XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 835
Problem-Solving competencies require additional develop-
ment to achieve level of practitioner, expert or master. In
addition, development of conceptualization-, design- and
implementation-focused competencies needs to be pur-
sued to serve as source of process engineers to support these
functions (for example, within engineering companies and
OEMs. The additional competencies might be labelled
Process Development /Design and Process Engineering /
Implementation. Each person has responsibility for manag-
ing their own lifelong development and engagement with
their company, their peers, etc. for guidance and support.
It is not expected that any one individual will have all the
competencies at expert level.
The Future
It is unlikely that there is a single, simple answer for the
problem of providing necessary MP/EM competencies to
support processing plants and other process engineering
roles. More likely an answer with several dimensions will be
required. Starting with an assumption that the processing
plant needs access to process engineers with a wide range
of Process Management, Problem Solving, Process Design
/Development and Process Engineering/Implementation
competencies leads us to the following scenario:
• Early career professionals and a few senior engineers
are on-site to address the most common Essential
Functions.
• Experienced Practitioners, Experts or Masters of
MP/EM located somewhere with the larger corpo-
ration or with consulting companies for support in
addressing issues with essential functions and com-
plex problem solving.
• Some access to knowledge and skills may be provided
through a combination of individuals and perhaps
tailored mineral processing /extractive metallurgy AI
software.
This will require development of engineers as effective con-
sumers of off-site internal and external support, i.e., prob-
lem specification and interrogation of resources. This type
of model involves fewer technical people on-site and uses
experienced external technical people in a scenario that
provides genuine professional development of site-based
metallurgists (Munro, 2017).
However, even with smarter location of people and
other resources this scenario still relies on paths for compe-
tency development.
Figure 6. Metcelerate—A structured program of applied, on-line learning (after Cilliers, Drinkwater and Seitz, 2023)
Problem-Solving competencies require additional develop-
ment to achieve level of practitioner, expert or master. In
addition, development of conceptualization-, design- and
implementation-focused competencies needs to be pur-
sued to serve as source of process engineers to support these
functions (for example, within engineering companies and
OEMs. The additional competencies might be labelled
Process Development /Design and Process Engineering /
Implementation. Each person has responsibility for manag-
ing their own lifelong development and engagement with
their company, their peers, etc. for guidance and support.
It is not expected that any one individual will have all the
competencies at expert level.
The Future
It is unlikely that there is a single, simple answer for the
problem of providing necessary MP/EM competencies to
support processing plants and other process engineering
roles. More likely an answer with several dimensions will be
required. Starting with an assumption that the processing
plant needs access to process engineers with a wide range
of Process Management, Problem Solving, Process Design
/Development and Process Engineering/Implementation
competencies leads us to the following scenario:
• Early career professionals and a few senior engineers
are on-site to address the most common Essential
Functions.
• Experienced Practitioners, Experts or Masters of
MP/EM located somewhere with the larger corpo-
ration or with consulting companies for support in
addressing issues with essential functions and com-
plex problem solving.
• Some access to knowledge and skills may be provided
through a combination of individuals and perhaps
tailored mineral processing /extractive metallurgy AI
software.
This will require development of engineers as effective con-
sumers of off-site internal and external support, i.e., prob-
lem specification and interrogation of resources. This type
of model involves fewer technical people on-site and uses
experienced external technical people in a scenario that
provides genuine professional development of site-based
metallurgists (Munro, 2017).
However, even with smarter location of people and
other resources this scenario still relies on paths for compe-
tency development.
Figure 6. Metcelerate—A structured program of applied, on-line learning (after Cilliers, Drinkwater and Seitz, 2023)
