April, 2008 - John Starkey, President and Owner of Starkey & Associates, is pleased to announce the appointment of William Alexander Montgomery as Marketing Director.  Since graduation from the University of Guelph, Alex has gained practical mining industry experience by working 5 years setting up and operating projects for airborne geophysical exploration surveys.  Alex has completed work in Burma, Cameroon, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Thailand, the United States and Northern Canada.  Following this international experience he transitioned to marketing where he has worked an additional 10 years promoting some of the world’s leading brands including those publicly recognized for rapid growth in technology.  John Starkey notes that this career experience is unique and will benefit Starkey & Associates by positioning our organization for continued growth both here in Canada and abroad. 

About Starkey & Associates

Starkey & Associates offers the industry’s most accurate and cost effective technology for designing SAG and AG mills.  Now in its fifth year, the patented SAGDesign test, when combined with supervised sample selection, measures the required grinding energy to meet our client’s throughput criteria prior to the bankable feasibility study phase for any project.    With over 140 tests completed on over 20 projects, this grinding mill design technology has been utilized by junior and major mining companies world wide to quickly define grinding requirements for future mill procurement or production forecasting.  This design technology is universal to any SAG or AG mill and provides the basis for one major manufacturer to guarantee performance in mills supplied by them, when designed by Starkey & Associates using SAGDesign technology

March  August 23, 2007 - We are pleased to welcome AMMTEC Limited as an associate member of the SAGDesign Consulting Group. AMMTEC will offer SAGDesign testing services starting in October 2007. The agreement was signed on July 28, in Perth and we are delighted to be able to offer this service locally to our Australian clients. John Starkey was in Australia for Aker Kvaerner, working on the BHP Billiton Olympic Dam Expansion Project.

Principal Metallurgist, Gregg Vickell is now assisting High River Gold as they prepare the new Berezitovy gold process plant for production in the Russian Far East.

May 1, 2007 - Today we are pleased to announce the opening of our new head office in Oakville, ON.  The purpose for this office is to expand our services in the fields of grinding design and process engineering. The full particulars will be added to the 'Contact Us' page of this site next week after the new telephone line and high speed internet service is connected. The e-mail, mailing address and fax number will remain the same but the actual location will be new, in a convenient commercial location in the heart of downtown Oakville. Please call us for an appointment to visit, see our new facility, and discuss your upcoming project needs.

February 9, 2007 - PRESS RELEASE - Report from TVI Pacific's Canatuan process plant. Gregg Vickell advises that our 'process debottlenecking and optimization' efforts have yielded increases in Au & Ag recovery of 8% and 10% respectively and a daily average mill throughput increase of 43%. In addition, grinding circuit costs have been reduced by more than 30% for consumables on a cost per tonne basis. Gregg has been assisting TVI as Plant Manager at the mill in the Philippines for the past 9 months.

November 29, 2006 - "Starkey & Associates is pleased to announce the shipment of two new SAGDesign Test Mills to the TOMS and IRGIREDMET ore testing laboratories in Irkutsk, Russia. In 2007 this will expand our SAGDesign Testing and grinding design service to any mining company in the world. Our initial mill at Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories in Salt Lake City provides this testing service to clients in the Western Hemisphere.  The Russians chose SAGDesign Technology over other traditional methods because of the open technology (patented by Outokumpu), accuracy, and commercial process guarantees that are available if Starkey & Associates designs the grinding mills, and specifies the power."  John Starkey released this announcement to INFOMINE today. At this time we therefore welcome TOMS and IRGIREDMET as associate members of the SAGDesign Consulting Group. They join founding members, Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories, Outokumpu Technology, and Starkey & Associates.

May 25, 2006 - We are pleased to welcome Anastasia Krasavina to our staff. Nastya is a Russian Interpreter and part time assistant and this will allow our Russian colleagues and clients to correspond directly with us in their native language. This is especially important because NTL-TOMS will be adding a SAGDesign Test Mill to their laboratory in Irkutsk in the near future and we welcome them as the newest member of the SAGDesign Consulting Group. The SAGDesign Test will then be available world wide.

Gregg Vickell, our Principal Metallurgust has completed his assignment at Agh Darreh and is now on site with TVI Pacific Inc. in the Philippines. There he will be Mill Manager for the next 12 months, training a local Manager and looking after process optimization.

March 29, 2006 - A Seminar on Grinding Design Fundamentals will be given at the Irkutsk State Technical University (in Russia) on April 5, 2006. Thanks to NTL-TOMS for this invitation and opportunity to teach young engineers how to design SAG mills, using the patented SAGDesign Test.

Our Gold recovery improvement project at Agh Darreh in Iran continues under the direction of Chief Metallurgist, Gregg Vickell. And the design of the Berezitovyi Mine's 4400 t/d CIP gold plant is continuing under the direction of our client, High River Gold and J. Starkey, Principal Consulting Engineer for the project, working with the Russian Institutes in Irkutsk. Contact details for Starkey in Russia are now included in the Contact Us page of this site.

19 December 2005 - We are pleased to announce the arrival of Gregg Vickell, Principal Metallurgist. Gregg brings a wealth of experience in gold processing and plant optimization and we are happy to welcome him as a key associate and member of our team. At present he is in charge of process optimization at the Agh Darreh Gold Plant, near Takab in Iran.

SAGDESIGN Testing continues to be well accepted by our clients and an important part of our business. Four new projects were commenced this year and one involved sizing 6 of the biggest mills ever built. Please contact us for details.

Please add the upcoming CMP Conference in Ottawa to your schedule of important events in 2006. The Conference runs from Jan 17 - 19 inclusive and represents a Mineral Processing Forum of the highest calibre. John Starkey as Chair, is pleased to invite you to visit www.c-m-p.on.ca/annual.htm for more details.

Also of importance is SAG 2006 to be held in Vancouver during the period September 23 to 27, 2006. A key paper will be given by John Starkey for the SAGDESIGN Consulting Group entitled, "SAGDESIGN Testing - What It Is and Why It Works.

Once again we thank our clients and associates for making 2005 the best and most interesting year ever for our company. May we wish you 'all the best' for the coming year including health, happiness and prosperity.

January 15, 2005 - We want to thank our clients, associates, and friends for making 2004 the best year ever for Starkey & Associates. We wish you all, good health and prosperity in the coming year.  John Starkey invites you to attend the CMP Conference in Ottawa, Jan 18 to 20, 2005. An excellent program of 38 papers, the east west hockey game and a gala banquet await you. It is the best conference value available anywhere considering cost and technical content. Check it out at www.c-m-p.on.ca/annual.htm

For more information on the SAGDesign Consulting Group (Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories, Outokumpu Technology, and Starkey & Associates) and SAGDesign Testing and Grinding Design services, please see page 14 of the January/February CIM Bulletin. Contact us for an electronic copy of that article.

We have now completed projects for four clients (Zarcan International, LKAB in Sweden, Kinross and St Andrew Goldfields) using the SAGDesign Testing Program and can demonstrate our track record in this critical area of plant design.

April 22, 2003 - Dawson Metallurgical Laboratories (DML) Inc., Outokumpu Technology, and Starkey & Associates are proud to introduce the "Standard Autogenous Grinding Design Test" and associated SAGDesign Consulting Service. The test is called the SAGDesign Test (Patent applied for).  Service includes sample selection at site, testing, analysis, and specification of the mills required when the plant tonnage and grind are known.  It takes the science of SAG and Ball Mill grinding design to a high level by using a volume based SAG test, approximately 10 kg of ore for each sample and a Bond Ball Mill Wi Test on SAG ground material for each test.

The design engineer, John Starkey, has received the Canadian Mineral Processor's Art MacPherson Award in January 2004, for previous "significant contributions to comminution". This work has been peer reviewed by Prof. Kari Heiskanen at Helsinki University and represents a technical development of the highest calibre.

Please contact DML or Starkey & Associates today for complete details about how this service can provide accurate grinding mill design at reasonable cost.