The ISEE board of directors election is now underway. Eligible voters, all members in good standing with the exception of student members, can cast votes until Dec. 1, 2014.

All eligible voters with an email on file received a message with step-by-step instructions for casting a vote online. Print ballots and candidate bios were also mailed to members who don’t have an email address on file.

Elected officers and directors for 2015 will take office at the annual membership meeting at the 41st Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique, to be held Feb. 1-4, 2015, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana

Your opinion matters. Take part in this year’s election.

Mining engineering students at Missouri University of Science and Technology are brewing up a special treat for people who want to visit S&T’s Experimental Mine Facility this Halloween.

Student volunteers will turn the mine into a Haunted Mine to earn funds for the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration; Women in Mining; the International Society for Explosives Engineers; and the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association; as well as for S&T’s mine rescue and mucking teams. The fundraiser has been held every Halloween since 1997.

China’s imports of copper ore and concentrate climbed for a second month to a record as the world’s biggest producer of the refined metal boosts capacity.

Inbound shipments of the partly treated ore used in smelting rose 34 percent to 1.29 million tons in September, according to recent data from country’s customs administration. Imports through the first nine months of the year are 20 percent higher than the same period in 2013.

Tony Abbott has declared "coal is good for humanity" while opening a coalmine in Queensland.

The Australia prime minister, who describes himself as a conservationist, said coal was vital to the world and that fossil fuel should not be demonised.

"Coal is vital for the future energy needs of the world," he said. "So let’s have no demonisation of coal. Coal is good for humanity."

China bombshell decision to impose tariffs on coal imports could prove to be the tipping point for Australian miners already struggling to stay afloat.

The move by the economic powerhouse to introduce the new duty of between 3 percent and 6 percent beginning earlier this month shocked and angered Aussie producers, responsible for a quarter of Chinese coal imports.

The Nevada gold-mining industry is keeping its ear carefully tuned to what residents think of the state's mining tax.

In November Nevada residents will be asked to vote on whether to remove a mining-tax cap from the Nevada constitution, which stipulates that the mining industry will pay no more than 5 percent tax on the net proceeds of minerals. If voters reject the 5 percent provision, the state legislature could impose whatever tax rate it pleases.

Consumer opinions favoring coal are now clearer than ever: The demand for coal to fuel electricity generators remains on the rise to satisfy this greater need in the U.S., much to the chagrin of Obama followers. The need for coal for electrical generation rose more than 8 percent from 2012 to 2014, an increase of 131 million megawatt-hours (or 131,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours) according to DOE’s Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Fifteen people have been confirmed dead in a blast at an explosives decommissioning factory in north-western Bulgaria.

Thirteen men and two women died in the wake of the blast that left craters, civil defence chief Nikolai Nikolov said. Three others were taken to hospital with injuries.

This popular and highly regarded one day seminar will take place on Saturday, Jan. 31. It was designed and presented for blasters by the best in the business to help plan and execute efficient blast designs, hear updates on regulations and safety and more. The seminar is included as part of the Blasters Weekend Package or sign up separately. The topics and speakers include:

- Introduction – Larry Mirabelli, Blasters Training Committee Chairman
- Bulk Explosives – Critical Rules for their Effective Use – Dennis Schulz, Austin Powder
- Choosing the Right Delay Timing for Surface Blasting Applications to Optimize Blast Results – Frank
Chiappetta, Blasting Analysis International
- Pushing the Split Around the Bend – Highwall Control! – Simon Tose, AEL Mining Services
- Initiation Systems – Safety, Accuracy and the Importance of Proper Timing – William Reisz, Davey
Bickford North America
- Using Blast Movement to Designing Surface Blasts for Grade Control – Will Hunt, Blast Movement
Technologies
- Critical Rules for Safe and Effective Drilling – Dave Bijolle, Atlas Copco
- Critical Communications – Blast Design Layout Through Detonation – Scott Scovira, Orica
- Blasting Misfires – Common Causes, Prevention and Safe Handling – Larry Mirabelli, Buckley Powder

Blasters training registration fee includes lunch, coffee breaks and course materials. The seminar runs from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Registration opens Friday from 3-5 p.m. and Saturday morning starting at 7 a.m. A certificate of attendance will be issued. The states of Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming have accepted retraining credit hours in the past. Check with your state officials for more information.

Registration is now open for the 41st Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique. This International Society of Explosives Engineers event is the largest conference of its kind, bringing together more than 1,600 industry leaders, manufacturers, government officials and members of academia from around the globe.

The 41st annual conference will be from Feb. 1-4, 2015, at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, in New Orleans, Louisiana. And it will be four days packed full of technical sessions, poster presentations, networking opportunities, special student and international events and an exhibit hall with nearly 130 companies showing off the latest products and technology in the explosives industry.

The Institute of Makers of Explosives Safety Analysis for Risk (IMESAFR) v2.0 training will be offered January 29-31 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel three days before the ISEE Conference.

IMESAFR v2.0 is the product of years of collaborative effort between the Institute of Makers of Explosives (IME) and A-P-T Research (APT) and is the most recent version of the versatile and dynamic IMESAFR risk assessment tool the explosives community has been using for years. IMESAFR has always been a powerful tool for calculating individual and group risk associated with explosives facilities using detailed information such as donor structure and activity, the structure of exposed sites and the duration of exposures for personnel. Now the 2.0 version of IMESAFR has a graphics oriented Geographic Information System (GIS) based interface that permits many graphical options for risk visualization, a Metric Engine option to perform site risk analysis in metric units, and a Quantity Distance (QD) feature that draws arcs referencing the American Table of Distances (ATD) or other QD regulations.

Other IMESAFR v2.0 features that were added at the request of those using earlier 1.x versions:
Visual output of debris density and overpressure/impulse as a function of range and bearing
Improved debris hazard models
Additional user options to customize a scenario

For more details, please contact APT directly by phone or by e-mail. You can also visit their website where you will find registration forms, course logistics and cost details. IMESAFR v2.0 is significantly different from earlier versions of IMESAFR, therefore the IME requires students trained in 1.x versions to attend the IMESAFR v2.0 training before obtaining the new software.

6 p.m.
Oct. 16, 2014
William Tell Inn
Countryside, Illinois

Oct. 23, 2014
Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

Oct. 24, 2014

Oct. 27-30, 2014
Carmel Mission Inn
Carmel, California

Oct. 28, 2014
Huntsville, Alabama

Nov. 5-7, 2014
Ross Bridge Conference Center
Birmingham, Alabama

Nov. 6, 2014

Nov. 13-14, 2014
Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races
Charles Town, West Virginia

Nov. 13, 2014
Argosy Casino Parkway
Riverside, Missouri

Nov. 18-20, 2014
San Antonio Texas