The MinSouth heat of the Young Persons Lecture Competition was held at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, South Kensington on 9 March 2017. The event was sponsored by St. Barbara LLP and Golder Associates and the judges were Andy Wells of St. Barbara and the President of MinSouth for 2016-2017, Roger Emmott. Four interesting presentations covering a wide variety of topics were delivered.

The opening presentation by Chetan Nethwani of Imperial College investigated rare earth element mineralisation in carbonatites. This was followed by an analysis of the risk of a Fukushima-type event happening in the UK, by Noah Hawkins of Imperial College; an explanation by Theodore Ineich of Hatch of factors affecting lime reactivity; and Cole Runnalls describing mechanized methods of extracting limestone dimension stone at an operation in the west of England.

The winning presenter was Chetan Nethwani, who goes forward to the Regional Final of the IOM3 competition on 16 March. Roger Emmott congratulated all of the presenters, who were presented with certificates and cheques by Andy Wells, while the audience chatted over snacks and drinks.

Thanks are due to Natalie Staffurth of MinSouth and RSM Student Representative, Claudia Callard, for organizing this successful event and the sponsors, St Barbara and Golder Associates.

Andy Wells and Roger Emmott with the four presenters