Annual report 2007

1. Board membership

In June this year Gordon Riddler resigned (came to the end of term?) as Chair of the Applied Earth Science Board and Michael Forrest was asked to take over his role. This was ratified by Council in November 2007.

2. Board meetings

The AESD board met on Thursday 27 September at 3pm. Present were Michael Forrest (Chair), Stephen Henley, Bob Foster, Liv Carroll, Iain McDonald, Graham Smith, Jan Lewis; Frances Perry in attendance (Secretary).

Apologies were received from Steve Poulton and from new board members Mark Parker and potential member Wynand Kleingeld; the latter will probably be able to contribute to meetings by email only.

3. Opportunities for growth of Division Community or constraints

We have one major initiative at present and one minor one that has yet to be completed. The major initiative is a conference to be held on 23-24 September 2008 entitled Finex 2008. We have determined a two day programme, the first day will focus on the finance of exploration and the second day on the advance of exploration science. Speaker venue and some finance have already been agreed. A sub-committee of the AESD is progressing the event. The second event is the publication of a series of papers on the mining and exploration on KSA. Several approaches to sponsors with the exception of one major one have proved disappointing. Other publication options are being investigated

4 Technical programme

Outside of the publication of the Transaction B there have been no events direct initiated by AESD. However in connection with parts of the programmes initiated by local society Minsouth AESD through current chair has been associated with Copper Day on 22 November and also in the development of Masterclass series of presentations jointly held with the Association of Mining Analysts (first one 1^st November 2007). Both proved successful in content and reception and were reported on in Materials World. Masterclass is totally sponsored by international law firm Simmonds & Simmons. Planned for 2008 are 4 more masterclasses with the one of resources and reserves

5 Foresight / Innovation and Growth

Nothing to report

6 Professional membership developments

A few new memberships have been / are currently being processed by initiatives by Chair. One of the major changes in recent years relates to the new regulations by Stock Exchanges around the world. These stipulate that those publishing information that may influence the price of equities must be review and signed individually by competent persons. One of the requirements is membership of a professional body like IOM3. There are about 10 of these recognised world wide.

7 National and international linkages with other Societies /Institutes

Strong links have been developed by MinSouth and now AESD with the Association of Mining Analysts. The Association has members in all the major finance houses / banks. London is the first or close second mining finance centre of the world.

8 Government interfaces

Interactions with EPSRC, DTI, etc.

9 Publications

Working on improving AESD website , awaiting new launch of IOM3 websites. The reserves and reporting code results in large numbers of visits and downloads. Papers such as those from the uranium commodity meeting are also useful. Professional development should be furthered - the web site should include a spot for joining the Institute, links to education, employment opportunities and as much useful information as possible with a wider range of subjects than the main site, so as to attract people who do not know about the Institute.

Suggestions, actions and comments included:

Bob Foster - the UK equivalent of the AusIMM handbook.

Steve Henley will move the MRE 2000 papers from their old site. A selection of earth science articles from 2004 have also been forwarded for inclusion on the new website

Geological items will arrive automatically from Materials World etc. once the new Institute web site is up and running.