On May 20, 2021, the 49th Presidium Meeting of the International Society for Mine Surveying (ISM) was successfully held in China University of Mining and Technology by the mean of online meeting. More than 50 delegates, who come from China, Germany, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, attended the meeting.

The meeting was chaired by Huang Leting, who is the president of ISM and a distinguished professor of China University of Mining and Technology. The ISM presidium members, Axel Preuße, Callum McNaughton, Ryszard Hejmanowski, Hendrik Grobler, Zou Youfeng, Bian Zhengfu, Hu Bingnan, Xu Aigong, Ishimbai Chunuev, Nurpeisova Marzhan and others attended the meeting. The delegates of the Mine Surveyors Association from Germany, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, delegates of China Coal Science and Industry Group, China Academy of Surveying and Mapping, Central South University, China University of Mining and Technology, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Chang'an University, Liaoning University of Engineering and Technology, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Anhui University of Science and Technology, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Jiangsu Normal University attended the meeting. In addition, delegates of the Mine Surveying Professional Committee of the Chinese Society of Surveying and Mapping and the Mine Surveying Professional Committee of the China Coal Society attended the meeting.

At the preparatory meeting of the presidium meeting (the offline meeting of the Chinese side), Professor Huang Leting gave a special report on "The History and Development of the International Society of Mine Surveying" to the Chinese delegates, reviewing the association’s 50-year history and development as one of the UNESCO academic organizations, currently facing problems, and proposed a series of reform and development measures of the ISM, which was widely recognized by the delegates.

On the international meeting of the presidium meeting (online meeting), all the delegates deeply mourned Professor Martin Vrubel, the national delegate of Czech Mine Surveying and chairman of the commission 5 of ISM, and then reviewed the 48th presidium meeting of the ISM. Professor Axel Preuße from RWTH Aachen University was elected as the vice president of the ISM, and South Africa was confirmed as the host country of the 19th International Congress for Mine Surveying, and Professor Hendrik Grobler from the University of Johannesburg was elected as the vice president of the ISM. Also during the meeting, 22 new ISM committee members were confirmed.

The meeting decided that the ISM Secretariat will be established at the China University of Mining and Technology, the 50th presidium meeting will be held in Poland in 2022, and the 18th International Congress for Mine Surveying will be postponed to 2023. In the following, the fourth commission and delegates of Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Kazakhstan Mine Survey Association reported on their annual work. Finally, the presidium meeting discussed a series of topics on the reform and development of the ISM, and reached a broad consensus among the delegates. Among these topics, the establishment of the Outstanding Contribution Award and the Youth Award and the commission 7 "Youth" & commission 8 "underground space" and establishment professional committee within each commission, the open recruitment of commission chairmen and professional committee directors, will be confirmed on the 50th Presidium Meeting.

In the closing summary, Professor Huang Leting pointed out that delegates of various countries fully realized that, at this stage, reform and development are the important work directions of the ISM, and suggested that the associations of various countries should strengthen exchanges and cooperation to further promote the vigorous development of the international mine surveying industry.

ISM President Huang Leting presided over the meeting and delivered a speech

A scene of the 49th ISM presidium meeting

Minutes of the 49th ISM（International Society for Mine Surveying） Presidium Meeting