The Beneficiation School, the predecessor of today’s Minerals Processing & Bioengineering, was one of the five earliest schools of previous Central South University. In 1981 Minerals Processing(MP) was entitled the Master and Doctor gift. The Post-doctor Movable Station was set up in 1988. Inorganic Nonmetallic Material speciality was established in 1995 and the Mining Engineering was entitled the Doctor gift of the first discipline in 1998, then in 1999 the Changjiang special applying professor post was established. It’s the key construction subject of the National “211” project of the first class. In 2000 the Biological Engineering specialty was added.
Professor Wang Dianzuo, the academic leader of the school, was elected as an academician of the Engineering Council of U.S.A, of the Science Council and of the Engineering Council as well, due to the creative contributions in flotation agent and flotation theory. The school has high level staff with reasonable structure, including two academicians, one academician of the two Councils, two young and mid-aged experts with national outstanding achievements, 11 Doctor tutors, 11 professors, 27 persons with vice-advanced professional titles. And 57.4% of the total teachers were conferred Doctor degree. Our school has trained 420 postgraduates, and in the last five years has enrolled 70 doctors and 100 masters. Graduated students have achieved outstanding achievements working in many developed countries and many colleges, research institutes in domestic. Our school lies in the leading class in many fields, such as teaching staff, personal training, teaching and research level, lab conditions and the involved research fields, etc, and has significant international effect. At present five major research directions have been formed, in which Flotation and Flotation Agent is at international leading level. The research achievements were appraised as National Natural Science Prize, National Science Progressing Prize, National invention award and National Excellent Teaching Material Prize early or late. During the ninth five-year plan, our school has undertaken more than 120 science research projects of all kinds altogether, in which there were 17 national brainstorm projects, 1 national remarkable young science fund, 6 national Natural Science Funds, 5 Doctor Funds and 9 international co-operation projects, of which the science research outlay attained 15.61 million yuan. One National science Prize, 23 provincial and ministerial level science & technology prizes, 18 patents and 10 provincial and ministerial teaching achievements were awarded in our school. More than 550 papers were published in which 108 papers were included in SCI and EI. Our school emphasizes on the industrialization of research achievements and flotation technology controlled with electric potential and produces 1.26 billion yuan’s economic benefit each year. The academic atmosphere is very thick and we undertake international conferences and national academic meetings many times. Many international famous experts (academicians from America, Canada, Japan, Russia, German and Sweden, etc) came to our school to exchange academic and co-operate science research projects. Now we are taking magnificent projects, such as the 973 project (3.5 million yuan) which is the national important foundation research and development program, the model project of high-new technology industrialization of national planning committee (9 million yuan), etc. These projects will devote great contribution for national economic construction and the development of mineral source.
Our school put forward a definite aim at building the international first-class discipline during the tenth five-year plan .We expect to achieve grave breakthrough in the researches of the biological extraction of low-level mineral, newly functional mineral material, the direct reduction of cold solid palletizing of iron concentrate, the flotation of Aluminum and silicon from bauxitland cement and so on, directing the characteristic of the mineral resource to solve the magnificent problem during the national economic construction and improve the whole development of disciplines. Our school will become an important base of training advanced personnel in the field of mineral engineering, creativity of science & technology and the exchange with outside world.