1. Board membership

Tony Francis took over the Chairmanship of the MP&EM Board from Professor John Monhemius in May 2011. Professor Monhemius had Chaired the Board since its inception on Oct 26th 2005 and the Board expressed its appreciation for his excellent service.  Professor Sam Kingman of Nottingham University had agreed to replace Professor Nick Miles, who is now running Nottingham’s campus in China.  Otherwise Membership of the MP& EM Board remained unchanged for 2011.

Membership of the MP&EM Board;

Tony Francis, (Chairman) European Goldfields Limited

Professor John Monhemius Royal School of Mines

Stephen Barnett Independent consultant

Mike Butler Jacobs Engineering Ltd

Mike Cave Mike Cave Pyro Ltd

Professor Jan Cilliers Royal School of Mines

Dr Miguel Diaz AMEC Earth & Environmental 

Martin Errington Rio Tinto Technical Services Ltd

Professor Derek Fray University of Cambridge

Professor Hylke Glass Camborne School of Mines

Wayne Hopkins Independent consultant

Professor Sam Kingsman University of Nottingham

Simon Purkiss Consolidated Mining & Investments Ltd

Tim Smith SNC-Lavalin UK Ltd

Professor Richard Williams University of Birmingham

2. Board meetings

Three meetings of the Board were convened during 2011, all held at 1Carlton House Terrace on the following dates:

27th January 2011 7 attendees

26th May 2011 7 attendees

29 September 2011 3 attendees  

3. Opportunities for growth of Division Community or constraints

Efforts have continued to indentify members of the division from amongst the IOM3 membership and through IMMa. The last estimate of members affiliated to the MP&EM division was about 1250.

MP&EM contributed to the initiatives and effort by the newly formed marketing department of IOM3 and through the ITPB and particularly IMMa to raise the profile of MP&EM wherever possible.  The initiative for Board Chairman to sign a welcoming letter to new members was part of this and this was done on behalf the MP&EM discipline. 

4    Technical programme

a) SMEET – Sustainable materials for emerging energy technologies

This one day conference was held on February 28, 2011.  The theme was the availabilities of rarer metals needed for emerging technologies. It was jointly organised by the Energy Materials Group and IMMa, with JM and Michael Forrest representing IMMa on the organising committee.  The conference was a success.

b) Events planned for next 12 months

1) Contributing to Congress 2012 by working through IMMa

2) Minerals/Materials for life 2013. Request for participation in this planned conference being planned mainly by the Minerological Society & Geological Society has been received. They would like to address a wider range of topics such as nanomaterial’s and zeolites. It was suggested IMMa should have one representative on the committee and JM of MP&EM was put forward.

5 Foresight / Innovation and Growth

6 Professional membership developments

Members of the MP&EM Board encourage colleagues to advance membership grade. The Board continues to cooperate and work with IMMa and MinSouth on their technical meetings.

7 Institute Federalism

The division is part of the IMMa which provides a link with the other mining and minerals divisions and a united interface with the external environment. 

8 National and international linkages with other Societies /Institutes

Professor Jan Cilliers has been appointed to the expert panel on General Engineering for the Research Excellence Framework (REF), which is the new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. 

Met with the AusIMM through IMMa with a view to closer cooperation, decided MinSouth would be the portal.

The MP&EM communicated with outside agencies through IMMa.

9 Government interfaces

None

10 Publications

The MP&EM web site was kept updated and current. 

11 Awards/prize

The Futers Gold medal for 2011 was awarded to the MP&EM Board’s nominee, Professor John Monhemius, for his outstanding work in the Minerals and Metallurgical industry and educating many graduates & post graduates to the MP&EM Industry over many years.   

12 Other matters 

None