- T.C. Rao is described as the "father of Indian mineral processing" for his pioneering work in modeling unit operations and publishing over 225 research papers. - He received his education in Australia where he was inspired by early textbooks and obtained his PhD from the University of Queensland in 1965, working on hydrocyclone characteristics. - Rao spent his career establishing mineral engineering programs in India and mentoring students, advocating for more industry experience for academics and attracting students to the field of minerals engineering.

1. http://min-eng.blogspot.in/2014/07/in-conversation-with-tc-rao-father-of.html
MEI Blog
An archival social and technological history of 21st Century mineral processing.
Barry Wills of MEI presents news and views on mineral processing, as well as
occasionally indulging his passions for travel, outdoor activities, geology, history
and Cornwall.
Wednesday, 16 July 2014
In conversation with T.C. Rao- "the father of Indian mineral
processing"
With T.C. Rao in New Delhi, 2012
It was great to catch up with my old friend Prof. T.C. Rao at the IMPC in New
Delhi in 2012. He presented a keynote lecture, and in introducing him, the
chairman described him as "the father of Indian mineral processing", which few
people will dispute. He has published around 225 research papers in
International and National journals and his pioneering works on modelling of unit
operations in coal and mineral processing are still being extensively used by
academic institutions and industries all over the world for process simulation and
optimisation. He is the recipient of many awards/citations from various
professional bodies and is a Fellow of many prestigious societies. In its early
days he was Regional Editor of Minerals Engineering and he is, or has been, a
member of the editorial boards of the International Journal of Mineral
Processing, the International Journal of Coal Preparation, the Transactions of the
Mining, Geological & Metallurgical Institute of India and of the Indian Institute of
Metals. He is a Council Member of the Indian Institute of Metals and the Mining,
Geological and Metallurgical Institute of India. He was a past President and

2. presently a Patron Member of the Indian Institute of Mineral Engineering and
was honoured as a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers in Coal
and Mineral Processing Specialization.
The IMPC was our first meeting in 21 years, since his attendance atReagents
'91 in Cornwall. It was good, therefore, to phone him at his home in Hyderabad
and talk to him about his early formative years in Australia, and his views on
modern mineral processing.
TC in Cornwall, 1991, with Dr. M. Prasad, Prof. Shouci Lu and Prof. T. Wakamatsu
Tadimety Chakrapani (TC) Rao was born in September, 1940, and he
received a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Geology from Andhra University, Waltair, India in
1959, and an M.Sc. in Ore Dressing from the same university in 1960.
He then felt that Australia was the place to be to progress his career, and was
offered a research post at the University of Queensland (UQ), supervised by the
late Prof. F.T.M. White, Head of Mining at UQ, who also recruited Alban
Lynch to the department to start up an experimental mine and mineral
processing at the University. Later with a donation from Mount Isa Mines, this
became the Julius Krutschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), with Alban as
its first Director. When Prof. White left UQ for Canada, TC was supervised by
Prof. Lynch; TC helped with the teaching of mineral processing in the fledgling
department, together with the late Rex Bull, who was senior lecturer at that
time. In those early days he was inspired by Antoine Gaudin's 1939 Textbookof
Mineral Dressing, and A.F. Taggart's 1945 Handbook of Mineral Dressing, as they
"explained the theory of mineral processing in a simple way".
He obtained his Ph.D degree, under the guidance of Prof. Alban Lynch in 1965,

3. working on the characteristics of hydrocyclones. He obviously regards Alban
Lynch with great affection and respect, describing him as "an exceptional man,
who treated me like a family member, and helped me develop my latent
talents". They published their work on hydrocyclones in a number of seminal
papers, and the models are still valid today, being used in many hydrocyclone
manufacturers' performance curves. He attributes their ongoing validity to their
simplicity, involving parameters which can be easily measured, such as vortex
finder diameter, spigot diameter, and can therefore be confidently accepted by
operators. He feels that this is the failing of many modern modelling techniques,
which, due to their complexity, often inhibit their use industrially. He made a
point that particles in a closed grinding circuit are moving in a fluid medium, but
many of the models are based on screening size analysis, so there is a need for
methods of characterise particles according to hydraulic size, putting particles
into 'behavioural' ranges, as is done with 'sub-sieve' particles in devices such as
the Warman Cyclosizer.
TC stayed in Australia for eight years, working for a time at Broken Hill mine,
before finally returning to India to take up a position as a Faculty member of
the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for a further eight years, before
accepting the position of Professor and Head of Mineral Engineering at the Indian
School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad in 1977. He established a new four-year
graduate programme (B.Tech) in Mineral Engineering, the only of its kind in
India and was also Dean of Academic & Research at ISM. He invited many
visiting lecturers from overseas to interact with staff and students and teach
courses. I was one of them and it was in Dhanbad in 1989 where I first met TC.
Dhanbad 1989, with TC (centre) and P.R. Sinha
At the IMPC in New Delhi it was reported that only 2% of the world's minerals
engineering graduates came from India, compared with 50% from China. TC
feels that youngsters are not coming into minerals engineering "because we are

4. not exciting them" and that academics, who seem to spend most of their time
striving to publish papers, should have some industrial experience, to pass on
the importance of "seeing the whole picture" to their students. Minerals
engineers are” custodians of a finite natural resource” and each corporate office
should put a certain amount of money aside as part of their budget for teachers
to spend 2-3 months with their students on a mine site". I agreed, mentioning
that in the 1970s this did happen, and in 1978 I spent 6 weeks in South Africa
supervising student vacation projects, and learned a lot in doing so which I could
pass on to future students (see also the posting of 30 August 2010).
In 1989, Prof. Rao took over as Director of the Regional Research Laboratory,
Bhopal (now Advanced Materials and Processes Research Institute AMPRI), the
only CSIR laboratory in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Though the laboratory was
on the verge of closure at that stage, it emerged as one of the best performing
CSIR laboratories under his Leadership and achieved many laurels for its
outstanding contributions.
He formally retired in 2000, but is still actively involved with many industries
and R&D Organisations as an advisor. It was really good to talk to him, and I
hope to catch up with him again in the not too distant future- maybe at this
year's IMPC in Chile?
Posted by MEI at 00:01
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to TwitterShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Labels: In conversation with, People
9 comments:
1.
Anonymous16 July 2014 16:12
Thanks for the reporting.
Rao made some important points re the industry and mineral
processing, e.g., complexity of modeling approaches / models,
development of faculty, attracting students, etc.
It remains to be seen what can and will be done to address them.
Robert Seitz, Manager - Crush, Convey, Concentrator at Freeport-
McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., USA
Reply

5. 2.
DMR Sekhar18 July 2014 05:23
Dear Dr. Wills,
Thanks for this blog. Prof. TC Rao is a great source of inspiration for
people like me though I am not a direct student of Prof. Rao. Prof.
Rao remembers Prof. AJ Lynch with high regard. We are indebted to
you for introducing Prof. Rao to the new generation.
Thanks,
DMR Sekhar
Reply
Replies
1.
K Srinivas18 July 2014 07:59
Thank you Dr.Barry for blog post. I am sure after reading the
MEI blog post budding engineers get motivated towards the
profession. Without any iota of doubt, Prof.Rao is a role model
for all mineral engineers. I started getting fascinated with the
subject after I worked under him for a brief period at AMPRI,
Bhopal during 1990-91. He has inspired us for application
oriented research and with his guidance I have worked in
different fields of mineral processing - R&D, erection &
commissioning and plant operation without any problem. Like
me so many students got benefitted with his encouragement.
He always encouraged young engineers and has great vision
for the Mineral engineering fraternity.
Kudos to Prof.Rao for his contribution to mineral engineering.
Dr.K.Srinivas, Lead Flotation Metallurgist, Maaden Phosphate
Company, KSA
2.
Prof Nikkam Suresh, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad18 July
2014 13:26

6. Dr Barry, I am glad that you have recognized a ‘True Mineral
Engineer’ who devoted his lifetime for the sake of Mineral
Engineering. Today, the Department of Fuel & Mineral
Engineering could be established in the country only because
of his concerted efforts. The seed he sown (in 1976) at Indian
School of Mines has started giving fruits and has become one
of the biggest in the world.
You have identified his sportsmanship in a right spirit and
placed the same on the blog. This is a great motivation to all
of us, and students in particular. His models developed along
with Prof. [Dr] A J Lynch, another great personality, at the
end of 1960’s are still industrially valid for simulation of mill
classifier circuits. I feel proud to be his student and fully agree
with Dr K Srinivas’s comments – ‘he is role model to all the
mineral engineers’.
I sincerely thank for the blog.
Prof Nikkam Suresh, Indian School of Mines-Dhanbad.
Reply
3.
Anonymous18 July 2014 14:06
I have been fortunate to have been closely associated with Dr. Rao
since 1979, almost 35 years. I have done my Masters degree and
also Doctoral thesis under him. Together we have worked on
various projects , the mot important of which was the work on two
stage classification in grinding circuit in a plant in Indian copper
industry. It led to almost 30% increase in new feed rate to the mill.
It was presented in the XIVth IMPC, in 1982 at Toronto.Apart from
this we have published at least three more papers of import some of
which was published in International journals. He is a Guru in the
true sense we find Indian religious scriptures (may be Chinese too).
He does not teach in the conventional sense but leads the student
to analyse & understand the issues within a problem and thereby
find a solution.He opens their eyes to see and appreciate the beauty
in the inherent logic in the behavior of a system, plant or equipment
and there by control them or tune them to the requirement. He has
an enviable relationship with his students, young & old, and their
problems bother him enormously. Even at this age he runs around
the whole country trying to find listeners for his sagacious advice. A
Great Teacher indeed and I salute him from the core of my heart.
Arabinda Bandyopadhyay ( Bandyo), President ( Business
development & Technology) at CDE Asia Limited, India
Reply

7. 4.
Anonymous19 July 2014 05:09
I am not a student of Prof. Rao, but got an opportunity to be
associated with this gentleman for some time. I feel we are
constricting his glory, in a true scene he is bigger than what he got.
His contributions to the Mineral Engineering are immense as a
teacher, researcher, administrator, and most importantly as a
human. He inspired many youngsters to choose Mineral Engineering
as a profession during the days when there was no light of hopes
for mining related activities. While, many teachers and researchers
were busy in writing papers, showing talents, and updating CVs.
This was the true fact!
As a researcher, Prof. Rao’s contributions helped many industries
and research organisations. No doubt, he is a scholar of great
stature.
I would like to thank Dr. Wills for this wonderful MEI blog. I take
this opportunity to sensitise Mineral Engineering fraternity in India
to convene a seminar or symposia to honour Prof. Rao.
Dr. B.P.Ravi, Professor in Mineral Processing, VSK University,
Nandihalli, Bellary – 583119, India.
Reply
5.
Rama Murthy Yanamandra19 July 2014 13:24
Dear Dr Wills
First of all thanks for bring up the new editions of fathers of Mineral
Dressing
Wills Lynch& Rao Gaudin Taggart....
For a mineral Engg in India Prof Rao is dream. Though I closely
associated with Prof . Rao from Tata Steel R&D (2008).Though the
people are fortunate to grow under his guidance I got an
opportunity at that time. His emphasis on small changes in plant
will give major out has given me many directions to implement my
ideas. Developing data bank for a process, optimizing the
parameters with minimum disturbance to plant operators are the
key focus a mineral Engg, he always emphasize on.

8. Words are few to describe the association with Prof.Rao.
Thanks
Ramamurthy
Reply
6.
Anonymous22 July 2014 15:02
It is very enlightening to all of us to read the conversation that you
made with Dr Barry Wills on the MEI Blog. I know Dr Barry only
through his popular book he wrote on Mineral Processing
Technology. I believe that during my students days in 1980’s and in
fact even today, it is the only book that I find as student friendly
with a lot of industrial applications explained in simplest form. Dr
Barry, a globally popular person, has written so high about you and
declared as Father of Indian Mineral Engineers. This is a pride and
momentous occasion to all of us. I would like to convey my
heartiest congratulations to you on this achievement.
D.C. Panigrahi, Director, Indian School of Mines
Reply
7.
Prabhu P.S.8 August 2014 03:49
I am fortunate to learn Mineral Engineering under Dr. T.C. Rao at
ISM, Dhanbad. This blog brought me all old memories of my
association with him and ISM. One feel short of words to describe
him, in short we can say he is a great Gentleman and embodiment
of all good things, a inspiration for Mineral Engineers.
Thanks for the blog,
P.S. Prabhu. Fluidmac Hose Industries, Kakoda Industrial Estate,
Curchorem, GOA-403706, INDIA
Reply