Dr Johan Zietsman has more than 25 years of extractive metallurgy experience, both in industry and academia, as well as software engineering related to extractive metallurgy. He is the founder and CEO of Ex Mente Technologies, a pyrometallurgy consulting and systems development company. In line with his research and development interests, he has an honorary appointment at the University of Pretoria, as Glencore Chair in Pyrometallurgical Modelling, where he guides Master's and Ph.D. students. His interests in extractive metallurgy include pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical processes, thermochemistry, computational modelling, slag freeze linings, and new process technology development. In software engineering, he is involved in design and development of information systems, and software for process modelling, financial modelling, operational enhancement, and advanced process control. He has a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the University of Pretoria, and has published several papers at peer-reviewed conferences and refereed journals.

Ewan Wingate is the Global Lead for Phosphate Beneficiation at Bechtel Minerals and Metals – Battery Minerals, Chemicals and Fertilizers Centre of Excellence. He is a Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Chartered Professional Metallurgist and Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. He is a metallurgist with 27 years’ experience in Mineral Processing and Pyrometallurgy. Ewan has worked on base metal, phosphate and industrial minerals beneficiation engineering projects and operational production facilities in various parts of Africa, the Americas, Australia, and the Middle East. Ewan is responsible for phosphate mineral processing studies and associated metallurgical test work programs within Bechtel. Ewan is a Qualified Person (QP) under Canadian Ni 43-101 reporting standard, QP member of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America and a Registered Professional Engineer in Queensland (RPEQ – Metallurgy).

Jianmeng Jiao was awarded his PhD at the department of materials science and engineering at NTNU in 2020. He worked in Real Alloy Norway AS from 2020 to 2022 with the recycling of aluminium dross. Since May of 2022, he has been a postdoc researcher at NTNU. His main field is investigating Si-based phase change materials in thermal energy storage systems.