I thought I needed to respond to several of your comments in your recent postings. The 2009 SME pre-print contained a little less than 50% of all papers presented. There will never be 100% participation for a variety of reasons including the fact that those working in industry today barely have time to come and present a paper, much less write about it. In addition, some mining companies have a long approval process and legal review that prevents individuals interested in writing papers from being able to do so.

SME, just like all other publishers, does not publish material we don’t have rights too. It’s the legal issue, call me I’ll be happy to explain. But, if you read our authors copyright form, you’ll note that the author of the paper can utilize it for his/her own purpose and SME has never turned down an author’s request for their own purpose.

In addition, SME invested it’s money in streaming the opening session and three Monday afternoon sessions live on our website. These are now located in the member only section of the SME website and any SME member is welcome to view this content. We have captured more of the content than you give us credit for in your article.

And finally Jack, you didn’t register to attend the sessions. You registered at the SME meeting as a exhibitor non-member. Although I’m sure you recieved a copy of the pre-print CD, offically you didn’t pay or purchase the proper registration to recieve the CD. SME was kind enough to give International Mining and Infomine a complimentary booth. If we are nice enough to do that for you, don’t you think you should give SME the courtesy of a little research and the complete factual information.

Dave Kanagy
SME Executive Director