13^th Meeting of European Heads of Mining Authorities

The 13^th Meeting of Heads European Mining Authorities took place from 18 to 22 June 2007 in Calimanesti and Petrosani, Romania. In the Meeting participated the President of the State Mining Authority Mr Piotr Buchwald and the Director of the Office of Organization Mr Jacek Bielawa.

The main topic of this year’s debate was control of hazards to heath from heat, dust and other environmental factors in mines and quarries. Papers were presented by mining authorities’ representatives from Austria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. Director Bielawa presented paper on control of hazards related to climate in Polish mines.
In the memorandum of the 13^th Meeting the stress was put among other things on the need of developing methods and procedures of control of hazards from environmental factors.

It was decided that the next, 14^th Meeting will take place in Slovenia. Its topic will be escape and rescue arrangements at underground mines and emergency arrangements at surface mines. Moreover, during the debate it was acknowledged that in the forthcoming years mining authorities will have to pay more attention to the issue of clean coal technologies.

During the Meeting SMA’s President fixed a framework of bilateral working meetings with the representatives of mining supervision authorities from Czech Republic, Germany (Brandenburg and Saxony) and Slovakia in upcoming months.