Almost 120 post-graduate students and professional geologists attended the 10th Short Course in Economic Geology, presented by Dr. Hennie Theart of SRK (South Africa) and hosted by the Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg in Germany.
The four-day course focused on the business of exploration and the role of the geologist in the minerals business, at a time of global concern about the future supply of mineral commodities. Participants came from Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, the UK, Ireland, Namibia, Portugal, Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Switzerland.
Group sessions were enthusiastic and enhanced by participants’ access to the Metals Economics Group database. “It was the best short course I have experienced so far,” said Professor Jens Ggutzmer of the Economic Geology and Petrology Research Group of the Bergakademie.
Situated in the Erzgebirge—famous for its silver, tin and uranium deposits—the Bergakademie was founded in 1765 and is the world’s oldest ‘mining school.’ The area was the stomping grounds of Georgius Agricola whose famous treatise, De Re Metallica, was published in 1556 and established the foundations of economic geology, mining and extraction metallurgy.
