Anastassakis International Symposium

ANASTASSAKIS INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM

On Sustainable Mineral Processing: Principles, Technologies and Industrial Practice (10th Intl. Symp.)

Georgios_Anastassakis
Bio | CV | Publications

This symposium is in honor of the distinguished work and lifetime achievements of Prof. Georgios Anastassakis, a well-known professional in the field of Mineral Processing, and its applications for sustainable development.

Prof. Georgios Anastassakis, 65, graduated from National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), the leading Greek University in technology, education and research.

He is Professor at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), School Mining and Metallurgical Engineering, in the field of Mineral Processing and Director of the corresponding Laboratory. He started his career in 1989 as teaching-staff by contract (1989-92); then, employed in LARCO GMMSA Ferronickel Co. (1992-94) in the Department of R&D, and elected Lecturer in NTUA in 1994. Since then, he was successively promoted to Assistant, Associate and first-rank Professor in 2009. During his service, he has been involved in many administrative and other positions. He served as Vice-Dean of the School (2014-2020), Head of the Division of Metallurgy and Materials Technology (2010-14) and member of several academic administrative committees both of NTUA and the School, among which the following: Vice Chair of the NTUA Board of Undergraduate Studies (2015-2019) chaired by NTUA Rector, NTUA Quality Assurance Board (2015-2019, 2019-2023) with key-role in the writing of Quality Assurance Manual and related documents, Administration Board of the School Mining Eng. and Metallurgy, NTUA (2016-20 and 2020-2023). Also, he acted as member of Greek Organization for Academic Degrees Accreditation (2008-2015), Greek Central Examination Board (1996-8, 2003-4) for students’ admission into Greek Universities from foreign universities and Greek Technology Institutions, elected member of the Board of Directors of the Scientific Society of the Mineral Wealth Technologists of Greece (1996-2014), elected member of the Administrative Board of the Greek Association of Mining Engineers and Metallurgists (1998-2000), etc.

Professor Anastassakis has outstanding contributions in the field of Mineral Processing not only in his home country but also globally. His contributions are not only restricted to outstanding scholarly work but also to a very wide range of activities in which he has played a leadership role.

He is member of many international Scientific Societies, such as: International Advisory Committee (Country delegate) of International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC), Balkan Mineral Processing Congress (BMPC) Scientific Committee Country delegate), Balkan Academy of Science on Mineral Technology (Full Member), International Organizing Committee of The International Coal Preparation Congresses – ICPC (Corresponding Member-Country delegate), Society of Mining Professors (SOMP, 2010-2018), WFEO CEE Task Group on Sustainability and Mining, Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration Inc. (SME) (2000-2010), International Solid Waste Association (I.S.W.A.) (2000-2010). He has also served as member of many Congress Scientific Committees and Advisory Board of IMPCs and been actively engaged in chairing and closely involved in the organizing committees of major international conferences in the field of Mineral Processing and Sustainability, such as the XII Balkan Mineral Processing Congress under his entire chairmanship and editorial work.

Anastassakis has been actively engaged in the critical field of sustainability in mining and mineral processing. His overall work and his reputation as academic teacher has been very well recognized as it is evidenced by the invitations to him to give lectures on sustainability and other issues. Among them, as speaker in Seminars organized by “FORGEA International (ITALY) - Training and Cooperation Centre in the field of Geomining and Environment” in Sardinia (Italy), Eski-Sehir (Turkey), Marakesh (Morocco), Hammamet (Tunisia). The topics of the lectures were referred toing: Integrated pollution prevention in industry; Land contamination from mining operations: Prevention strategies and polluted sites management; Industrial waste characterization; Tailings management from mineral processing operations: I. Dam design, safety and legislation items, II. Management of waste from phosphate rock beneficiation; Energy production: renewable vs. non-renewable sources; Industrial and municipal solid waste; Waste management: disposal and treatment; Primary raw materials used in ceramic industry: minerals, specifications and beneficiation methods; ceramic production steps and fundamentals. He has also been invited to present plenary lectures on top international conferences, such as REWAS 2008 (Cancun, Mexico), 14th International Mineral Processing Symposium 2014 (Kusadasi, Turkey), 9th International Industrial Minerals Symposium 2015 (Izmir, Turkey), International Solid Waste Association (ISWA) 2016 (Novi Sad, Serbia).

On national level, he has served as: Country Representative in EU Coal and Steel Advisory Group (Steel Subgroup), 2008-2010, Country Representative in the Expert Group on Risk Management in the Extractive Sector (European Commission Directorate-General for Environment Waste Management & Secondary Materials) (2020-today), Country Representative in EU Technical Advisory Group on Risk Management in the Extractive Sector (2020-today), and Member of the ad-hoc Expert Scientific Committee, invited by the Greek Ministry of Energy and Environment to evaluate the submitted investment project and business plan of Hellas Gold S.A., 2020.

It is also admirable the spectrum of research issues that Anastassakis has been involved regarding both applied and fundamental research. His overall work is essentially oriented to solve problems either appeared during plant operation or at feasibility-study level. Even in cases of fundamental research the utmost target was to solve existing problems of the Extractive Industry. A significant part of research has been devoted to the processing of many mineral deposits of industrial interest by means of physical and physicochemical methods (flotation). In this respect the following are included: silicates (kyanite, sillimanite, wollastonite, feldspars, refining of quartz and other industrial minerals from iron impurities), Pb-Zn-Cu sulfides, antimonite, phosphates, barite, magnesite, nickeliferous laterites, chromite, rocks (volcanic tuff, pumice), coal, etc.; recovery of uranium from lignite; gold recovery from pyrites. He has also been involved in industrial projects such as recovery of nickel from slag, flocculation/thickener operation and the problem of fine particle generation in rotary kilns all related with the industrial activities of GMM SA LARCO Ferronickel SA.

On fundamental research level, a great part of his research has been devoted to fine and ultra-fine particles processing by means of hydrophobic agglomeration processes (selective agglomeration, magnetic coating magnetic seeding), hydrodynamics of flotation, interfacial phenomena, flocculation and electro-osmotic dewatering of red mud. His published work on the aforementioned topic has been recognized by the researchers and awarded with a considerable number of citations.

Anastassakis’ research weds excellent the principles and techniques of Mineral Processing with Sustainability. His work on this issue is characterized both by industrial orientation and fundamentals use to solve hot existing environmental problems. This is strongly supported by his research and published work on: Separation of fine valuable materials from electric waste stream; copper recovery from waste electric cables; metal separation from electric and electronic waste; recovery of by-products from processing tailings (e.g. nickel from slag, quartz from nickeliferous laterite processing, magnesite from rejected material before hand-sorting); management of SPL waste; heavy metal ion and phosphates removal from waste waters by flotation and by using natural sorbents (calcite and other minerals, chitosan); use of environmental friendly collectors (organosolv lignin) in sulfides and industrial mineral flotation; soil cleaning by means of flotation; metals recovery (e.g., lead) from wastewaters; water purification from oil, etc. His strong devotion onto the wedding of Mineral Processing with Sustainability has been extraordinary recognized by the researchers and awarded with hundreds of citations. Special mention has to be made on the intelligent use of calcite as natural adsorbent for phosphate removal from wastewaters. In this regard, the outcome of the research is to provide with a radical solution for Sustainability by preventing eutrophication and recovering a product available for other uses, e.g. agriculture, instead of shifting the problem. Also, special recognition has to be made on his chapter- contribution in international editions on solid waste separation by means of Mineral Processing techniques.

The overall published work and scientific reputation of Prof. Anastassakis has been highly recognized in international circles since he has served as: reviewer in numerous outstanding international journals on Mineral Processing, Surface Chemistry and Colloids, Environmental issues and Sustainability, Materials, Chemical Engineering, etc.; reviewer of numerous papers of Congresses’ and Symposia Proceedings; member of the Scientific Advisory Board of MiMeR (Minerals and Metals Recycling) Research Center at Lulea University of Technology, Sweden (2002-4).

This introduction is only a very brief overview of the extremely wide spectrum of Anastassakis' innovative research, and those with the largest impact in the scientific communities were presented.

Contributions covering all aspects of Prof. Anastassakis' rich activity are welcomed, including both fundamental experimental and theoretical research, as well as applications in industry.

Contributed articles will be double peer-reviewed and published in Conference Official Proceedings, with an ISBN and an ISSN number and available through many indexes such as Scopus, EI index, Google Scholar, CiteSeerX etc. Selected contributed articles will also be published in reputable Journals.

ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS
A round table discussion open to everyone interested will be organized during the symposium. This will allow high level representatives of various industries, technologies, and academic disciplines to discuss and debate freely, without reservations, all topics of this symposium and identify possible research and development pathways towards a future industry with increased sustainability. Click here for a description of the topics of symposium and the round table.

You are cordially invited to actively participate in this symposium by submitting and presenting a paper, or by attending the round table. We look forward to meeting you at the 2024 SIPS summit in Crete.

Click here to see the detailed scope and topics.
To download Flyer, click on the icon: