Proceedings of the 2026 Society of Mining Professors Annual Meeting

Abstract

The 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Society of Mining Professors (SOMP) was held July 19-22 in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, hosted by the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering at Virginia Tech. The meeting brought together participants from at least 27 countries, representing some 55 universities, companies, and organizations.

These proceedings provide a record of the contributions submitted through the AGM’s open call. Following peer review of submitted abstracts, a total of 52 accepted contributions were ultimately presented during the meeting. Authors were also invited to submit full papers for an additional round of peer review. In sum, this volume contains 11 peer-reviewed full papers and 41 peer-reviewed abstracts, organized into chapters according to the major themes and sessions of the technical program. The broader AGM program also included invited keynote addresses, workshops, SOMP leadership contributions, and other special presentations that are not reproduced in these proceedings.