There was great shock and sadness at the Parker Centre in early March 2006 when we heard of the sudden and unexpected death of Associate Professor André Laplante (aka Gravity Man) from McGill University in Canada.

For over six years, Professor Laplante and Parker Centre gold researchers at Murdoch University had collaborated to increase gold recoveries in the gold industry and run educational workshops for industry professionals.

Professor Laplante was an internationally recognised expert in gravity methods for recovering gold from its ores. His relationship with the Centre began in December 1999 when he led a two-day Parker Centre workshop on gravity gold recovery.

He subsequently joined the AMIRA P420B “Gold Processing Technology” project team when this project started in April 2001. He was also a key member of the collaborative research team for the AMIRA P420C “Gold Processing Technology" project which commenced in March 2005.

"André’s contributions in terms of the P420B and P420C projects were absolutely critical and key to the success of those projects,” says P420C project leader Mr Bill Staunton. “And being able to fill his role will be virtually impossible.”

"The industry has lost a unique talent, someone with 30 years experience of doing work that no-one else had done, someone who is not replaceable,” says Mr Staunton. “It just was ingrained in him, that ability to look at a gravity circuit and assess it and determine how it might be improved.”

"Fortunately for us and our sponsors, we have captured some of his knowledge over the years, and put it into models and reference material,” Mr Staunton says. “However there was no way we could capture the totality of what he had and we certainly couldn’t capture his absolute enthusiasm for gravity gold and metallurgy in general. That is well and truly lost and will be very hard to find again.”

Professor Laplante's frequent visits to the Centre and collaboration with Centre researchers saw him appointed the inaugural Parker Centre Honorary Visiting Researcher in 2002. His appointment had been renewed in early 2005 for another three years.

During his visits to the Centre, Professor Laplante participated in surveys of gravity circuits at gold mines in Australia and Africa, supervised research work on collected samples and provided training for P420 project staff. He also led four further gravity gold workshops for industry, including one during his last visit to the Centre in June 2005.

Professor Laplante will also be remembered by people in the Parker Centre for his enthusiastic approach to life in general. Our thoughts are with his family - his wife Carol-Sue and their two children, Jérémie and Amelie - at this terrible time.

Collaboration with Gravity Man Yields Gold (article about Professor Laplante's relationship with the Parker Centre)
Gravity Man Returns (July 2005 update on Professor Laplante's relationship with the Parker Centre)