Seminar: The importance of the metals industry in a low-carbon economy - a look at future technologies and the role of Canada

Event Date: 
Friday, September 29, 2023 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm EDT
Event Location: 
ATAC 1001
Event Contact Name: 
Lionel Catalan
Event Contact E-mail: 

This free public lecture will be presented by Dr. Phillip Mackey, a well-known metallurgist in the field of non-ferrous extractive metallurgy and a member of the Canadian Mining Hall of Fame.

Phillip Mackey is one of the few Canadians to have advanced the development of not one but two significant copper smelting technologies that have benefited copper metallurgical plants around the world. He co-developed the Noranda Reactor Process and co-invented the Noranda Converting Process, which has produced more than 4 million tonnes of copper since the late 1990s and remains the world’s third most productive copper converting technology.

He played a key role in the development of the basic engineering design for the world’s largest continuous copper smelting reactor in South America. He was involved in a number of due diligence studies on worldwide mining, milling and metallurgical projects in copper, nickel sulphide and nickel laterite projects while working with the former Noranda-Falconbridge. His work here included new developments for processing lateritic nickel deposits, and concluding technology agreements with other nations, notably Chile.

A Director of Hazen Research of Golden, Colorado, USA, Phillip Mackey currently consults for mining and metallurgical companies worldwide including BHP, Anglo American, Codelco-Chile and Rio. He is Metallurgical Advisor, Horizonte Minerals Inc., which is developing the Araguaia ferro-nickel project, the Vermelho ferro-nickel project and the Vermelho HPAL nickel-cobalt project, all in Brazil. He is also Metallurgical Advisor to Premium Nickel Resources developing the former BCL Ni-Cu properties in Botswana.