Global leaders will examine key issues and opportunities facing the minerals exploration sector at The University of Western Australia next month.
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The Target 2017 Conference will attract 250 attendees, with speakers Richard Ernst (Carleton University), Nick Hayward (Teck), June Hill (CSIRO), Cam McCuaig (BHP), Sandra Occhipinti (CET) and Alok Porwal (Institute of Technology Bombay).
Dr Crystal LaFlamme from UWA’s Centre for Exploration Targeting said the summit was important at a time of economic uncertainty which impacted the minerals exploration industry.
“The downturn has seen a $2b decrease in minerals exploration investments between 2012 and 2016,” Dr LaFlamme said. “Fewer metal deposits have been discovered in recent years, despite an increase in the price of many commodities.”
Dr Nicolas Thebaud, UWA’s School of Earth Sciences said metal mining and exploration industries must act now to find the next generation of mineral deposits to sustain development.
“Even previous mining and exploration booms during the 1990s and 2000s failed to identify as many deposits as earlier booms,” Dr Thebaud said.
‘Most resources extracted from the Earth today exploit near-surface deposits discovered more than 30 years ago.
“Near-surface regions are becoming rapidly depleted of world-class deposits, forcing explorers to expand the search to deeper, previously unexplored parts of the world’s continents.”
The conference is on April 19-21.
