On 4th December it was celebrated Saint Bárbara Day. Saint Bárbara is the protector of miners and the NUMIST at Instituto Superior Técnico organize the Saint Bárbara Conference to celebrate the date. This year, the highlights included the attribution, by ORICA, of Professor Dinis Gama Award, an award that recognizes the work of Mining Master Students. This first edition was attributed to CERENA’s student, student Margarida Grou. Congratulations, Margarida!
CERENA’s Invited Assistant Professor Pedro Bernado gave an enlightening talk about the evolution of the mining industry overtime. Professor Pedro focused particularly on today’s and tomorrow’s challenges in mining engineering. The event closed with a debate involving Professor Maria João Pereira, Engineer Mário Bastos, Engineer Miguel Albino, Doctor Francisco Veiga Simão and was moderated by Mining Engineering Student Santiago Bilbao. This panel focused on the European Legislation for critical raw materials and Europe’s plan to ensure access to resources in the green transition. It was highlighted the necessity of Europe to become independent of external countries and the necessity to further educate the civil population about mining exploration.
It was an enriching day for all the involved parties, and we can’t wait to repeat it next year!
