The annual national meeting of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME) opened at the Phoenix Convention Center yesterday with short courses and last evening's icebreaker social. AZGS is exhibiting at the meeting, sharing a booth with the State Land Dept. We have maps, reports, and publications on display, plus we are offering live demos of the AZGS' run Geoscience Information Network showcasing Arizona geology, mineral resources, and mining projects.
As things got underway last night, I ran into SME president Will Wilkinson (with Freeport McMoRan) who said there are 630 vendors in the exhibit hall, the largest since 1999. Technical talks got underway today and continue through Wed. [
right, exhibit hall, credit SME]
I've been invited to speak at the Environmental Division luncheon tomorrow and will describe the national data network we are building and how it can be used in the mining community.
