European Minerals Day 2013 – celebrated across Europe creating synergies with EU Horizon 2020

Around 30.000 children and adults celebrated the 4th edition of the European Minerals Day on 24-26 May 2013 at their next door quarrying or mining operations, to explore the fascinating world of minerals and discover how essential they are to our daily life. Overall, more than 170 events took place, organised by mineral raw materials producers and national geological surveys at around 113 sites – quarries, mines or plants - in 24 countries all over Europe, and beyond. Through guided visits, visitors got the opportunity to learn more about today's sustainable mining practices, from exploration, extraction, sorting and mineral beneficiation processes, as well as the wide range of end-use applications, as well as good environmental practices. The event reports will be published on www.mineralsday.eu.

Initiated in 2007, this biannual awareness raising event has been warmly welcomed from the start by the European Commission, who made reference to it in the Raw Materials Initiative, acknowledging the need for a greater understanding of the importance of the minerals sector to foster public acceptance of one of the key drivers of European competitiveness: "Raw materials are the lifeblood of EU industry, with at least 30 million jobs in the EU and 70% of EU manufacturing production depending upon them"As communication platform on the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials, which aims to make Europe a world leader in sustainable and resource efficient exploration, extraction, processing, product use, reuse and recycling of raw materials by 2020 and beyond, the EMD could again count on theactive support of both Vice-President Tajani , Commissioner responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship,and Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. (see video messages http://www.mineralsday.eu/media).

The European Minerals Day 2013 put particular focus on the key themes of the EIP including innovation and resource efficiency all along the value-chain. Whereas companies demonstrated the integration of these key concepts in their mining operations, the European Trade Associations partnering up under the EMD 2013, organised several events in the European Parliament for the EU stakeholders in Brussels thanks to the support of MEPs Rübig, Panayotov, Leinen, Helmer and Szymanski and the European Commission. The exhibition entitled "The European minerals sector – an essential, innovative industry, throughout the value chain", took place from 6-8 May and welcomed more than 500 visitors – with 150 stakeholders attending the successful launch by MEP Panayotov and Ms Benini, Member of the Cabinet of Vice-President Tajani. A high level dinner and raw materials conference took place as satellite events on 13 & 15 May 2013(see press releases in the media library). The exhibition was unique and tailor made, telling the story of sustainable mineral extraction, leading the visitor along the exploration, extraction, processing, end-use, and recycling stages, thereby incorporating all sectors and stakeholders partnering up under the EMD 2013(mining, industrial minerals, salt, cement, metals, geological surveys, FP7 projects) (See Image library).

On 24 May, European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani launched, in person, the 4th edition of the European Minerals Day in Vipiteno, Italy. The Vice-President visited with great interest Omya's modern and highly resource efficient underground mining operations, which linked perfectly to the Innovation and Resource Efficiency theme. The purpose was indeed to show that the European extractive industry is driven by resource efficiency and sustainability, and a partner in achieving the Europe 2020 agenda. (EC video)

Euromines was one of the organizers of the The European Minerals Day 2013 alongside IMA-Europe (Coordinator), CEMBUREAU,  EuroGeoSurveys, EuroMetaux, EuSalt, and the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Mineral Resources (ETP SMR). Supporting organisations 2013: IndustriAll, EFG (geologists), ELO, EBCD, IUCN, Cerame-Unie and UEPG. More information on www.mineralsday.eu.

The next edition will take place in May 2015 – Interested sectors are most welcome to join the initiative. Contact: Amina Langedijk, EMD Coordinator a.langedijk@ima-europe.eu – Tel 02 210 44 12