Prof. Dr. Zhiyong Gao Appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the Section “Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy” in Minerals

We are pleased to announce that Prof. Dr. Zhiyong Gao has been appointed Section Editor-in-Chief of the “Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy” Section of Minerals (ISSN: 2075-163X) as of March 2025.

Prof. Dr. Zhiyong Gao received his Ph.D. degree in minerals processing engineering from Central South University (CSU), China, in 2013, and has been a Professor and Vice Dean in the School of minerals processing and bioengineering at CSU since 2019. His research interests embrace mineral crystal chemistry, flotation reagent design, and grinding media technology. The surface broken bond density (Db) index proposed by Prof. Dr. Zhiyong Gao has been widely accepted as a rapid way to study mineral surfaces and to assess their surface reactivity. This Db index has interestingly become widely recognized and applied in different areas such as material science, crystal growth, geochemistry, mineralogy, etc. Prof. Dr. Zhiyong’s research activities have also included extensive use of AFM and DFT on molecular recognition for the development of a series of novel collectors and reagent mixtures for improving the separation selectivity when treating different minerals. Prof. Dr. Zhiyong has developed a method to regulate the crystal surface exposure and hence particle reactivity of different minerals by optimizing the grinding media parameters. Based on these fundamental studies, various new reagent schemes and grind technologies have been developed and utilized to optimize the currently used separation process and address key environmental and energy-related challenges in mineral processing.

Prof. Dr. Gao has published 90+ papers with an H-index of 44 and 6000+ citations (Google Scholar). He also holds 30+ authorized patents. He has received numerous awards and honors including the MEI Young Person’s Award (2019), IJMMM Young Scientist Award (2024), the China-Australia Young Scientist Exchange Award (2020), the World's Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University, and the Young Elite Scientists Award by China Association for Science and Technology (2017). Prof. Dr. Gao has contributed significantly to the scientific community by serving, for example, on the editorial boards of several journals (including Physicochemical Problems of Mineral Processing since 2016, Minerals since 2017, Minerals Engineering since 2021, IJMMM since 2023) and committee memberships. In 2017, Prof. Dr. Gao initiated and chaired the 1st China International Conference of Young Scholars in Mineral Processing, which is now a well-known annual event in mineral processing community. He has been invited to give plenary/keynote/invited presentations and chair sessions in International Mineral Processing Congress, International Flotation Conferences, International Mineral Processing and Recycling Conference, SME, TMS, etc. He and his international collaborators also established the China–Australia/China–South Africa Joint Research Centre for Mineral Flotation Chemistry.

We wish Prof. Dr. Zhiyong Gao every success in his new position, and we look forward to his contributions to the journal.