Final Regional Conference

Jun 1, 2021

Ljubljana, 26 May 2021 - The conference was broadcast by Geological Survey of Slovenia, where the organizing team and some guests were present in person. More than 80 participants from 17 countries joined the conference online.

The conference began with opening words by Director Miloš Bavec, who welcomed participants on behalf of Geological Survey of Slovenia, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. ''We are pleased that in recent years the activities of KIC EIT Raw Materials in the region, especially the Regional Innovation Scheme activities, have fostered collaboration between relevant organizations. For this we owe KIC EIT Raw Materials a huge gratitude; not only on behalf of ourselves, partners and collaborators in RESEERVE and other projects, but also on behalf of the industry, the European mineral community and European Union as a whole,'' he stressed.

On behalf of the funding body of the RESEERVE project Tina Benda Regional Innovation Scheme Manager from EIT RawMaterials gave the opening remarks. She introduced the knowledge innovation community EIT RawMaterials, with a focus on Regional Innovation Scheme objectives to be achieved in the period 2022-27. She also presented the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA), which is coordinated by EIT RawMaterials.

A separate conference session was dedicated to the presentation of the RESEERVE project results. As the first speaker, Duška Rokavec, RESEERVE Project Manager from Geological Survey of Slovenia presented the project overview and the process of developing the main deliverable - West Balkan Mineral Register. Other RESEERVE project partners presented other main achievements of three years of intensive cooperation in mapping mineral resources in the six ESEE countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. The West Balkan Mineral Register of primary and secondary raw materials represents the starting point to integrate this region into pan- European Mineral Intelligence Network and bring it closer to the global mineral market.

Two invited speakers enriched the conference program with presentations on the latest activities for the development of the European raw materials community. The first speaker Slavko Šolar, Secretary General of EuroGeoSurveys, presented the Geological Service for Europe, while Jörgen Tulstrup, the coordinator of European Geological Data Infrastructure (EGDI) presented the common European platform into which the RESEERVE data have been successfully integrated.

An example of good practice in mineral resource management from the West Balkan region was presented by Ivana Misailović, the representative of the company Rio Sava Exploration, who presented geological exploration on Jadar Neogene basin in Western Serbia.