Huang earns recognition from SME

Qingqing Huang, assistant professor of mining engineering at West Virginia University , has been recognized with two prestigious awards by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration.

For the second time, Huang was selected as a distinguished speaker for SME’s Henry Krumb Lecture Series. The program is offered to SME sections to enhance their appreciation and understanding of important new methods and technologies by bringing outstanding speakers to local sections. Lecturers are selected from the professionals who present technical papers at the SME Annual Conference and Expo. Only 10 are selected for the honor annually out of more than 800 professionals.

Huang will be available to discuss how different grinding media, i.e., standard stainless steel, fused silica beads and sand, can affect liberation behavior and recovery of rare earth elements from coal and coal byproducts, which is of great interest to researchers and engineers who are seeking alternative resources for strategically critical minerals.

Huang was also selected as the 2018 recipient of SME’s Mineral and Metallurgical Processing Division Outstanding Young Engineer Award. The award, which recognizes significant contributions of a young individual within the Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy discipline, will be given to her in recognition of her “creative use of mineral processing and mining engineering technology to minimize respirable dust and underground coal dust explosions.” The award will be presented at SME’s 2019 Annual Conference and Expo, scheduled for February 25-17, in Denver, Colorado.

“I am truly honored to receive the designation as the SME Henry Krumb Lecturer, which gives me the opportunity to share my research with various sectors of the mining community,” said Huang. “I also greatly appreciate receiving the Outstanding Young Engineer Award, which is given by the leading experts in the mineral processing and extractive metallurgy field in recognition of my engineering and scientific work.”

Huang holds a PhD in mining engineering from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor’s degree in mineral processing engineering from Central South University in China. Huang was selected as one of 10 2015-2016 SME Henry Krumb Lecturers and the recipient of the 2017 SME Rong Yu Wan Ph.D. Dissertation Award. She serves as the chair of SME’s Young Leaders Professional Development Sub-committee and is the chair-elect (2019-2021) of the Coal and Energy Division Mine Improvement and Innovations Unit Committee.

Huang’s research interests lie in the general area of mineral processing, extractive metallurgy and surface chemistry. She is currently partnering on two research grants from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory on pilot-scale and bench-scale testing of various circuits for the extraction of rare earth elements from coal coarse refuses and acid mine drainage.

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