On the 21st of October, 1990, summoned by Professor Guenter Fettweis, a group of some 20 Professors of Mining gathered at the Montanuniversitat in Leoben, Austria. Prof. Fettweis had long considered that there should be a Society of Mining Professors, and had been lobbying all those who attended and a number of others who could not come to get such a society started. This was then the formation meeting of such a Society, as most of those attending (and many of those who could not come) had agreed in advance that such a Society was needed. The meeting was chaired by Prof. Fettweis who thus became the first Chairman/President of the newly formed Society when all those attending agreed on its formation.

Professor Fettweis pointed out that the first ever international scientific society had been the Societat der Berbaukunde which had been formed in 1783 in Schemnitz (Banska Stiavnica), in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but is now in Slovakia, and had had as members most of the well known scientists of the day. In the light of this, the new Society, it was decided, would be called the Society of Mining Professors in English, but it would also have the German name Societat der Berbaukunde in memory of that original society. More information about the roots of SOMP can be found in a document prepared by Prof. Oliver Langefeld and Prof. Michael Karmis through this link: https://miningprofs.org/the-roots-of-somp

It was agreed that a constitution of the Society would be presented and discussed at that first annual general meeting in Lulea. In the meanwhile it was decided that there would be a Committee to run the Society consisting of the Society President, who would be a nominated mining professor at the University which would hold the next Annual General Meeting. The general running of the Society would be undertaken by a Secretary General who would also be on the managing committee and would have a five year term of office. The first elected President, and the second President of the Society then was Prof. Gunnar Almgren as it was decided that the first Annual General Meeting would be held in Lulea in Sweden, the following year, September 1991. Prof. Shaw, from the Royal School of Mines in London was elected as the first Secretary General of the Society.

The 1991 Annual Meeting (2nd Annual Meeting) was organised at the Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden by Prof. Almgren (the first elected SOMP president) and was an excellent meeting at which the first constitution of the Society was agreed. This meeting was held in the week of the 9th September 1991. 26 members attended which was a good turnout corresponding to a high percentage of all the members of the Society at that point in its life. The next meeting was planned to be in Gliwice with the result among other things that Prof. Jan Palarski was elected as the third president of the Society. This meeting too set the design for most of the subsequent meetings in that the delegates arrive on a Saturday, have social events on the Sunday, the business meeting takes place on Monday and Tuesday and this is followed by a technical day, visiting operations on Wednesday.

The 3rd Annual Meeting of the Society was held in Gliwice, Poland hosted by the Silesian University of Technology, Gliwice, Poland from the 20th to the 23rd September 1992. Prof. Jan Palarski was the president of the Society for the year. Attendance was a little down on the previous meetings at 22 members, but still high as a percentage of the Society's membership. There was already emerging a core of committed members who attended each year and who were responsible for the continued success of the Society. At this meeting serious discussions took place with regard to the curricula for mining engineering degrees and some agreement was reached on what should be taught. And much more was decided on the constitution of the Society. It was agreed that the next meeting would be held in Clausthal Germany and Prof. Werner Vogt was elected as the fourth President of the Society.

The 4th Annual Meeting then was held at the Technical University of Clausthal, Germany from the 25th to the 30th September 1993. Attendance was the best so far at 36 members and some excellent technical sessions were held with Prof. Werner Vogt acting as president. The Society finally agreed the fundamentals of what should be taught to aspiring mining engineers, while at the same time leaving room in the calendar for each university to specialise in whatever aspect or aspects of mining engineering they wished.

The 5th Annual Meeting was held at the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia from the 18th to the 21st September 1994. Professor Uros Bajzelj was the President for the year. Attendance was down compared to the previous year at 21 members. Nevertheless the Society had a good meeting and a lot of work was done.

The 6th Annual Meeting was held at the Miskolc University, Miskolc, Hungary from 17th to the 20th September 1995. Professor Ferenc Kovacs was the president for the year. This meeting had good attendance at 34 again, but the meeting though an excellent meeting, well organised tended to have more social events than working time planned. It was agreed that at each meeting there needed to be a fundamental two days of serious conference, and then each host could add tours and social functions the day before the start or the days immediately following. The first five years of the existence of the Society being complete at this meeting there was a need to elect a new Secretary General. Prof. Shaw, the outgoing Secretary General agreed to stand for re-election, and there being no other candidates, he was re-elected for another term of 5 years.

The 7th Annual Meeting was held at the Moscow State Mining University, Moscow, Russia from 25th to the 28th August 1996. Professor Lev Puchkov was the president for that year. Attendance at this one was again excellent at 35 members, the highest turnout since the Clausthal meeting. It was at this meeting that it was decided to shift the annual meetings forward in the year to make it more convenient for members to attend. They have been earlier in the year ever since. Once again there were good working sessions and the Society got much done with reference to the formation of young mining engineers.

The 8th Annual Meeting was held at the Helsinki University of Technology, Helsinki Finland from 1st to 3rd June, 1997. Professor Raimo Matikainen was the President for the year. A good turnout at 30 members attending was recorded. This one too was notable for the first attendance of a number of new members. Once again there was an excellent technical programme of discussions on the topics of mining education, mining research and indeed all aspects of mining engineering.

The 9th Annual Meeting was hosted by the Politechnico di Torino and held in Italy at Carrara 12 - 17 September, 1998, with Prof. Pelizza as President. Unfortunately he was engaged in other important business for most of the period of the meeting and Prof. Badino, who had in any case been responsible for the organisation of the meeting, stood in as president during the working sessions. Attendance was a record to date as 40 members were present. This was the first meeting which the Society held in conjunction with another body, in this case it was the European joint body from Mining and Minerals professional bodies - Eurominerals. This was excellent publicity for the Society within the industry. Also with them it was agreed that a joint document highlighting the importance of mining would be prepared and would receive a launch at the International Congress on Mining for Tomorrow's World in Germany, in Dusseldorf from June 8 - 10, 1999. This was duly done, but disappointingly few press turned up for the launch.

The 10th Annual Meeting was held at the Urals State Mining And Geological Academy, Ekaterinberg, Russia, July 9 to 12, 1999. Prof. Dementiev was president for the year. Unfortunately due to the difficulties of travelling there attendance was down on previous years with only 23 members attending. This was a great pity as this was a superbly planned meeting, there were good and useful technical sessions and the pre and post conference activities were really very interesting.

The 11th Annual Meeting was held at the Delft University of Technology in Delft in the Netherlands from 3rd to 5th July, 2000. Mr J.J. de Ruiter was therefore elected President for the year. The meeting in Delft attracted the highest turnout yet recorded for meetings of the Society with 45 members attending. This was a superbly planned meeting and a lot of work got done. Again the Society had now been in operation for ten years so at this meeting there was a need once again to elect a new Secretary General. Prof. Shaw, the outgoing Secretary General again agreed to stand for re-election, and there again being no other candidates, he was re-elected for another term of 5 years.

The 12th Annual Meeting was held at the Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, in London. This meant that for one year only Prof. Shaw was both President and Secretary General of the Society. This meeting also had a good attendance of 40 members present. This meeting was held in conjunction with the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Royal School of Mines. The meeting started with a day of technical sessions which was opened by the Princess Royal, Princess Anne. These were all keynote talks by the top experts in the various fields of expertise taught at the Royal School of Mines. They were a superb set of papers and it is regrettable that though it was planned to publish a volume containing them this never in fact happened, though the responsibility to do so did not rest with the Society. The Society followed this meeting with its own which was also had good and interesting technical discussions.

The 13th Annual General Meeting was held by the University of Petrosani, May 31 to June 7, 2002 in Romania. Prof. Ilias was president of the Society for the year. This meeting was fairly well attended with 34 delegates making the journey to Romania. The fact that it was planned to start in Bucharest was a bonus as it made travel there a lot more practical. The meeting then started off in Bucharest and the conference was a rolling one which covered a large part of the country. The first technical session was in Ploiesti, the main technical meeting was held in Vata Bai and finally the delegates ended up in Petrosani itself. Unfortunately, some of the travel took longer than anticipated which meant that the last planned technical session in Petrosani had to be abandoned after a very short session. The delegates certainly got a very good insight into Romania and its problems during this long conference which lasted almost a week, the longest one yet.

The next meeting was held by the of the Escuela Tecnica Superior de Ingenieros de Minas, in Madrid in Spain from the 1st to the 4th December, 2002. This was not an annual general meeting due to a ruling that the university holding the next conference had to have delegates present at the previous one. Since Madrid was unable to send any delegates to Romania, it was not possible to elect a Madrid professor as President and hence the meeting in Madrid, which coincided with the 225th anniversary of their founding, was made an ordinary general meeting. Since the next AGM would now be in Greece, Prof. Karmis was elected President for the year. This not being an AGM also regrettably meant that the attendance was rather low at only 11 Society members. This was a great pity as it was an excellent meeting and was held in conjunction with a meeting of the Asociacion Iberoamericana de Ensenanza Superior de la Minera (AISEMIN). Several joint sessions were held with AESEMIN as well as the Society holding is own meeting separately. Perhaps because there were so few attendees, the members that were present did achieve a lot of discussion and planning for the future of the Society.

The 14th Annual General Meeting of the Society took place in Greece, on the Island of Milos, at the George Eliopoulos Conference Centre from the 18th to the 21st May, 2003. This was a well attended meeting with 36 members attending. This was technically the meeting awarded to the National Technical University of Athens and the Technical University of Crete jointly. In a change from normal practice as stated previously, Professor Karmis from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University was elected president for the year and the organization was done mainly be Prof. Agioutantis from Crete and Prof. Panagiotou from Athens. This well planned meeting was organised so that the delegates could stay on and immediately after this meeting attend a conference on Sustainable Development Indicators in the Minerals Industry. This meeting also had strong technical sessions and a number of changes to the way the Society was run were planned, making the Society, which thus far had been mainly European in nature, more global in concept. This meant that between now and the next AGM a new constitution for the Society needed to be drafted for discussion. A special committee consisting of Professors Agioutantis (Greece), Archibald (Canada), Badino (Italy), Cedron (Peru, South America), Drebenstedt (Germany), Durucan (Britain), Galvin (Australia and Oceania), Karmis (USA, North America), Martens (Germany), Palarski (Poland), Pasamehmetoglu (Turkey), Phillips (South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa), Ramirez (Spain), de Ruiter (Netherlands), Scoble (Canada), Shaw (Britain), and Wagner (Austria) was formed to carry out this task. It was at this meeting also that the "Milos Declaration" was approved for signature by the Society.

The abovementioned committee met in Delft on the 13th and 14th Jan 2004. Those present were Profs. Agioutantis, Badino, Drebenstedt, Durucan, Galvin, Karmis, Martens, Palarski, Phillips, de Ruiter, Shaw, and Wagner. Prof. Ramirez sent his apologies. The report by this committee and the new constitution that it had developed were on the agenda for the next AGM.

The 15th Annual General Meeting was held in the old mining town of Freiberg, in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in Germany from the 12th to the 16th June, 2004. The hosts were the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and Prof. Drebenstedt was the President for the year. This meeting achieved the second best attendance yet as 42 Society members were present. This was again a very good meeting at which a lot of work got done - in particular on the new constitution. A first draft of this was accepted as a working document to apply for one year till the following AGM at which point a final constitution was to be agreed. So there was an interim constitution for the year from June 2004 to June 2005 when the next meeting would be held.

The 16th Annual General Meeting was held in Ankara June 11-16, 2005, Ankara, Turkey Prof. Pasamehmetoglu was the president for the year and technically therefore our hosts were Atilim University (which does not actually have a mining department). The attendance was down a small bit on the previous year at some 36 members present. This was an important meeting in the life of the Society as the new constitution was ratified and took effect immediately, opening up the membership to new categories of member and also enshrining the global reach of the Society. It also signalled a change in the management of the Society as Prof. Shaw's third term as Secretary General of the Society of 5 years was now complete and as he had indicated in Freiberg he felt that it was time for a change and he would not stand again. Prof. Karmis was unanimously elected as the next Secretary general of the Society. One of the changes in the constitution was to create a new category of Emeritus Membership of the Society. These were to be members who had retired from active teaching at their universities and had given great service to the Society. They would be elected on merit and the first three were so elected at this meeting - Professor Fettweis, the founding father of the Society, Professor Wilke as one of the founding fathers and one of the most active members in the Society for all the years of its existence and Professor Shaw for his work as Secretary General over the preceding 15 years were so honoured.

The 17th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors/ Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Kosice, Slovak Republic, on June 17 - 21, 2006, organized by Prof. Pavol Rybar, Kosice University of Technology, Slovak Republic. The meeting was one of the best attended meetings of the Society with 46 participants representing 24 countries. The Membership Drive undertaken by the Society to recruit new members during the 2005-2006 year resulted in the election of 20 new members. At the Kosice meeting, two constitutional amendments were approved: (a) regarding the Industry Member Class and (b) the addition of the Membership Committee to the structure of the Society.

The 18th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Belgrade, Serbia on June 23-25, 2007, under the leadership of Prof. Vlada Pavlovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia. The meeting was the best attended AGM of the Society with 57 participants and 21 accompanying persons, representing 26 countries. The Membership Drive undertaken by the Society to recruit new members during the 2006-2007 resulted in the election of 14 new members. The Society recognized the tireless efforts of Prof. Pasamehmetoglu to re-establish and begin publication of the MRE journal.

The 19th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held again in Aachen, Germany from May 16 to 20, 2008 under the leadership of Prof. Per Nicolai Martens, RWTH Aachen, Germany. The meeting was the best attended AGM of the Society with 64 participants and 16 accompanying persons, and 11 invited guests, representing 28 countries and all continents. The 2007/08 membership campaign resulted into the election of 11 new members. The Society once again recognized the tireless efforts of Prof. Pasamehmetoglu to reestablish and direct the publication of the MRE journal. The web site for the MRE was established at http://www.mre.atilim.edu.tr/ and the Society proposed several recommendations to ensure the sustainability of the journal. Finally, the Society members agreed at the Aachen meeting to provide formal input to the EU Directorate working on the Draft Communication on Sustainable Access to Raw Materials via an ad hoc committee that was established to this effect.

The 20th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Sydney, Australia, June 27-July 5, 2009 organized by Prof. Bruce Hebblewhite, University of New South Wales, Australia. The meeting was extremely successful and offered a great opportunity to visit world class mining operations. An important aspect of the technical program was a road mapping exercise lead by President Hebblewhite. The results of this effort have been summarized in a brief report that was forwarded to the Members and is available in this website. The 2008/09 membership campaign resulted into the election of 18 new members and two Junior members. During the meeting, Prof. Pasamehmetoglu, the Chief Editor of the MRE journal expressed concerns over the quality and number of submitted papers and the interest of members to publish in MRE. The Secretary General made a commitment to develop alternatives that can sustain or at least recognize the history of the journal.

The 21st Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Tallinn, Estonia, June 18-22, 2010. The meeting was extremely successful and was attended by 63 SOMP members, 15 Invited Guests representing 22 countries. The 2009/10 membership campaign resulted into the election of 14 new members. Prof. Phillips, who has represented Africa since the inception of the Council, announced his resignation in line with his retirement from the position of head, School of Mining Engineering, University of Witwatersrand. The position was filled by Assoc. Prof. Ronny Webber-Youngman, head of the Mining Department of Pretoria University, South Africa. Regarding the future of the MRE, the Society has examined alternatives that can sustain and recognize the history of the journal. The most significant development was a proposal to integrate the MRE journal into Mining Technology, which is Section A of the Transactions of the Institutions of Mining and Metallurgy. This Journal was created by merging the Proceedings of the AusIMM with the Transactions of the IMM (now IMMM). The motion to “merge the MRE journal with the Transactions and accept the proposal to allow online only access (no hard copy) to SOMP members” was approved by majority vote. The Annual SOMP Award for Excellence, to recognize active society members for accomplishments in education, research and professional service was established at the Tallinn meeting. After the Tallinn meeting, the Executive Committee of SOMP enthusiastically approved to name this award as the "Günter Fettweis Award for Excellence" in recognition of Prof. Fettweis’ contributions to the profession and for his efforts and leadership in rejuvenating the Society. In a fashion similar to the Sydney exercise, breakout sessions were developed to thoroughly discuss specific topics that can be incorporated into the SOMP Roadmap document. The three main simultaneous breakout sessions were chaired by Prof. Hebblewhite (on education), Prof. Palarski (on research) and Assoc. Prof. Kecojevic (on membership development).

The 22st Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Arequipa, Peru, September 12-15, 2011, 2009 organized by Prof. Mario Cedron Lassus, Universidad Catolica del Peru, Peru, jointly with the Iberoamerican Association of Higher Education in Mining (AIESMIN) and in conjunction with Perumin, the Peruvian Mining Convention and Exhibition. The meeting was attended by 38 SOMP members, and 3 invited guests, representing 18 countries.

The Strategic Planning Committee (includes current and future officers and active members representing the global nature of SOMP) met in person in Delft (April 19-20, 2012) to discuss the future of the Society. After two days of intensive work, the committee proposed the implementation of changes in governance and practice that would move the Society forward. Among the proposed changes were changes to the Constitution, the adoption of Rules and Procedures, the implementation of regional meetings, restructuring of the active SOMP committees, etc.

The 23rd Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Wroclaw, Poland, July 12-16, 2012, organized by Prof. Monika Hardygora, Wroclaw University of Technology. The meeting was attended by 73 SOMP members and 27 accompanying persons, representing 28 countries. The meeting comprised of 35 Presentations and two Panel Discussions, including the Keynote Session. The membership voted for the proposed changes put forward by the Strategic Planning Committee mentioned above. Also, the Society elected a new Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General that will lead the Society for the next four years.

The 24th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held once more in Milos, Greece, June 26-29, 2013, organized by Prof. Zach Agioutantis, Technical University of Crete. The meeting was attended by 60 SOMP members representing 21 countries. This 24th AGM was coordinated with SDIMI 2013 which was also organized by the Technical University of Crete. The new web site of the Society was introduced during that meeting.

The 1st SOMP Regional Meeting took place will take place in Chiang Mai, Thailand, November 13-15, 2013, under the leadership of Prof. Pinyo Meechumna, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand situated in one of the most scenic parts of this fascinating country. The program included two days of meetings, one day field trip to local mines and an optional excursion trip to Phuket. It was an excellent opportunity for SOMP members to meet with mining professors from region of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) including Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines, Cambodia and discuss current and potential mining operations. Participants came from Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam and the USA. Guests came from different universities: UNSW, TFH Bochum, RWTH Aachen, TU Freiberg, Hokkaido University, Kyushu University, Hueva, Chulalongkorn, Chiang Mai, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology, Hanoi University of Natural Resoursces and Environment, Hochiminh City University of Technology. Company representatives came from Vietnam (e.g Besra Vietnam - gold mining, Ymeris Vietnam, Petro Vietnam Drilling Technical Training and Certification, Mining Chemical Industry Holding Corporation etc.) and from the USA (Imerys, and SME representatives). Also guests from the Australian Embassy and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environtment and the Geology Association of Vietnam were present.

The 25th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, June 26-30, 2014 under the leadership of Prof. Ronny Webber-Youngman. The event was hosted both by the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand. Prior to the meeting and in coordination with the organizers, a WFEO capacity building workshop was held in the Maslow Hotel. The 25th SOMP meeting enjoyed a record attendance of members and spouces.

The 2nd SOMP Regional Meeting was held on 19-20 October, 2014, in Vung Tau City, Vietnam. The regional meeting also included a Workshop on Creating Sustainable Partnerships for the Mining Industry. During the meeting (2days), after the report of the annual SOMP meeting in S.A and consequences for the regional meeting (by our colleague Dr. Rattmann) and the brief overview of the planned SOMP activities in 2014 - 2015 (by Prof. Mischo) a  follow-up of the first regional SOMP meeting in Chiang Mai Thailand 2013 was presented by Prof. Pinyo and introduced Vietnam Mining and Geological Schools.  Participants were briefed on trends in capacity building in Southeast Asia and the capacity of mining R&D. Workshops were held with the SOMP Capacity Building Committee, which included topics in sustainable development, cooperation networking and social media.  The workshop from the World Federation of Engineering Organization was also integrated into the SOMP regional meeting. Dr. Jessica Kogel spoke about mining in the context of sustainable development and Prof. David Laurence talked about operationalizing sustainable development. From the Southeast Asia side, Bresa Vietnam presented an example of using water at this company, which was followed by a panel discussion. The panel of stakeholders discussed mining and water utilization in Southeast Asia, and was chaired by Prof. Kretschmann and representatives from industry, government and NGOs. 

The Strategic Planning Committee (includes current and future officers and active members representing the global nature of SOMP) met in person in Aachen (May 29-30, 2015) to discuss the future of the Society.

The 26th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Freiberg, Germany between 21-26 June 2015, under the leadership of Prof. Helmut Mischo. The event was hosted both by the University of Freiberg and it was in conjunction with the celebration of the 250 years of Bergakademie Freiberg. A total of 123 participants attended the meeting (77 SOMP members, 21 accompanying persons, 25 non-members). The participants represented 25 countries. There were 30 technical papers published in the proceedings, with a total of 80 contributors. A total of 29 oral presentations and 10 poster presentations were included in the program.

The 3rd SOMP Regional Meeting was held between 28 September and 2 October 2015 by the Namibia University of Science and Technology’s Department of Mining and Process Engineering in Windhoek, Namibia. The theme of the conference was "Building Capacity for the Mineral Industry" and featured technical presentations from academics, government and Industry professionals on a wide range of topics.

The 4th SOMP Regional Meeting was held between 26 and 28 May, 2016 in the city of Medellin, Colombia by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Professor Oscar Jaime Restrepo Baena was in charge of the meeting. The theme of the meeting was “Mining Education in Latin America: Current Status and Future Challenges and Prospects”. 

The 5th Society of SOMP Regional Meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand during 30th July – 1st August 2016. The Meeting took place at the famous Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. There were two days of meetings with a one day field trip to the local potash project, that is expected to be the next significant mining investment in Thailand. It was an excellent opportunity for participants to meet with mining professors and academic staffs from mining schools in ASIAN/ASEAN and other regions together with members of the Society of Mining Professors (SOMP) who come from various parts of the world.

The 27th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Washington DC between 21 and 24 September, 2016 under the leadership of Professor Vladislav Kecojevic, West Virginia University. The event was co-organized by Virginia Tech and the University of Kentucky. The meeting had record attendance of 85 SOMP members.

The 28th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Torino, Italy, between 3 and 6 July, 2017 under the leadership of Assoc. Professor Marilena Cardu, Politecnico di Torino. The meeting was attended by 75 members (from 26 countries) and about 20 accompanying persons. The meeting was followed by a technical tour to Carrara and the leaning tower of Pisa.

The 6th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 11 and 14 March 2018.

The 7th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held in Santiago, Chile, during the week of 23-27 April 2018. 

The 29th Annual General Meeting of The Society of Mining Professors / Societät der Bergbaukunde was held in Beijing, China from 3 to 6 July, 2018 under the leadership of Professor Zhongxue Li, University of Science and Technology Beijing. With a goal to reach out into the emerging economies and regions, the meeting was co-organized by China University of Mining Technology (Beijing) and North China Institute of Science and Technology. It was attended by 62 SOMP members as well as 11 international and 19 local non-member attendees. Peer-reviewed full paper proceedings were formally published online with Open Access at https://ojs.library.dal.ca/IJGE/issue/view/789. An oral and video tribute to the out-going Secretary General Professor Bruce Hebblewhite was presented during the swearing-in of Secretary General Professor Vladislav Kecojevic and warmly moved all the audience. The Tashan underground coal mine with top coal caving longwall system and the Antaibao open pit coal mine with mine land revitalization and reuse both located in Shanxi province deeply impressed the participants on the post-conference technical tour.

The 8th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held in Bandung, Indonesia between 26 and 27 July, 2018 at the ITB campus. On July 28 an 1-day field-trip to the Pongkor gold mine operated by PT. Antam Tbk was organized. The day before the SOMP meeting (on 25 July 2018) the organizers hosted an International Symposium with the theme of Mining in Asia.

The 9th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held in Bochum, Germany between 17 and 20 October, 2018. A total of 105 participants, including 37 SOMP members from 10 countries, and from four continents including Asia, Australia, Europe and North America participated in the conference. A total of 19 universities were represented in this meeting. During the regional meeting, a new book on "Technical developments in coal winning" was presented to the participants. Participants received a free copy and additional copies can be purchased through the publisher at https://www.vulkan-shop.de/ebooks/technical-developments-in-coal-winning

The 30th Annual General Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held in Bochum, Germany, between 29 June and 5 July, 2019.  The meeting was hosted by the TH Georg Agricola University under the leadership of Prof. Jürgen Kretschmann. It included a three-day program (1‐3 July, 2019) with a plenary session on the morning of the first day of technical meeting. It also included technical tours in the Ruhr Area on the 4th and 5th of July, 2019. The meeting was attended by a record number of 110 participants,  where Germany was represented by 29 participants, the USA was represented by 11 participants and Australia was represented by 9 participants. There was a total of 30 countries represented in the meeting.

The 31st Annual General Meeting was held in Medellin, Colombia, between September 21 and September 24, 2021. The meeting was co-hosted by the School of Mines at Universidad Nacional de Colombia and AIMC (Asociación de Profesionales del Sector Minero Colombiano – Colombian mining sector professionals), under the leadership of Prof. Oscar Restrepo. It included a three-day program (Sept 22-24) with committee and council meetings held on Sept 21. In addition it included a number of technical tours before and after the meeting. This is the first meeting that was held in hybrid mode, i.e. participants in Medellin interfaced through Zoom with participants from all over the world in different time zones. The meeting was attended by 66 in-person participants and 68 on-line participants representing 19 countries.

The 10th SOMP Regional Meeting was hosted by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru from June 22 to June 24, 2022 under the leadership of Prof. Jorge Soto Yen.

The 32nd Annual General Meeting was held in Namibia between September 11 and September 14, 2022, under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Harmony Musiyarira. The program included a three day program and pre-conference and post-conference mine visits. The meeting was held in a hybrid format. The meeting was attended by a total 68 participants which included 56 SOMP members. There were 51 in-person attendees and 17 online attendees representing 13 countries. The field trip was attended by 33 participants which included 23 SOMP members. The final program is available here.

The 11th SOMP Regional Meeting was held at the Hanoi University of Mining and Geology from 10 to 11 October, 2022 in connection with the International Conference on Geospatial Technologies and Earth Resources (GTER2022).

The 12th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held at the German-Mongolian institute for Resources and Technolgy GMIT, between June 22 and 23, 2023. The meeting took place after the 2nd International Symposium on "Resources and Technology" (June 19-20, 2023) and the 10th Anniversary of GMIT (23 June 2023).

The 33rd Annual General Meeting was held in Clausthal, Germany, under the leadership of Prof. Oliver Langefeld. The meeting was held from September 11, 2023 until September 16, 2023. Council and committee meetings were held in the town of Goslar, Germany. The meeting was attended by 79 SOMP and 12 non-SOMP members from 20 countries representing 7 companies and 45 universities. There were a total of seven mine visits organized over a two-day period preceding the conference.

The 13th Regional Meeting of the Society of Mining Professors was held at the Chongqing University, China, from May 8 through May 12, 2024. The meeting was hosted by the School of Resources and Safety Engineering and coordinated by our SOMP Council member, Dr. Li Liu, Chongqing University. More than 100 participants from universities and industries representing the five continents around the world were at the meeting. The opening ceremony of the meeting was presided over by Professor Baisheng Nie, Dean of the School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Chongqing University. Prof. Yiyu Lu, Vice President of Chongqing University, delivered a welcome speech. Professor Serkan Saydam, University of New South Wales, Australia gave an online welcome speech as the 2023-2024 SOMP President.

The 2024 AGM (34th Annual General Meeting) was held in Sydney, NSW, Australia, between 05 and 11 September in 2024, under the leadership of Professor Serkan Saydam. It included a two-day filed trip visiting two underground mines (5th and 6th September 2024), council and committee meetings (8th September 2024) and three-day conference (9th and 11th September 2024). The meeting was attended by 124 registrants including 97 academics (82 SOMP members) and 12 accompanying persons from 20 countries representing 42 universities and 21 institutions.

In June 2020, the Society published a 30 year anniversary volume which is available here.

Below is a listing of all the Presidents of the Society to date:

Below is a listing of all the Secretary Generals of the Society to date:

Below is a listing of all the Deputy Secretary Generals of the Society to date: