Precious Metals �07 was organised by MEI (UK) in consultation with Dr. Mike Adams of Mutis Liber Pty Ltd (Australia) and was sponsored by DIEMME Filtration, the Gold & Minerals Gazette, and The Bullion Desk.

Held at Brisbane�s Stamford Plaza Hotel, the event was attended by 30 delegates representing Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, South Africa and UK.

All of the 20 papers that were submitted to the conference were included in the final programme for 30 minute oral presentations, and it was disappointing that four of the authors failed to show to present their papers.

The programme and delegate list can be found at www.min-eng.com/preciousmetals07.

All delegates were asked to submit their views on the conference, and all responses received are listed below:

I think most things went well and that the quality of the papers was very high. The usual coffee breaks were a good source of discussion and maybe we can extend these as "informal discussion - with coffee - breaks" and extend them for say 20 or 30 minutes. This allows people to ask questions that they would not like to ask formally.

Also I know it can be a problem but as a exhibitor I would like to set up the night before and go to bed knowing that all is well instead of the morning scramble.
W. Baguley, MIXTEC, Australia

Great conference location, venue and facilities. Numbers undoubtedly disappointing though, possibly due to other related conferences around the world within a couple of months of this conference.

Content of presentations was of a good standard overall and generated good discussions as expected of a conference. It was also a great opportunity to catch up with people.

I look forward to the next Precious Metals conference.
Dr. P. Breuer, CSIRO Minerals, Australia

I guess my main comment concerns the few papers for a two-day conference, which was exacerbated by the four no-shows. Fifteen presentations over two days is thin for coming all that way. However, I did learn something and made several useful contacts.

I guess there were two factors involved in the low number of papers and people. One being competition from the October Gold conference in Cairns. The second may have had something to do with not getting visas in time, but there is little excuse for all four no-shows not to advise you. I learnt that some South Africans only got their visas a few days before departure, so the visa situation might be stressed for future conferences, where applicable, as this may have been a factor for some of the no-shows.
Dr. L.J. Cabri, CNT Mineral Consulting, Canada

I thought this was an excellent conference with a lot of interesting papers presented. My only disappointment was the poor attendance from people actually involved in the mining industry. Most of the delegates were from suppliers to the industry. But I don't know how one goes about improving the ratio of mining people to industry suppliers.
Dr. P. Hofmeyr, Innovative Met Products, South Africa