The 12th International Salt Symposium, organized almost every year by the Polish Salt Mining Association (PSGS) under the slogan "Quo Vadis Sal", was held on October 11-12, 2007 in Kłodawa. The main topic of the meeting was the role of the salt industry in the economy. The symposium was attended by 101 people from 35 institutions, including foreign guests from Belarus, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey, and was held under the patronage of the Minister of Economy.
The 12th International Salt Symposium, organized almost every year by the Polish Salt Mining Association (PSGS) under the slogan "Quo Vadis Sal", was held on October 11-12, 2007 in Kłodawa. The main topic of the meeting was the role of the salt industry in the economy. The symposium was attended by 101 people from 35 institutions, including foreign guests from Belarus, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Turkey, and was held under the patronage of the Minister of Economy. The professional composition of the participants is mainly geologists, miners, mine surveyors, employees of science, industry and offices, as well as business representatives (Photo 1). There were 24 papers prepared by 38 authors (6 in the field of geology, 6 - geomechanics, 7 - mining, 5 - geophysics, surveying and cartography), whose bilingual (Polish and English) summaries were included in specially prepared symposium materials. The symposium was hospitably hosted and one of its main sponsors was the KŁODAWA Salt Mine, providing participants with an excellent atmosphere as well as logistical support and premises and catering facilities. 

The presented papers - see: "Conference materials" file - were divided into 4 main thematic groups. Presentations on geology (1) concerned: the state of geological recognition of undeveloped salt domes in Poland qualifying as potential objects for the construction of cavern storages, the occurrence and characteristics of Permian bison rocks in Poland as a rock center for radioactive waste storage, studies of inclusions in rock salts and the occurrence and the genesis of blue halite in the light of geochemical and structural studies.
Geomechanical issues of salt rocks (2) were discussed in papers presenting the results of laboratory tests of Permian salt series rocks, measurements of displacements in salt chambers and modeling of structures with calculation of displacements and stresses using the finite element method.
Mining issues (3) were discussed in presentations concerning: the policy, methods and possibilities of gas storage and storage of radioactive waste and CO2 in salt deposits, forecasting changes in the shape of storage caverns when using brine as a buoyancy medium, mechanical mining of rock salt and forecasting - inter alia through the construction 3D models of the construction of the salt rock mass and excavations - gas and water hazards in salt mines.
The issues of measurement, interpretation and archiving techniques (4) were presented in papers devoted to: comprehensive geophysical profiling of salt rocks in boreholes, techniques of spatial laser scanning of excavations, construction of three-dimensional images of infrastructure and geological structure of salt mines, and systems for archiving maps and mining data on the example of resources documentation of the mine in Bochnia.
Noteworthy is the paper in which K. Cyran, L. Natkaniec-Nowak and T. Toboła draw attention to the occurrence of inclusions in salt rocks, methods of their identification, classification and interpretation to read the history of the rock, the impact of stresses and the presence of fluids. Combining inclusions with appropriate physico-chemical studies, and in particular with the impact of stresses using image analysis methods, may enrich the knowledge about the processes of multiphase transformations in salt rocks. 
In geomechanical studies, there has recently been an interest in linking the displacements observed in excavations and on the ground surface with the results of modeling with FEM programs. The emerging field of research should in the future create new opportunities in geomechanics, allowing for the determination of the properties of large rock mass areas for the purposes of forecasting and verification by measuring the results of geomechanical modeling in 3D space, taking into account time. The papers of J. Bieniasz, G. Kortas, A. Maj and W. Wojnar dealt with this subject.
The possibility of locating water and gas hazards based on lithological-tectonic correlations is indicated by S. Burliga and G. Misiek based on observations and research in the Kłodawa mine. Developing this topic with an analysis of the tectonics of the deposit, statistical treatment of numerous water and gas phenomena and the construction of spatial models of their distribution (paper by M. Tomaszczyk and his team) may in the future allow to develop criteria for potential threat, and taking into account mining works - also to assess the risk levels in underground mine as well as threats to the tightness of caverns. 
The need to archive cartographic data on old mining was signaled by J. Maciaszek, who suggested that it should cover all cartographic data, numerical data and records on the locations of excavations. The created catalog could be made available in the area information mode, e.g. via the Internet.
A fascinating point of the symposium program was the participants' trip to the level of -600m in the mine in Kłodawa (Photo 2; see also - GALLERY tab, photo collection by Maciej Tomaszczyk), where within the constantly expanded tourist route, seasoned geologists (G. Misiek, P. Kolonko and S. Janiów) and miners from the mine services explained the geological profile of the Upper Permian formations (the only one so complete and useful for research in Poland), specific phenomena of salt tectonics, methods and problems of salt exploitation in a complicated dome deposit and the existing water and gas hazards. 

It should be emphasized the high substantive level of the presentations, good editorial preparation of the symposium materials (great credit goes to the secretary of the association, Krzysztof Bukowski, who undertook the effort to compile and prepare for printing the materials provided) and the simultaneous translation of the presentations into two languages. The content of the papers has been made available in the form of PDF files. on this page (activation of the file after clicking on the selected title in the list of papers). Submitted full texts of speeches will be presented in the next issue of Przegląd Solny (planned for 2008). The report from the Symposium was also published in the Geological Review. 
Annual conferences in the "Quo Vadis Sal" series, organized by the Polish Salt Mining Association, have traditionally become the main forum for the exchange of thoughts and experiences of specialists dealing with the issues of exploration, research and development of salt deposits and broadly understood salt "marketing".

Grzegorz Kortas, Grzegorz Czapowski

Quo Vadis Sal 2007 - Conference materials