Role at ANSTO
John Demol is a senior applied research chemist in ANSTO's Minerals group with more than 15 years at ANSTO working in commercial contract metallurgical process development research. His role involves hydrometallurgical flowsheet development work for critical metals/minerals, with a bent toward thermal treatment processes and understanding phase transformations at elevated temperature and in subsequent leaching.
John also has significant experience in the management of naturally occurring radionuclides (NORM) hydromet flowsheet, and radioactivity / impurity removal from zircon.
His research background (PhD through Murdoch University, WA) is in the sulfuric acid baking of rare earth ores, with a particular interest in understanding how mineralogy drives the fundamental reaction processes in the bake and how these affects subsequent deportment of rare earths and impurities. Additional ongoing research areas cover radionuclide removal from hydromet processes and recovery of Pb-212 precursors from mining process wastes for alpha therapy applications.
Expertise
Hydrometallurgical process development, thermal pre-treatment processes, rare earth ore processing, radionuclide management, off-gas analysis, phase characterisation.
Qualifications & Experience
- PhD in extractive metallurgy at Murdoch University (2018)
- Co-inventor on two processing patents