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Global leaders will examine key issues and opportunities facing the minerals exploration sector at a summit to be held at The University of Western Australia between Wednesday 19 April and Friday 21 April.

The Target 2017 Conference is expected to bring together 250 attendees, including internationally renowned keynote speakers Richard Ernst (Carleton University), Nick Hayward (Teck), June Hill (CSIRO), Cam McCuaig (BHP), Sandra Occhipinti (CET) and Alok Porwal (Institute of Technology Bombay).

Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Crystal LaFlamme from UWA’s Centre for Exploration Targeting said the summit was important at a time of economic change and uncertainty which had impacted the minerals exploration industry, in Western Australia and overseas.

“The economic downturn in recent years has seen a $2 billion decrease in minerals exploration investments between 2012 and 2016,” Dr LaFlamme said.

“This has impacted the long-term robustness of the industry, including employment and income for Western Australia.

“The result of the downturn is that fewer metal deposits have been discovered in recent years, despite an increase in the price of many commodities containing metals.”

Conference Chair Dr Nicolas Thebaud from UWA's School of Earth Sciences said metal mining and exploration industries must act now to find the next generation of mineral deposits that would sustain development, not only in Western Australia but globally.

“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.”

Industry and community representatives are invited to register for the conference here

***Media are invited to attend speaker sessions. Please contact Jocelyn Thompson on 0419 955 520 or email [email protected] to register your interest.

Media references

Jess Reid (Media and PR Adviser) (+61 8) 6488 6876
Lauren Humfrey (Marketing Officer, Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences)

(+61 8) 6488 2260