THE EXHIBITION 'SHADOWS IN THE ROCKS' FOR THE EUROPEAN MINERALS DAY

The exhibition "Shadows in the Rocks. Minerals and Biodiversity’ was opened on May 12, 2011 in the Regional Historical Museum in Russe. The exposition is jointly organized by the cultural institution and ‘Kaolin’ AD. It is dedicated to the European Minerals Day 2011, held across Europe in 2011, within 13-15 May.

The exhibition exposed twelve different themes, the origin of the Earth to industry and ecology, focusing on mineral wealth and the types of rocks associated with the lives of all living things in many different ways - the origin of rocks, the habitats of plants and animals, use of materials in everyday life and different industries.

‘Shadows in the Rocks’ shows 133 objects - rock samples, minerals and fossils, and feedstock of kaolin mining. A model of kaolin quarry has been exposed.

The exhibition was opened by Nikolay Nenov, director of the museum and Alexander Prokopiev, CEO of ‘Kaolin’. ‘At least before the Russe audience, this exhibition shows for the first time not only diversity in the world, but that interlacing between anthropology and natural history’, said the museum director Nikolay Nenov.’

Rocks are full of life. They may contain fossils - remains of organisms who lived in past geological times, also provide the basis for the life of many plants, and habitat for many species. Minerals make up a part of the rocks, and rocks have not only a structural role – a pavement on which we walk, but also economic importance, said Maya Kubratova – the curator in the Regional Historic Museum- Russe and author of the exposition.

The exhibition ‘Shadows in the Rocks. Minerals and Biodiversity’ will remain open for visits by September this year, tending to become itinerant. The opening of the exhibition was attended by Christopher Boyd of the European Commission, Dr. Michel Remy, Director and General Secretary of IMA Europe; Dipl.-eng. Pencho Tokmakchiev, Chairman of the Federation of Independent Mining Trade Unions Confederation; Ivan Andreev - Executive Director of the Bulgarian Chamber of Mining and Geology; Nadezhda Lazarova, Secretary of the Bulgarian Association of Producers of Aggregates Materials, mining companies and leading manufacturers of glass and faience.