Education

Alan Apling is a graduate of the Department of MInerals Engineering, of the University of Birmingham. He graduated in 1967 with a BSc in Minerals Engineering.; He undertook postgraduate research in the Department, funded by a University Scholarship, where he worked on a mathematical model of the mechanism of screen blinding. He graduated with the degree of PhD in Minerals Engineering in 1971.

Work Experience

He has worked in the mineral industry in the UK, in Sierra Leone, West Africa, India and in Canada. He has operating experience in autogenous milling of iron ore followed by gravity and magnetic processing. In Canada he gained varied experience in the processing of complex base metal ores by flotation, in research and development, process control, instrumentation and acid mine drainage treatment and discharge regulation. The UK provided operational and development experience in coal preparation.

He was lecturer in Mineral Processing at the University of Leeds, Department of Mining and Mineral Engineering. Here he continued an involvement in research in the fields of mineral and coal processing, the modelling of mineral processing unit operations the performance evaluation of processing plants and the sampling of mineral powders. He has worked in the areas of comminution,screening operations, hydrocyclone classification and the processing of minerals by gravity separation and flotation. Other work has included mineral liberation enhancement, hydraulic transportation, solid/liquid system characterisation and behaviour and recycling of aggregates. He has published over forty papers on these topics.

During this period he has designed and delivered courses at undergraduate level. In addition he has delivered courses at MSc level both in Leeds and in Lisbon and provided Professional Development Courses and training in India and Malaysia.

Consultancies

Industrial activities include involvement in test programmes and consultancies with international mining companies, industrial mineral producing companies in the UK and Africa, coal producing companies in the UK, Government Agencies in the UK and India.

As a consultant mineral engineer he has undertaken consultancies in

• Base metal flotation process development
• Comminution test work for mill design
• Exploitation of differential crushing properties
• Design of galena/fuorspar/barytes separation process
• Evaluation of silica sands
• Trouble shooting solid /liquid separation plant
• Design of sampling schemes
• Process evaluation and quantification
• Delivery of professional development programmes in mineral process modelling and flotation
• Assessment of test work programmes

Membership of professional societies

• Member of the Minerals Engineering Society (formerly Coal Preparation Society) since 1967
• Member of Institution of Mining & Metallurgy since 1967
• Chartered Engineer,  since 1974
• Formerly Registered Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario

Range of mineral experience

Over 30 Years Experience in Mineral Processing, in:-

• coal preparation
• iron ore processing
• gold processing
• base metal mineral separation
• industrial minerals processing
• limestone, cement, fluorspar, barytes, chalk

Publications

Over 40 papers presented at International Conferences and published in Professional journals of international standing.