On August 21, the 24th General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) opened in Nanjing. Hosted jointly by Nanjing University and the Chinese Society for Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry under the guidance of IMA, the conference is themed "Mineralogy in the Future" and runs from August 20 to 24. This marks the return of the conference to China after 36 years, following the 15th meeting held in Beijing in 1990. Over 700 experts, scholars, and graduate students from 29 countries and regions attended the event.
Minerals are natural carriers recording the formation and evolutionary history of the Earth and planets, and serve as important windows for understanding deep processes, resource formation, environmental changes, and material cycles. Currently, the research boundaries of mineralogy continue to expand, increasingly intersecting and merging with major scientific and social issues such as deep Earth, critical mineral resources, energy transition, global carbon cycles, and planetary science. Gathering top global scholars, this conference will showcase the theoretical research progress in mineralogy and the latest pioneering achievements in resources, energy, environment, and planetary science.
Professor Lu Xiancai, Chair of the Local Organizing Committee of the conference and Vice President of Nanjing University, stated that over the past 30 years, Chinese mineralogy has developed rapidly, with nearly half of the papers in important international mineralogy journals coming from China. The discipline has not only made significant progress in traditional fields but also demonstrated a leading trend in more frontier directions, which is an important reason why the conference chose China and Nanjing, a major hub for geological research in China, once again. He introduced that currently, while consolidating its basic disciplinary capabilities, mineralogy is being deeply empowered by big data science and artificial intelligence. The "Deep-time Digital Earth" mega-science program is driving mineralogy research towards a data-driven transformation. Regarding mineralogy talent cultivation at Nanjing University, on one hand, it vigorously promotes interdisciplinary integration by deeply embedding artificial intelligence into mineral physical chemistry research, helping students solidify their physical, chemical, and AI foundations, and improving their innovative capabilities in exploring frontier open fields. On the other hand, it closely aligns with major national needs by incorporating all senior students into major national scientific research projects, tempering their innovative abilities and patriotic sentiments through practice.
Professor Wang Rucheng, an academic leader in mineralogy at Nanjing University, stated that minerals play a critical role in strategic emerging national industries. Taking lithium needed for new energy batteries as an example, its source is lithium-bearing minerals like mica in granite. Crystal (quartz) abundant in Donghai, Jiangsu, is an important raw material for manufacturing solar panels, while crucibles made of high-purity quartz are essential consumables for preparing high-performance materials like superconductors. Wang Rucheng said that the current core task of mineralogy is to study the conditions under which useful elements form minerals and methods for efficiently extracting these elements. Today, the application of artificial intelligence and big data is helping researchers locate resource distribution more precisely.
During the opening ceremony, many internationally renowned experts attending the meeting also shared their insights on mineralogy research and expressed their visions for the future of the discipline. Renowned mineralogist and earth scientist, Professor Robert Hazen, Senior Scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US, stated that minerals are highly information-rich "time capsules," and each piece is a storybook waiting to be opened. Currently, China and the US are working together to build big data resources and apply new mineral informatics methods to jointly solve puzzles such as planetary history, the origin of life, and the distribution of critical resources (like lithium, cobalt, and rare earths).
Renowned mineralogist and petrologist, Professor Hans-Peter Schertl, a senior researcher at the Institute of Geology, Mineralogy, and Geophysics at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, stated that the quality of scientific research in China has significantly improved over the past two to three decades. The remarkable achievements such as the Chang'e lunar exploration program bringing back lunar soil are important reasons why the conference returned to China after many years. He believes that international cooperation is key to meaningful research, and mineralogy is developing towards entirely new directions such as the nanoscale, which is expected to provide technological support for a green future.
According to reports, the conference features over 40 thematic sessions, focusing on research directions such as "four-deep" mineralogy, critical metal mineralogy, carbon neutrality mineralogy, planetary mineralogy, mineralogy frontiers, and mineral informatics. During the meeting, 4 plenary lectures, 3 IMA medalist lectures, and 2 IMA presidential lectures will be held, along with a series of academic activities such as oral presentations, poster exhibitions, and field excursions. The conference lasts for 5 days, during which Chinese and foreign scholars will engage in in-depth exchanges on frontier mineralogy theories and technical applications, contributing wisdom to address global resource, energy, and environmental challenges.
