing operators from hazardous

But not only does this data need to be captured and analysed, it

environments allowing them to work from control rooms.

needs to be available in real time so that the mine’s remote

Mining operations around the world are on this automation curve

maintenance to optimise production rates in relation to dynamic

and are clearly gaining efficiencies in production, however, these
initiatives are often focused and restricted within production sites.
By merging data across different sites, new processes can be
instigated, utilising their resources in new ways to achieve better
outcomes. The number of sensors used in mines is growing rapidly
and systems involved are becoming more intelligent, so thechallenge is in making the best use of this data.

operating centre can modify processes, asset utilisation andmarket demands. Through IoT, this next level of optimisation can beachieved for a single, or a group of mines, rail and ports around theworld.
http://uk.businessinsider.com/internet-of-things-infrastructurearchitecture-management-2016-10
https://www.ericsson.com/research-blog/internet-of-things/internetof-things-in-mining/https://www.australianmining.com.au/features/the-internet-ofmining-things-delivers-the-next-wave-of-productivity/15

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