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A University of Newcastle Laureate Professor has been named the 2013 New South Wales Scientist of the Year.
Graeme Jameson was given the state's most prestigious science and engineering award at Sydney's Government House last night.
Professor Jameson is a chemical engineer, based at the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre for Advanced Particle Processing and Transport.
He invented the 'Jameson Cell' - a mineral processing technology which saves the mining industry up to $4 billion dollars every year.
"It recovers fine particles, especially in this instance, it recovers very fine coal that used to go to waste," he said.
It is also considered one of the most financially successful Australian inventions.
He says the 'Jameson Cell' is now used in 300 mineral processing plants in more than 20 countries.
"It's a lot of money, and it's easy to calculate from the information on the web," he said.
"You can work out which mines are using it and how much is going through them and that's really the base of the calculation - you work out the number of tonnes per annum.
"But the point is that mining and mineral processing are very important activities for our economy.
"If you can make an improvement it's going to be of economic significance."
Professor Jameson says his current project, the Fluidised Bed Flotation Device, has the potential to halve the mining industry's energy output.
It is the second year in a row a University of Newcastle researcher has been named the state's Scientist of the Year - the 2012 recipient was Laureate Professor John Aitken.
Topics: research, research-organisations, energy, engineering, newcastle-2300
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