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[April 2001]
Budapest Conference to Address Key Challenges Facing European Minerals Sector
Industrial Minerals Information Ltd (Worcester Park, Surrey, England) will stage its third Euromin Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Budapest, Hungary from 10-12 June 2001. The previous event in Nice in 1999 attracted almost 200 delegates.
Europe is major world player in the non-metallic minerals sector with the EU countries alone producing some 63 million tonnes of minerals each year, worth some 4 billion euros. It produces huge quantities of industrial minerals both for its own requirements and for export. As the majority of western European markets have matured and have become highly competitive, attention has turned to central and eastern Europe as having greatest mineral consuming potential.
During the 1990s, the change experienced by the region has been two-fold: on the one hand there has been a move of manufacturing base to eastern Europe - taking advantage of low labour costs - but there has also been a shift in raw materials consumption. Traditionally key mineral consuming industries such as refractories and ceramics imported their raw materials from other communist countries in the region. The transformation of these central and eastern European economies and improvements in technology, however, have meant that these countries are now starting to source their raw materials from all over the world.
Not only does the opening up of these economies provide the opportunity for mineral producers outside the region, but central and eastern European raw materials producers themselves now have the opportunity to develop their own export markets.
A field trip will take place on 13 June to the SMZ magnesite mines and calcination plant in Jelsava (Slovakia) followed by a visit to the magnesite-based refractory materials manufacturer Slovmag in Lubenik.
For further information, e-mail: bkasparas@metalbulletin.com
ENDS