Catalogue description Department of Education and Science: Mineral Resources Consultative Committee: Agenda, Minutes and Papers

The papers are grouped under the two headings "Agenda and minutes" and "Papers".

The Mineral Resources Consultative Committee was set up in 1967 as the successor of the Minerals Sub-Committee of the Advisory Committee on Natural Resources of the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources. The new committee's terms of reference were to review present requirements and to forecast future demands for mineral resources; to identify problems associated with the availability, exploitation and use of mineral resources and to assign priorities for carrying out special investigations; and to assist the Institute of Geological Sciences (IGS) in implementing special projects as necessary. The committee was asked to focus its attention on UK minerals and to concentrate on actual problems. It was not to cover organisational structures or responsibilities nor was it to intervene in the running of the IGS.

The committee was chaired by the under-secretary of state with responsibility for science in the Department of Education and Science and its membership was made up of representatives from government departments which had an interest in the results of geological research. These included the Natural Environment Research Council and the IGS.

Under the guidance of the Committee the IGS produced a number of dossiers on a variety of minerals. Reports were also produced by the two working groups set up by the committee, one on mineral statistics and another on data requirements for forecasting demand.

No meetings were held after 1972, though the final dossiers were approved and the committee was probably wound up informally during the following year.