General News & Comment International mine-finders plan conference

From Sept 27 to Oct 1, mine- finders around the world will gather at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to attend the third decennial international conference on geophysical and geochemical exploration for minerals and groundwater, more simply known as “Exploration ’87.”

The world-level congress is being organized by members of the Canadian geoscience community, many of whom were involved in the previous eminently successful meetings held in Ottawa in 1977 and at Niagara Falls, in 1967.

Exploration ’87 will provide an opportunity for geologists, geophysicists and geochemists to find out what is current and what lies on the horizon when it comes to using geophysical and geochemical methods in the exploration for minerals, groundwater and other non-petroleum resources.

The technical program will feature 75 talks by invited speakers, half of them Canadian and the remainder experts from a dozen other countries. They will discuss recent advances in geophysical and geochemical methods, the role of computers and provide case-history examples. Plenary sessions will feature the role of exploration in resources development and look ahead to exploration in the next decade and beyond.

A feature of the conference will be 105 poster sessions, more than 80 of which will be prepared by authors from outside Caanada. The People’s Republic of China is contributing 12 poster sessions.

The proceedings of Exploration ’87 will be published after the conference with the assistance of the Ontario Geological Survey, and a copy will be sent to each registered delegate. The proceedings of the previous conferences, Exploration ’67 and Exploration ’77, published by the Geological Survey of Canada, have become standard references for explorationists worldwide.

By early August, more than 400 people had registered for the conference from 61 countries and 1,000 are expected to attend. With most of the pre-registrants from abroad, publicity chairman Jon Baird of Scintrex Ltd., expressed concern that most of the Canadian exploration community was waiting until the last minute before registering.

“If they’re not careful,” he told The Northern Miner, “they’ll end up in long lines on the opening day. They also might find they can’t participate in certain events, as the organizing committee will determine its numbers for various events based on pre-registration.

Registration information can be obtained from: Exploration ’87, Conference Secretary Lillian Vincze, c/o 222 Snidercroft Rd., Concord, Ont. L4K 1B5, Telephone (416) 669-2280.