GeoRes 2011 – Scottish minerals in the 21st century

A one-day conference on the challenges and opportunities facing the Scottish minerals industry

SCOTTISH georesources in a changing world will be the broad theme of the GeoRes 2011 minerals conference, which will take place on Tuesday 15 November at Murchison House, Edinburgh, the Scottish headquarters of the British Geological Survey.

Organized jointly by the Mining Institute of Scotland and the Central Scotland Regional Group of the Geological Society, the one-day event will provide the first comprehensive strategic review in the 21st century of the nation’s geologically based natural resources.

Through 18 papers, four of which will be by invited keynote speakers, the conference will consider the nature, extent and availability of resources in the fields of energy, stone and metalliferous/industrial minerals, together with the technical innovations that will enable and enhance their sustainable extraction within current and future legislative frameworks.

The final session of the day will look to the future, considering new minerals and commodities, and how minerals planning at both local and national levels might best meet the frequently conflicting requirements of development and conservation lobbies.

Among the conference papers will be a keynote address by Craig Arditto of Tarmac Ltd on future advances in quarrying geology, which will examine the changing role of an aggregates geologist in an evolving and increasingly competitive marketplace.

In addition, John Sheridan from the Mineral Products Association will look at quarrying and aggregates planning reform, and whether the new system will satisfy Scotland’s need for aggregates; while George Matheson, of Matrock Consulting, and Brian Duthie, of KeyGeosolutions, will explain the quarry total design concept – a technique designed to satisfy the safety objectives of the Quarries Regulations while maximizing extraction of reserves and profit margins.

The conference will be of interest to: all those involved in the exploration for and development of mineral resources; the extractive industry; local authority planners; environmental consultants; national government and NGOs; and researchers in related fields, such as carbon capture.