Rene I. B. Klymowsky RIP (26.07.44 - 04.03.12)
Rene Klymowsky sadly passed away on the 4th March at his home in Arnhem, Netherlands.
Rene was unbelievably passionate about minerals processing in over 45 years of working in the mining industry. His enthusiasm for his profession will be greatly missed. Rene was still working as hard as ever as Manager – Minerals for Polysius AG at Bockum, Germany at the time of his premature departure.
He was born in Germany but moved to Canada shortly after the end of the Second World War. He studied Metallurgical Engineering at McGill University in Montreal obtaining both B.Eng and M.Eng. His early working career saw him in operations for Noranda and Inco before spending 11 years with CANMET. During this time he became Chairman of the Canadian Iron Ore Committee. In 1979 he moved to Europe and joined Billiton Research B.V. in Arnhem becoming Principal Scientist. At that time Billiton was the Metals Division of the Shell Company. In 1994 he joined KHD Humboldt Wedag AG in Cologne and then in 2000 Polysius AG in Bockum. At both these companies he specialised in the processing aspects of High Pressure Grinding Rolls.
Rene was always at the forefront of mineral processing development. At his time with Billiton he was tasked with evaluating computer simulation programmes and thus became the first commercial user of JKSimMet and an expert in many other programmes such as MetSim and USIM-PAC. He was also briefed by Billition in the early eighties with evaluating a new technology – High Pressure Grinding. After the sale of Billiton to Gencor Rene then worked with the two principal HPGR suppliers, becoming the eminent expert in the technology. He was largely responsible for their introduction into the minerals industry because he could clearly and succinctly explain and demonstrate on a technical basis to clients how the HPGR’s fitted into their comminution circuit and what the benefits were.
Rene was a driven and passionate mineral processor, the typical “workaholic”. A slow starter in the mornings his brain would click into gear in the afternoons and then he would continue well into the night. When his working was reported to be drifting towards midnight his bosses would try and insist he work “regular hours”. He certainly was not “politically correct” by today’s standards and this got him into slight trouble now and again. He also didn’t suffer fools, especially in his profession. As part of an equipment sales team he would regularly cross swords with consultants or company metallurgists who had to give the impression of knowing what they were talking about to their clients or bosses. Invariably, calmly and politely, Rene would point out or demonstrate the errors in their thoughts or calculations.
Rene is survived by his wife Susan and children James and Lily; and children Sophie and Christopher in Canada from a previous marriage.
