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Cape Town 21-23 October The Fourth World Conference on Sampling and Blending (WCSB4) was held in Cape Town, South Africa during October 2009. WCSB4 follows the first three successful WCSB conferences held in Esbjerg (2003), Brisbane (2005) and Porto Alegre (2007). The next conference (WCSB5) will be held in Chile in 2011. The WCSB was initiated in Denmark as a forum for interaction between sampling practitioners from different disciplines operating in a diversity of fields such as mining, industry, agriculture, environmental sciences, medicine, pharmacy and others. Despite the many applications and numerous challenges facing samplers throughout the world there is commonality to be found in the application of principles and in finding solutions. The WSCB conferences are aimed at improving the level of understanding of the theory and practice of sampling, encouraging best practice and allowing an exchange of ideas associated with the theory of sampling and the practical application. Along with a worldwide focus on corporate governance in recent years there is a greater need for compliance with international standards and reporting codes. Sampling results form the foundation on which many important (and often costly) decisions are based and errors associated with poor sampling are simply compounded when the results are used for further interpretation (e.g. estimation). |
