16th SGA Biennial Meeting 28.-31.03.2022 of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits

The 16th Biennial Meeting of the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA) will take place 28-31 March 2022 in a virtual conference format. The meeting will feature presentations on topics related to mineral deposit research, exploration, sustainable development and environmental and social aspects related to mineral deposits. The oral and poster presentation sessions, and pre- and post-conference short courses will provide a comprehensive programme.

The HIF organizes a short course on geometallurgy. The course is divided into two main blocks: First, introductory presentations on advanced material characterization as well as current principles and applications of geometallurgy are pre-recorded and can be watched independently by the audience. The second part of the course will consist of a live interactive session with time to discuss questions on the talks with the presenters. Its major goal is to enforce the concepts developed in the first part of the course through hands-on exercises using web-based apps. See more in the flyer.

The conference is organised by SGA with support from professionals in universities, research organisations, government, minerals industry, and service providers.

• Registration (15 February 2022 - Deadline for early bird registration)
• Program
• Short Courses and Workshops

Conference theme: The critical role of minerals in the carbon-neutral future

As countries and communities seek to address climate change, minerals will play a critical role in meeting targets to reduce emissions, particularly in energy generation, storage, transmission and use. The role that minerals play in the world economy is changing along with vehicle fleets, energy sources and consumer demand.

The transition to low-emissions economies will be largely facilitated by advances in battery technology, particularly those used in electric vehicles, and transition of energy generation away from CO2 emitting sources. For example, electricity generation is increasingly utilising wind, solar, tidal, hydro and geothermal options but all of these require significant mineral resources in their generation equipment.

Green minerals, a term used to define minerals that support the non-fossil fuel and low carbon-emissions sectors will be critical in a carbon-neutral future. Green minerals include not only ‘battery metals’ like lithium, nickel and cobalt, but also many others including copper, vanadium, zinc, aluminium and platinum group elements. These elements play an important role in emission reduction, for example in vehicle exhaust clean emissions technology. Aluminium is being used in greater volumes to build lighter, more fuel-efficient cars, trains and aircraft. Rare earth elements are used in wind turbine magnets. 

Without continued research and development into mineral resources and their geology, emissions reduction targets will be more difficult to achieve. The role that minerals play will remain vital to maintaining a high standard of living and healthcare. The physical climate is changing, and so too is the climate changing for mineral research in 2022, and beyond.