DAVID DREISINGER
University of British Columbia

THE ROLE OF HYDROMETALLURGY IN MEETING THE SUPPLY CHAIN FOR LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Life in the 21st century has been characterized by the proliferation of smart phones, electrified vehicles and many other gadgets, devices and consumer products. What sustains the supply of raw materials for these modern necessities? The raw materials used are of course extracted from natural sources (and increasingly recycled). The iPhone 6 is reported to contain 14 elements in the screen, 5 elements in the battery, 4 elements in the casing and 18 elements in the electronics. A large proportion of the elements used are metallic elements.

Hydrometallurgy is a technology field that uses water-based chemical processing to recover the full range of metal products for meeting the supply chain for life in the 21st century. Selected examples of hydrometallurgical technology for recovery of base metals, rare metals and precious metals will be presented.

DAVID DREISINGER completed his B.A.Sc. and Ph.D. in Metallurgical Engineering at Queen’s University at Kingston.  Since 1984, David has worked at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Since 1992, David has held the position of Chair, Industrial Research Chair in Hydrometallurgy (20 current sponsors). Technical short courses are offered annually to sponsors. David has delivered, with co-workers, over 300 industry-based courses on a wide range of hydrometallurgy topics.  David has researched widely and together with students and coworkers has published over 300 papers and been granted 21 US patents.

David has worked closely with industry to commercialize technology.  Developments in copper include the Mount Gordon Process, the Sepon Copper Process and the Boleo Process.  David is currently working on commercialization of the PLATSOL Process, the SALT process and the Search Minerals Rare Earth Extraction Process.

David has been very active in support of professional society affairs (CIM, TMS, SME) and especially involved in the organization of technical conferences. David has edited or co-edited 10 conference volumes.  David has received a number of professional awards including the Sherritt Hydrometallurgy Award (METSOC), the EPD Science Award (TMS), the Wadsworth Award (TMS) and the INCO Medal (CIM).  David is a Fellow of CIM and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

For more info: http://uoft.me/LLE17-18

Websites of Interest

• University of Toronto
• Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
• Department of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry