The World Conference on Sampling and Blending (WCSB), to be held in South Africa, 21-23 May 2024, is the eleventh such conference to promote the Theory of Sampling (TOS). These conferences provide a meeting place for people interested in sampling theory, practice, experience, applications, and standards.
The Conference will provide understanding and insights for academics, manufacturers, engineering firms and practitioners aiming to achieve representative sampling. TOS effectively identifies the source of sampling variability and provides valuable solutions for minimising each source of sampling uncertainty.
The aim of WCSB11 is to invite and encourage the diverse international sampling community to adopt and disseminate the concepts and ideas for a standardized approach to sampling embodied in the TOS. The Conference will also offer a forum for fruitful discussions between statisticians committed to ‘Measurement of Uncertainty’ (MU) and proponents of the TOS by offering a unifying foundation for development of better and more general standards. While the Theory of Sampling had its historical origins in the mining industry, today it also applies to sampling of a broad range of bulk materials, minerals, agricultural raw materials and products, the food, feed, and pharmaceutical industries, as well as sampling for environmental applications.
WCSB11 is an event of global significance that aims to improve sampling practices in all sectors of science, technology, and industry, for consultants, managers, sampling and quality control staff, researchers, engineers, and manufacturers operating in many industries, The opportunity to meet, exchange ideas, and share practical experiences will be a significant benefit for attendees. The proceedings of the Conference will be published in electronic format with a strict adherence to an editorial and peer review policy that will allow academics to attract the publication subsidy for published academic research. Adherence to these standards will enable the wider dissemination of the TOS in international scientific, technological, and industrial sectors. WCSBs have helped to promote the teaching of TOS at universities, with postgraduate courses in TOS being taught in some countries. Pierre Gy Gold Medals are awarded at each WCSB conference to individuals who have been most effective and successful around the world in disseminating and promoting TOS. This achievement will again be celebrated at WCSB11. These medallists are a unified body of champions capable of teaching, promoting, and researching aspects of sampling theory and practice, supporting the efforts of original equipment manufacturers to uphold TOS rules of sample representativeness.
WCSB conferences aim to develop a unified vision for specific quality control protocols for sampling and blending activities, with participation and collaboration of industry professionals. The theme of sustainable science, technology, and industry introduced at WCSB10 is upheld, with emphasis on the UN World Development Goals number 9 and 12, addressing sustainable industry, innovation, and infrastructure, and responsible production and consumption. Topics around societal, industrial, and environmental aspects of particulate sampling in mining, minerals processing, metals, cement, food and feed, agriculture and aquaculture, and pharmaceuticals may be addressed. An emphasis on the TOS, blending, sampling design and its role in metrology, estimation of sampling characteristics and heterogeneity studies, sampling and its effect on exploration, geostatistical studies, and grade control, sampling for feasibility studies and process control, practical applications for analysis and treatment of precious metals, and new technologies are anticipated. Sampling for environmental contamination studies and sustainability are also included. We encourage attendees and authors to contribute to sustainable industries.