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Building Bridges and Capacity in Sustainable Mining Education in South East Asia
A/Prof David Laurence recently co-organised the first Asian Mining Education Network meeting highlighted by a two day seminar entitled “Meeting the Challenge – Achieving Sustainable Mining Practices in South East Asia”. It was held at the Centara Duangtawan Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand on July 30-31, 2008.
David Laurence introducing the Sustainable Mining Seminar
The host-in-country and co-organiser was A/Prof Pinyo Meechumna from the Department of Mining and Petroleum Engineering, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand. This institution is recognized as the premier mining school in SE Asia. Pinyo is an active member of the Society of Mining Professors and is very keen for interchange and sharing of ideas between the SE Asian region and Australia.
Sponsorship for the Seminar was provided by AusAID (seed funding), UNSW, Chulalongkorn, Chiang Mai University, JICA (Japan) and 5 mining companies, operating in SE Asia. The companies included Laos-based OZMinerals and PanAust, who operate the Sepon and Phu Bia mines respectively; Akara Minerals, operating the Chatree gold mine in Thailand; Banpu who operate coal mines mainly in Indonesia and CGA who operate mines in the Philippines.
The aims of the seminar were:
- To highlight positive examples of leading, sustainable mining practices in the South East Asian region
- To disseminate and publicise these examples amongst government and interested communities
- To build a Network of mining educators and mine operators in the region and thus strengthen capacity in mining education
Rehabilation success at the Mae Moh Lignite Mine, Thailand
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The reasons for the seminar include the following:
- Mining is booming in most of the Asia-Pacific region fuelled by growth in China and India
- This has brought a renewed interest in mineral exploration and mining in the ASEAN economies as well as Australia, PNG and other Pacific countries
- New mining fields being developed eg
- Thailand – Kingsgate resources – gold mining
- Laos – Oxiana – gold and copper
- Vietnam – coal fields Khoai Chau near Hanoi
- Revival in other countries eg
- Many if not most of the new mining projects in SE Asia are owned and operated by Australian mining companies
- There is often tension between competing land uses eg Quang Ninh coal fields and Han Long Bay in Vietnam
- Sustainability issues exist in all countries especially environmental and social issues
- There is a strong demand for mining graduates throughout the region
- Difficulties in staffing mining schools with experienced academics
- Opportunities for sharing and innovation
- Synergies in location – traveling times not onerous
- Due to the boom, it is a good time to seek research funding from industry and governments
The success of the seminar was most obvious in the numbers of delegates attracted to it. Over 100 delegates attended as shown in the attached photograph. Participants included Heads of mining schools and other faculty in the ASEAN region; local mining company representatives, government officials and other interested persons. Eleven countries were represented. The Seminar included a field trip to the Mae Moh Lignite mine, the largest in Asia, which supplies a 2400MWatt power station.
David also was a keynote speaker at the AunSEED-Net/JICA organised Workshop on Sustainable Geological and resources education delivering a paper “Sustainable Mining Practices in Asia – Achievable or Not?”
Click here to download the first newsletter for the Asia-Pacific Mining Education Network.
Rudrajit Mitra
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