Michael J. Nicol is Emeritus Professor of Extractive Metallurgy, Murdoch University, Australia. He spent 24 years in Mintek, South Africa in various roles largely in the field of hydrometallurgy. He taught hydrometallurgy at Wits University in South Africa for 4 years and subsequently at Murdoch University in Perth for 15 years. He has supervised many postgraduate students. In addition to many international conference presentations, he is the author or co-author of over 200 refereed publications in international journals and is the inventor or co-inventor of 10 patents. Over 300 hundred professionals from the industry and research organizations have attended various graduate courses on various aspects of hydrometallurgy delivered by Prof Nicol in Australia, South Africa, USA, Canada, Chile, Brazil and South Korea.