Mulenga Mutema Chibesa is a PhD Candidate at the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre, within the Sustainable Minerals Institute at the The University of Queensland, Australia. He holds a Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology, USA, where his research focused on the selective activation and flotation of pyrite for the recovery of tellurium from copper sulfide tailings.
With more than 12 years of industry experience in geometallurgy, mineral processing, process mineralogy, and mine-to-mill optimization across large-scale copper operations, Mulenga has led multidisciplinary initiatives that integrate geology, mining, and metallurgy to improve operational performance and reduce ore variability risk. His PhD research investigates the effect of complex ore textures on copper ore amenability to fluidized bed flotation, with the aim of advancing coarse particle flotation and geometallurgical approaches for more sustainable mineral processing.