Photo beside the Claylands in Cornwall: From left to right: Dr Elizabeth Adey, Jamie Keech, Adrian Minut, Cecilia Szentesy, Dr Peter Whitbread-Abrutat, Professor Frances Wall, Dr Lena Alakangas, Georgina Pearman, Professor Ivo Colak, Dr Ivan Lovric and Professor Calin Baciu.
Social impacts of mining at home and abroad
The University of Exeter’s, Camborne School of Mines, hosted visitors from Europe who carry out research on the social impacts of mining.
The workshop investigating the environmental, social and economic impacts of mining forms part of a European project, called ImpactMin.
The project aims are to promote responsible mining by taking a holistic approach, addressing potential environmental, social and economic impacts that mining may have. ImpactMin will utilise remote sensing technology to monitor environmental impacts of mining operations.
Professor Frances Wall, Head of Camborne School of Mines said, “The workshop is an ideal opportunity to show off some of Cornwall’s post mining projects such as The Eden Project and the Geevor Tin Mine Museum. We compared our experiences in Cornwall with those in the partner countries, where all have current or recent mining activity.”
Scientists and academics from the Geonardo Environmental Technologies in Hungary, the University of Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Lulea University of Technology in Sweden and the Babes-Bolyai University, Romania participated in research to explore what people think of the mining industry. This included looking at how it affects people’s lives at different site across Europe and Russia.
ImaptMin project coordinator Peter Gyuris from Geonardo, Hungary said, “It is likely that Europe will need to mine more of its own metals in the future rather than relying on imports. Understandably, people are worried about environmental impacts of new (and old) mines and our project will help monitor this. A first stage is to carry out research to find out what people’s main concerns are.”
The workshops included visits to a range of sites across Cornwall that reflect current mining industry at the clay lands, in addition to visiting post-mining heritage sites and tourist attractions at Geevor Tin Mine Museum and the Eden Project.
Cecilia Szentesy, technical design director for Roşia Montană Gold Corporation, said “My company is planning to open a gold mine in Romania. Surprisingly perhaps, opening a mine now also involves planning what will happen to the environment and community after the mine closes. I have been very impressed by the Eden Project and Geevor Tin Mine Museum in Cornwall.”
Date: 2 June 2010
