Markus has been a long time consultant to MEI's sustainability conferences. He is Chief Expert and Professor at the SMS group GmbH, Germany, Adjunct Professor on Recycling at Curtin University, Australia and Honorary Professor at the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany, where he was a Director for almost five years.
Previously, he has worked as Director - Technology Management at Outotec, Chief Executive Technologist at Ausmelt , as well as Anglo American and Mintek.
Markus has been ranked number 8 in the world in the field of recycling by ScholarGPS, which ranks scholars whose works are of profound impact and of utmost quality.
In 2014, he received the 1st Prize Publication Award for Handbook of Recycling, by the International Solid Waste Association.
His areas of expertise cover Recycling, Extractive Metallurgy, Modelling/Simulation, Process Control, Sustainability Issues, Legislation, Design for Sustainability, Design for Recycling.
The keynote lecture "Extractive Metallurgy of Rare Earths" will be given by Damien Krebs, Study Manager and metallurgist at Primero Group, Australia.
Damien Krebs is a metallurgical engineer with a masters in mineral economics with significant experience in the development of processes for treating rare earth ores.
With over 13 years in rare earths and prior extensive experience in complex hydrometallurgy he is well suited to the challenges of rare earth extractive metallurgy.
He has worked for over a decade in technology development for nickel and cobalt metallurgy with BHP which includes both laterite and sulphide ores. While working across multiple jurisdictions in project development he made many mistakes in the metallurgically complex fields including; pressure leaching, rare earths, uranium, lithium and phosphate. These learnings provided extensive experience in the development of metallurgical processes and holds a number of international patents and patent applications for nickel and rare earth processing.
He has a wide range of contacts through the global mining industry for which he has served for over 25 years professionally.
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