We blinked – and the holidays are upon us already. It’s a busy time of the year for everyone, but if you’re still looking for a worthwhile event to put on your calendar this December look no further:

Our friends at the American Exploration and Mining Association (AEMA) will be holding their 124th Annual Meeting from December 2nd through December 7th in Spokane, Washington.

The event, which represents “the second largest and longest running annual mining convention in the U.S.” will feature exhibitions, technical workshops and courses, as well as keynote addresses by Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and industry representative Arshad Sayed, chief development officer for partnerships and joint ventures in copper and diamonds for Rio Tinto.

“Zinke will talk about what has been accomplished so far and his plans, (…) we will ask him to talk about the critical minerals order,” AEMA Executive Director Laura Skaer told the Elko Daily Free Press. Secretary Zinke had released a list of 35 minerals deemed critical to U.S. national security and the U.S. economy earlier this year. Per the presidential executive order “on a federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals” issued on December 20th, 2017, the list is to be followed up with a report by the U.S. Commerce Department outlining ways to achieve this goal.

A session on legislative and regulatory affairs on the final day hosted by Laura Skaer will round out the program – so attendees should leave with a better idea of the current state of play and what to expect from policy makers and stakeholders in the coming weeks and months.

While early registration has ended, you can still register at the door. Get all the details at www.miningamerica.org.  However, if you can’t make it, we’ll hope to post a conference summary after the event.