Institution of Mining and Metallurgy - Böcker

The mining sector is of major importance to the economy of Chile. Although dominated by copper - Chile is the world's leading producer - its production of potassium and sodium nitrate, gold, silver, rhenium, lithium iodine, molybdenum, boron and selenium, for example, is significant. Prominent representatives of the international minerals industry have contributed the papers that appear in Mining Latin America/Mineria Latinoamericana, the volume that lends its name to the conference organized by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, in association with the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas de Chile, the Sociedad Nacional de Mineria Chilena and Latinomineria being held in Santiago de Chile in May, 1994. This book should be of interest to mining engineers, geotechnical engineers, geologists, and mineralogists.

The second 'African Mining' conference is planned for June 1991, and follows the first, very successful, event held in May 1987. That full four-year period was characterized by substantial changes in the political and economic climate of many countries in both hemispheres. Copper prices were relatively firm, and the advance and steady demand for nickel and ferrochromium stabilized important sectors of the mineral industry, certainly in Zimbabwe. The promise for gold remained unfulfilled, but the smaller, relatively flexible, mines survived and only the large, deep and low-value mines seem seriously at risk. None of this has affected the hungry, and intensive exploitations from surface to the water-table have revealed many targets of promise to those willing to take the risks. The pattern in Southern Africa was extraordinarily stable among the turmoil, with independence for Namibia, adjustments in South Africa and a gradual shift to market economies in the region. The pace of exploration has increased to recover some part of the progress that was lost in the Independence struggle, and atthe end of the first decade in Zimbabwe, for example, oil is being sought in the Zambesi Rift, following the investigation of the Luangwa in Zambia, and there are exciting exploration projects for methane released from coal, deep in its basins.

Hydrometallurgy '94 contains the 78 papers that were presented at the international symposium organized by the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy and the Society of Chemical Industry and held in Cambridge, England, in July 1994. In the papers specific attention is paid to the concept of sustainable development and the associated ideas of cleaner technology, recycling and waste minimization that have particular relevance to the extractiona nd processing of metals and other mineral products. The papers, by authors from 30 contries, are grouped under the headings: Hydrometallurgy and Sustainable Development; Materials Production and the Environment; Fundamentals; Leaching; Bioprocessing; Gold Solution Purification; Effluent Treatment; Processes; and Recycling.

In November, 1986, the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy held the 'Mining Latin AmericalMineria Latinoamericana' conference in Chile - a conference covering a broad range of topics relevant to South America and, in that sense, complementary to its regional 'Asian Mining' and 'African Mining' series of events. This first conference proved to be a resounding success and confirmed that Chile, in particular, and South America, in general, were indeed ideal for the Institution in the pursuit of its objective of disseminating information related to the international minerals industry. In relation to South America, the Chilean conference was followed, in 1988, by that entitled 'Silver - exploration, mining and treatment', * which was held in Mexico City; in February, 1995, Caracas will host the 'Mineral resources of VenezuelalRecursos minerales de Venezuela' conference, serious planning for which is under way as I write. The Institution of Mining and Metallurgy, in association with the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas de Chile, Mineria Chilena and Latinomineria agreed that the second 'Mining Latin AmericalMineria Latinoamerica' conference should be held, again in Santiago, in May, 1994, on the occasion of the 1994 Expomin show, which had been been particularly successful in attracting visitors from mining countries worldwide in 1992 and which will continue, at two-yearly intervals, to the year 2000 and, no doubt, beyond.