My activities in Washington, D.C. continued today with a meeting with Gus Edwards, president & CEO of NSSGA. We discussed the SME/NSSGA student design competition and how NSSGA could increase its level of participation in the annual event in 2014 - given that will be the 10th anniversary of the event. The design competition is unique in that student teams compete at the SME Annual Meeting to solve real-world problems at theoretical aggregates operations and must do so in front of a live panel of aggregates industry expert judges. I came away from that meeting with the confidence that SME and NSSGA will increase our level of collaboration in this event and other areas.
Our SME team also met with senior staff at the World Wildlife Fund today to explore options for future collaboration. WWF staff included representatives of their international law and mineral policy office and their market transformation office, who engage in outreach with the business community. WWF gave us two hours of their time and was fully engaged in seeking opportunities to work on issues of mutual interest.
Our last meeting of the day was with the chief of staff and legislative director for Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who is a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. Amodei has reintroduced legislation that would streamline the permitting process for mining operations on public lands and would consider a wider range of rocks and minerals as "critical" or "strategic" to national security and economic importance.
On the way to visit Amodei's office, we bumped into Rep. Mike Coffman (R-CO) who repesents the congressional district where SME's office is located in Englewood. He recognized us and took the time to say hello as he was on his was to cast a vote on the Hill. SME hosted Coffman last summer at our offices so he could address the executives of Denver-based mining companies.
Thursday, I will participate in a briefing at the National Research Council with NMA, IMA-NA and NSSGA. I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you on that meeting.