More than 1,400 people from around the world met Feb. 1-4, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana, for the 41st Annual Conference on Explosives and Blasting Technique, the world’s largest conference on explosives engineering.

And for the third consecutive year, the SEE Education Foundation live auction on Tuesday, Feb. 3 raised more than $17,000. Big-ticket items included a one-of-a-kind, handmade Education Foundation quilt; a lifetime membership to ISEE; and a helicopter ride for two at the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Alaska.

The money raised through the auction will go to the Education Foundation ISEE Scholarship Fund, which awards scholarships to college students from across the globe who are pursuing a career in the blasting industry.

The Ohio Drilling and Blasting Conference kicks off from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 25, 2015, with a welcome reception and exhibits. On Thursday, learn about various topics such as underground blasting, waveforms, public relations, demolition blasting, current compliance issues and more. View the preliminary schedule.

Although retraining credit hours have been accepted in the past by a number of states, due to recent changes in regulations, you need to be careful and check with your state regulators to be sure you receive the proper retraining credit hours from this conference.

It’s that time of year to apply for SEE Education Foundation Scholarships. Qualified students will be considered for an award among 26 funds. To be eligible to apply for a scholarship you must be pursuing technical, undergraduate, graduate or doctorate degrees in fields of education related to the commercial explosives industry; and able to demonstrate financial need.

Register now for the 28th annual Best in the West Drill and Blast Conference held April 22-24, 2015, at the Spearfish Holiday Inn Convention Center in Spearfish, South Dakota.

The conference is an intensive three day event that brings together mining companies, drilling and blasting suppliers and government agencies. The focus is innovation, safety and government regulation.

One of the biggest highlights of the conference is the scholarship benefit auction. The money raised from Best in the West goes to fund scholarship programs. The Best in the West has raised more $100,000 for scholarships throughout the past 20 years.

Negative sentiment swamped the gold market on Tuesday as traders bet on a positive outcome for Greek debt negotiations and the breach of key technical levels put further pressure on the metal.

In heavy post-holiday volumes on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, gold futures for April delivery – the most active contract – plunged to $1,202.71 an ounce in mid-morning trade, down $24 or 2% from Monday's close.

The federal government recently announced the launch of its Canadian Extractive Sector Trade Strategy. The government says the strategy gives greater coherence to its efforts to promote in foreign countries the interests of Canada’s extractive sector—mining and oil and gas companies.

The announcement was lauded by the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC), both of which had input into the government strateg

U.S. President Obama submitted his FY2016 budget request for federal agencies to Congress, including MSHA's portion of the request.

Under the Mine Act, MSHA is required to inspect underground mines four times a year and surface mines two times. The agency also conducts other activities to improve the safety and health of miners, including targeted rulemaking, such as the publication last year of a final Respirable Dust rule to stamp out black lung disease, which has claimed the lives of thousands of coal miners and the recent final Proximity rule to prevent crushing deaths from large machines used to cut coal; support to miners who are retaliated against for speaking out about safety complaints; improved training for miners and MSHA employees; and improvements to our technological capacity to assist in enforcement and provide MSHA employees and other miners online and other training.

The European Federation of Explosives Engineers (EFEE) World Conference has established itself as one of the key international explosives forums. It includes technical presentations, an industry exhibition, educational workshops, welcome drinks reception, gala dinner and a partner program. The event draws attention from explosives users, manufacturers and equipment for drilling operations as well as researchers and professionals involved in the construction and mining industry.

The conference will be from April 26-28, 2015, at the Lyon Convention Centre in Lyon, France. Early bird registration is now open. Visit the EFEE website for more information.

Oil aside, coal, specifically the power-generating variety, has turned out to be the real surprise commodity of 2015. The benchmark thermal export price from Australia's port of Newcastle is up 22% in a month and on Monday scaled $70 a tonne for the first time in nearly six months.

The advance was most keen in the Pacific seaborne market as mines in Australia and South East Asia close, but Rotterdam and Appalachian prices (despite still rising production in the US) have also been lifted from multi-year lows.

Feb. 18, 2015
Phantoms Hockey, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Feb. 19-21, 2015
Taneycomo Lakefront Resort,Branson, Missouri
For more information, contact Dan Moore at 314.223.3622.

Feb. 25-28, 2015
1225 South Hamilton Circle, Olathe, Kansas
Email heartlandisee@gmail.com for more information.

March 12, 2015
Argosy Casino, Kansas City, Missouri
Email jbowling@whiteseis.com for more information.