Seen & Heard at the MINEXCHANGE 2025 SME Annual Conference & Expo

IMFORMED was delighted to attend and speak at last week’s MINEXCHANGE 2025 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Denver. Mike O’Driscoll has been attending the annual SME event since 1988, which regularly brings together the global mining and minerals community (this year 7,000 attendees).

The SME has the added benefit of a member division specific to industrial minerals (Industrial Minerals & Aggregates Division), which has always maintained a most loyal and friendly following of mineral experts keen to share their views and build long-standing relationships.

Although the event has a decent international reach, attending and networking at the SME always enables one to feel the pulse of the North American minerals industry in particular – especially useful in these times of mighty change and turbulence impacting the sector.

This was reflected in the session themes (eg. Keynote on AI Innovation & Disruption, Critical & Battery Minerals, Green Mining), as well as the all-important informal discussion on the Expo floor.

 

This year Mike O’Driscoll presented “Fluorspar’s future in batteries: Can it achieve ‘critical mass’?” – addressing the outlook for fluorine supply, impacted by recently “lost” production capacities, declining production in China, and trying to meet rising market demand, where will future supply come from?

Click here to access a free PDF download of the presentation 

And coming up later this year…

Industrial Minerals Lunch reunion

As ever, the Industrial Minerals & Aggregates Division Lunch provided an excellent reunion of industrial mineral experts from mine to market. Among the highlights was the awards ceremony which included the presentation of the A. Frank Alsobrook Distinguished Service Award to Tom Newman, Chief Geologist, Holcim (US) Inc. (above left; see Denver days loom large).

Out & about the SME 2025

Left image: l-r with Bowen Li, Prof. (Research Professor, Michigan Technological University, and “communications bridge” for China’s minerals industry), Tom Newman (Chief Geologist, Holcim (US) Inc.), Marc Herpfer (VP  New Technologies, Oil-Dri Corp. of America; & outgoing SME President 2024-25); Right image: with Vanessa Santos (Global Sourcing Geologist, BYK Additives).

Left image: with Paul Moore (Editor & Co-owner International Mining; former Dep. Editor, Industrial Minerals); Right image: with Peggy Dalheim and Joy (The Mineral Lab Inc.).

Left image: with Ihor & Zenia Kunasz (Ihor a world expert in lithium resources for 45 years, author of “The Lithium Legacy” published 2024; Zenia was this year a recipient of the WAAIME Founders Award); Right image: with Dr Maoming Fan (Senior Process Engineer, Eriez Manufacturing Co. and friend & former colleague of the late, great Dr Ian Wilson).

Left image: with Boris Chubukov (Co-Founder & CTO, Big Blue Technologies) and Mac McCreless (Managing Director, Garrison Minerals); Right image: Marc Herper & Tom Newman shamelessly promoting Peter Harben’s first novel “Just the Flag Changes”).

The author under the Colorado Convention Center’s Blue Bear and a welcome return visit to Denver’s oldest restaurant The Buckhorn Exchange (established 1893).