Stephen Neethling

Professor Stephen Neethling is a distinguished academic at Imperial College London's Department of Earth Science & Engineering, part of the Faculty of Engineering. His research focuses on multiphase flow modeling in minerals processing, particularly heap leaching and froth flotation. He leads the Advanced Mineral Processing Research Group and contributes to the Applied Modelling and Computation Group. Notable achievements include a 2011 Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellowship.

Education:

• BSc Chemical Engineering (1992–1995), University of Cape Town
• PhD (1996–1999), UMIST (now part of the University of Manchester)

Research Interests:

• Modelling fluid flow and mass transport in heaps using SPH and FEM/FVM methods
• Foam/froth dynamics in flotation cells and industrial applications
• Development of SPH-DEM coupled simulators for multiphase systems
• Integration of experimental techniques like PEPT and micro-CT for validation
• Heap leaching optimization through spatiotemporal analysis

Articles Trends:

• Recent work emphasizes heap leaching heterogeneity (2024-2025)
• SPH-based modeling dominates computational studies
• Focus on industrial applications like CoarseAIR™ flotation cells

Awards:

• 2011 Senior Research Fellowship, Royal Academy of Engineering

Labs/Teams:

• Advanced Mineral Processing Research Group
• Applied Modelling and Computation Group
• Computational Modelling, AI, and Machine Learning Team