April 30, 1999 For five days in May, scientists from around the world will share information about an often-overlooked aspect of the Intermountain West's magnificent natural resources: industrial minerals.

The 35th Forum on the Geology of Industrial Minerals will meet at Cavanaughs Olympus Hotel from Sunday, May 2, to Friday, May 7. In addition to 41 technical presentations and 23 poster sessions, attendees will be able to participate in field trips to industrial mineral sites on the shores of the Great Salt Lake; quarries in Cottonwood and Red Butte canyons; and production and mining facilities in the Salt Lake Valley, west-central Utah, and southeastern Idaho.

The annual meetings are typically hosted by a state geological survey in the U.S. or by a Canadian provincial survey. The host this year is the Utah Geological Survey, with Bryce Tripp, program manager of the Economics Section, acting as general chair. This year's meeting has attracted 200 participants and attendees from 25 states and six foreign countries, including Canada, Greece, Turkey, Great Britain, Chile, and Spain.

The Forum's purpose is to promote discussion of industrial mineral geology, production, uses, economics, and marketing. In the intermountain region, the most economically significant industrial minerals include sand and gravel, crushed stone, gypsum, clay, limestone and dolomite, perlite, phosphate, potash, salt, and building stone. Gypsum is used in the manufacture of wallboard and plaster; clay is used in oil well drilling as well as for making bricks and tile, limestone and dolomite are used to make cement and masonry mortar, perlite is incorporated into potting soil, phosphate and potash are components of plant fertilizers, and salt is sold for human and animal consumption and in deicing roads. Utah and the rest of the Intermountain West are rich in those minerals.

An informal organization of geologists dedicated to sharing information on industrial rocks and minerals, the Forum was founded in 1965 by Robert L. Bates, a professor at Ohio State University, to promote the study of industrial minerals as a distinct geoscience discipline.