Presidents Blog

It is hard to believe that a year has passed since the IQ Fellows Lunch and Student Awards at the Tower of London. It was a great environment to celebrate the successes of students from the University of Derby Centre for Mineral Products. I look forward to returning this November to celebrate another year of academic achievements.

Celebrating what we do in the mineral attractiveness sector is something we should do more often. We work in an industry which we can be proud of and we should share that pride in how we present what we do to our colleagues, our families, our communities, the press and the wider public.

Every now and again it’s worth taking time to reflect that what each of us does in our daily jobs plays a small but important part in a much bigger global industry and profession, driving social and economic development and growth.

In my last column, I outlined a number of the approaches and activities to drive innovation that the industry and IQ have undertaken over the years. Rapid advances in technology, and its application to what we do, means we are now facing unprecedented changes in the way we work.

As we move into the second half of 2019, we as an Institute are focusing on the third pillar of the Strategy launched at last year Fellows lunch.  Our ambition to drive innovation and operational best practice seeks to meet the immediate needs of the industry and to understand and prepare our members for the demands of the future.

Over the last quarter I have focussed on the importance of leadership and how the Institute is supporting those who are destined to be the next generation of leaders in the industry. I have also highlighted some of the work that the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) is undertaking to support all members in developing their skills and knowledge around leadership.

As President of the Institute of Quarrying (IQ), I am in a privileged position following in the footsteps of my predecessors in this role, all of whom have helped build the Institute into the organisation it is today. Whilst the time within the role is relatively short, we have all aspired to ensure the long-term goals of the Institute are progressed.

My recent columns have focused on the challenges our industry faces in managing health and safety. In dealing with these challenges, leadership is a recurring theme that affects the whole organisation - from the board room to individual operational sites.

I do not believe we can ever talk too much about health and safety. Achieving best practice is something that the Institute works tirelessly towards, along with our partners across the industry. Only this month our team has been talking to representatives from the Health & Safety Executive and the legal profession, as well as hands-on quarry operators, for the first in a series of IQON quarterly member films. The topic? You guessed it; health and safety. Watch this space for more on this.

As members of the Institute of Quarrying (IQ) we focus heavily on the need for competence, both for ourselves and our colleagues. It is a core principle in supporting our efforts to improve in priority areas such as health, safety and well-being. As professionals we should all know our responsibilities from the regulatory perspective and it is critical that we all continue to meet those obligations.