OFR16-02, Industrial minerals of the Upper Midwest; Proceedings of the 51st Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals, presented in cooperation with the Annual Conference of the Twin Cities Subsection of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME), August 17 – 20, 2015

Abstract

On August 17 – 20, 2015, the Twin Cities Subsection of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration (SME) hosted the 51st Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals. The theme of the meeting, whose conference sessions and field trips were enjoyed by about 100 people, was ‘Industrial minerals of the Upper Midwest’. SME, headquartered in Denver, is a professional society whose more than 15,000 membership represents all professionals serving the minerals industry in more than 100 countries. SME advances the worldwide mining and underground construction community through information exchange and professional development. In Minnesota, the SME Minnesota Section maintains a broad program of activities that focuses on the annual spring conference in Duluth. The SME Twin Cities Subsection organizes an annual autumn conference, monthly luncheons, student activities, and social functions. Following a hiatus, the SME Twin Cities Subsection annual conference was restarted in 2011. For 2012 and subsequent years, the subsection has worked with a different partner each year, to present a conference program aligned with broad mining-related topics, while focusing on the sort of mining that takes place in the Twin Cities region, such as crushed stone, sand and gravel, and silica sand. For 2015, the SME Twin Cities Subsection was pleased to work in cooperation with organizers of the Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals. The Forum meets regularly, and it has been customary for a proceedings volume to be produced. Among the 17 presenters who gave presentations at the 2015 Forum, seven chose to contribute a paper. The Minnesota Geological Survey is pleased to have an opportunity to support the activities of SME and the Forum by facilitating availability of the 2015 Proceedings of the 51st Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals.