Emeritus Professor Tim Napier-Munn is a mineral engineer with degrees from Imperial College, London and the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Tim has had a 50+ year career in mineral industry R&D in the public and private sectors in three countries, holding senior positions with De Beers in South Africa, and with the JKMRC and JKTech Pty Ltd at The University of Queensland. He retired as Director, JKMRC, and Managing Director, JKTech, in 2004, and is now Emeritus Professor at UQ, working with graduate students at the JKMRC and consulting through JKTech.
Tim has published over 150 papers and articles, and was editor of the JKMRC ‘Blue Book’ on comminution (1996) and the 7th Edition of Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology (2006). He delivered professional development courses on Statistics for Mineral Engineers around the world for over 25 years, and in 2014 published a book on the subject. The courses are now delivered by JKTech in both face-to-face and online versions.
Tim is a recipient of the IOM3 Futer Medal (London, 2009), the AusIMM President’s Award (2011), the AusIMM Sir Willis Connolly Memorial Medal (2015) and the International Mineral Processing Council Distinguished Service Award (2024). He was the AusIMM Delprat Distinguished Lecturer in 2016, and in 2019 was made Honorary Fellow of the AusIMM. In 2014 he won the national Berenice and Arthur Page Memorial Medal for outstanding amateur astronomical research.
Tim’s mineral research and consulting interests are in the modelling and simulation of mineral processes, physical processing such as dense medium separation and hydrocyclones, comminution, diamond processing, statistical methods applied to mineral processing, technology transfer and research management.