Abstract
It is a great honour to acknowledge the massive contributions made by Dr John Rankin to this journal Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy (Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy: Section C) as a Co-Editor for over a decade, as he has made the decision to step down during mid-2023. What a pleasure it has been personally for me working alongside John in the Editorship of this well-established century-old journal towards which John set high editorial standards, strived to maintain the quality of the articles published and established a network of esteemed reviewers.
John is a monumental figure in the field of mineral processing, extractive metallurgy, iron and steelmaking and is easily counted among the great scientists and technologists of his generation in a field whose importance keeps growing in a future era likely to be dominated by climate change concerns, resources and supply chain, new energy paradigm, environmental issues and circular economy.
While John was born, grew up and studied in Brisbane, much of his life is based in Melbourne. He graduated with BSc (Hons.) from the University of Queensland, where he majored in metallurgy, and continued with doctoral studies in metallurgy – his interest for the subject arising from his exposure to mining and mineral processing at Moura, combined with his love for chemistry.
John, among other things, is an experienced educator; he taught Science in high school under a special scheme, even before completing his first degree, and later after his PhD degree, lectured in Chemical Engineering at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. He also acquired research and industrial experience as a Principal Scientist at the prestigious Institute of MINTEK. John returned to Australia for an industrial position at Comalco Aluminium in Melbourne.
After a couple of years at Comalco, John joined CSIRO, which was widely recognised as a premier research centre with global impact, to build his research career. Before being appointed as the Chief Scientist of the Division of Minerals in CSIRO in 1996, John enjoyed a brief sabbatical period at the University of Waterloo, Canada, followed by a productive 6 years at the University of Melbourne as a Professorial Research Fellow and the Director of Co-operative Research Centre in Extractive Metallurgy. John has personally supervised the theses of 22 higher degree students at Melbourne University and co-supervised 4 PhD students at Swinburne University of Technology and 1 student at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Throughout much of his academic, research and industrial career, John has been an active advocate of ‘Sustainability in the field of Mineral Resources’ which directly led to his impactful book published by CRC in 2011, titled Minerals, metals & sustainability: Meeting future needs. The book has attracted a lot of attention and interest and is widely used as a reference by many stakeholders.
John undertook the monumental task of editing the completely revised 3rd edition of Australasian mining and metallurgical operating practices, AusIMM, published in 2013. The two volumes, 1900 pages set provides a detailed technical description of the Australian and New Zealand mining and metallurgical industry and the infrastructure supporting it.
John authored the textbook: Chemical thermodynamics: Theory and applications, CRC Press, published in 2019, developing the theory of chemical thermodynamics from first principles, demonstrating its relevance across scientific and engineering disciplines, and describing how thermodynamics can be used as a practical tool for understanding natural phenomena and improving technologies and products. This textbook deals with the calculation of the equilibrium composition of systems, using the principles of Gibbs energy minimisation. There is an emphasis on the intelligent use of thermodynamic software packages. The book moves from the fundamentals of thermodynamics to practical examples seamlessly covering the areas of heat and energy aspects of processing; the thermodynamics of metal production and recycling; and applications of electrochemistry.
John has published widely in two broad areas: high-temperature thermodynamics and kinetics and their application to the production and recycling of metals; and the technical implications of sustainability in meeting the material needs of society from finite resources, in 140+ scientific papers and book chapters – in the fields of ferrous and non-ferrous extractive metallurgy/pyrometallurgy, life cycle analysis of metal production processes, and sustainability aspects of the minerals industry.
John has been instrumental in pioneering and establishing world-renowned centres of excellence such as the ‘G.K. William Co-operative Research Centre for Extractive Metallurgy’; ‘Sustainability Programme within CSIRO’; ‘the Co-operative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing’; and ‘Clean Processing Programme between CSIRO and the Institute of Geoscience & Mineral Resources, South Korea’.
After his retirement from CSIRO, John has continued his scientific work as an Adjunct Professor at Swinburn University and as an Honorary Fellow at CSIRO, in addition to his Co-Editorship. John's contributions are recognised by his election as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining & Metallurgy and as a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia.
John has many other interests and in particular, enjoys History, Travel and Sports.
On behalf of myself, the Editorial Board, the Publishing Editor and the Publishing Staff, The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining (U.K.), the AusIMM, and the many reviewers, authors, and readers of the Journal I would like to thank John for his dedication to our community and to wish him a continued active life and enjoyment.