Page 79 - IMPC Education Book_low res

A ROADMAP FOR MINERALS PROCESSING EDUCATION

These programs vary considerably. They have different lengths, different
content and different levels of technical detail. Some focus on specific
commodities of importance in the region, such as coal processing in
Turkey and India, and copper extraction in South American programs.
Some are just chemical or process engineering degrees with a little
Mineral processing added in, while others are very specific in their mineral
engineering focus.

Years of study

Program duration ranges from 3 years to 6 years, and although there are
regional trends, there are exceptions.

Four-year programs are common in Australia, China, South Africa and
North America and these are generally engineering degrees.

The three-year programs common in India tend to be applied science
degrees rather than engineering. There are examples of these kinds of
programs in other parts of the world including Australia and Canada (see
table 1).

Engineering programs in Chile and other parts of South America tend to
be the longest, with up to 6 years of study. Long degree programs are also
common in Europe, but theirs is a quite different model, combining a 3
or 4-year generalist engineering degree with a postgraduate qualification
specifically focussed on Mineral Processing topics. An example of this, the
“Bologna” model, was discussed in the 2012 IMPC Education Symposium
(Batterham 2012).

Global Mineral Engineering 67
Curriculum Review