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Business View Australia - August 2015 97
provide their services to clients in the
mineral industry within Australia and
around the world.
The ‘MICA Register’ is a searchable
database which includes experts
in close to a 100 fields including
chemical, environmental planning
and management, mining, geology,
management and metallurgy, mine
planning and design, resource and
reserve estimation, geo-statistics,
independentexpert valuations, project
appraisals, exploration planning and
management, expert witness and
arbitration and mediation.
Originally MICA was formed as a
society of The Australasian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy (The AusIMM)
34 years ago. In 2013 it was decided
that the twowouldoperateas separate
entities with MICA only accepting
members with a minimum of 10
years of experience as a professional
consultant in an area related to the
minerals sector.
It is important to note the MICA
differs from the AusIMM Consultant’s
Society in that it only accepts
members who have had a minimum of
a decades’ experience as consultants
in the mineral sector. MICA therefore
considers its membership as
an upward step or progression
from The Australasian Institute of
Mining and Metallurgy. In effect,
MICA membership is a continuing
development professional pathway
for mineral professionals who are
engaged in consulting work.
George Edwards, Chairman of
MICA, assumed office in January
this year. As his initial task he took
up an exercise to ask the 100 strong
membership of the association what
their expectations from MICA were.
He says, “The first thing that I got the
Board to support when I took over as
Chairman of MICA was to survey our
members as to what their vision was
for MICA in the upcoming five years.
“We structured a series of events
that they thought was important
because a lot of our members don’t
just consult within Australia, they
consult in Southeast Asia and even
further afield in North America, South
America and some parts of Africa and
Europe. We need to engage more with
bodies in those countries.
“We are starting this process in
Southeast Asia and I am personally
working closely with authorities in
China.”
The survey was conducted amongst
MICA members in the period January
to March, 2015, and there was broad
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