INTRODUCTION

Hydrometallurgy is a broad field of science and technology that relates to the recovery of metals via processing in water-based solutions. The recovery of gold by cyanidation, copper by heap-leach-SX-EW, zinc by roast-leach-electrowin or pressure leaching are all examples of hydrometallurgical technologies that are practiced globally. In addition, we live in a time where many more metals are becoming critical to the support of modern society and lifestyle. The recovery of silver, platinum group metals, indium/gallium/germanium, rare earth metals and nickel/cobalt all have key hydrometallurgical steps in their process flowsheets. The advancement of hydrometallurgy science and technology requires continued investigation into the fundamentals and applications of the field. We need to understand better how to leach various minerals to extract contained metals. We need new solvent extraction and separation technologies to produce pure metal products. The field of electrometallurgy is advancing quickly with new titanium anodes more widely adopted for base metal electrowinning and more intensive cell house designs using air sparging and cell covers. It is an exciting time to be involved in the field of hydrometallurgy.

On behalf on International Metallurgical Consultants we welcome technical contributions from the global metallurgical industry to the Hydrometallurgy conference in Lima. We especially welcome contributions from the metallurgy community in Peru. Peru has vast resources of precious, base and rare metals and many unique opportunities and challenges for the future. It is my hope that through this conference we can foster a close collaboration between mining and metallurgy companies, suppliers to the industry, engineering partners, academic institutions and government agencies toward the goal of maintaining and growing the vibrant Peruvian industry in the global context.