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Mineral wealth plays a critical role in developing countries, yet ironically being resource rich can be labelled ‘a curse’. An Australian initiative being advanced by UWA aims to turn that around.

Addressing an International Monetary Fund seminar in Washington last year, the University of California’s Political Science Professor Michael Ross suggested that mineral wealth can make low-income countries less democratic and more likely to experience a civil war: “Many countries also find it hard to use their natural resource revenues to make high-quality, growth-enhancing investments,” he observed.

As one of the world’s most successful minerals exporters and a leader in sustainable mining, Australia is using its expertise to help developing nations exploit their resources sustainably – and UWA is playing a significant role.

When Perth hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) last year, Prime Minister Julia Gillard launched the International Mining for Development Initiative at UWA – and delegate countries at the gathering are already taking advantage of the initiative.

At the launch, the Prime Minister told visitors that Australia was a global leader in the mining industry: “We’ve been in the mining game for more than 200 years and there’s no better place in the country to make a statement about mining expertise than here in Western Australia,” she said.

“The Mining for Development initiative will allow us, Australia, to share our significant expertise. The objectives are very simple: to help developing countries to do mining well, to protect the environment as they do so, to ensure that local communities benefit and to maximise the dividend that comes from the mineral wealth in their ground.

“We want to make sure resource-rich developing countries use opportunities generated by mining to create much needed education and job opportunities for some of the world’s most vulnerable people. Well-governed mining, gas and petroleum sectors can help reduce poverty, and a developing country’s dependency on aid.

“The centre-piece of the initiative is the International Mining for Development Centre based in the University of Western Australia’s Energy and Mineral Institute, operating in partnership with the University of Queensland’s Sustainable Minerals Institute. The first-class expertise on offer at both of these universities will mean this new centre will be a valuable resource for developing countries around the globe.”

UWA’s Director of the International Mining for Development Centre, Ian Satchwell, is excited by the initiative’s promise of delivering better outcomes to developing nations. And he brings a wealth of industry experience (in Australia and internationally) to the cause, having held executive posts with Australian services firms and served as trade and investment advisor to the Government of Indonesia.

“There is so much to do out there – and we’re amazed by the level of interest already from developing countries,” says Mr Satchwell.

The centre will operate in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania and the Middle East, but it has prioritised certain countries – such as Indonesia, Mongolia, Mozambique, Ghana, Zambia and Peru – that have the capacity to rapidly benefit from the initiative.

“The history of mining in building developing country economies has been patchy, with more case studies of failure than success to date. We believe this initiative will help to turn that around,” says Mr Satchwell.

“An interesting trend in developing countries is the emergence of activist groups that want to know how a mine will operate, how the land will be rehabilitated, and how locals will benefit. Indigenous communities in particular want to be engaged and are well organised in terms of communications.

“So the bad old days of governments and miners walking in and turning people off their land are long gone. Today companies know that if they don’t operate well, their shortcomings will be communicated globally, they will face a population that will be antimining, and life will become far more difficult.”

Mr Satchwell points out that not only is Australia in the midst of the biggest investment wave domestically since the 1890s gold rush, but our mining companies are exploring and developing across the globe, with an unprecedented wave of overseas investment.

“Australian investment worth $50 billion is happening in Africa right now and around half of that is controlled by companies based in Perth,” he says. “This is also happening in other locations as diverse as Mongolia and Peru, and it’s happening fast. At the same time, rapid growth in the Australian mining equipment, technology and services (METS) sector is following these overseas investments.

“Both UWA and UQ are hubs of industry learning and research closely linked to the METS sector, so both institutions are experiencing rapid growth in demand for education and research services in Australia and internationally.

“We have complementary capacities working with UQ, so by engaging collaboratively we can create hybrid vigour through closely allied levels of knowledge.

“Mining today is increasingly about sustainability, community relations and local business development. That’s important in the Australian context but doubly so in developing countries.

“We want to ensure that mining development avoids pitfalls, one of which is operating in an isolated enclave that delivers royalties and taxes for the host country, but not much more. When there’s a gap between the company and local community expectations, there may also be sub-optimal social and environmental impacts.

“Both the Federal Government and international development community realise that the assistance offered by the Mining for Development Centre constitutes the very best development aid in that it results in poverty reduction and economic growth.

“What we find in countries without mining history is the lack of professional development systems. That is where UWA and our partners play to their strengths because both universities have expertise in the full mine cycle: from gathering and disseminating geological data through exploration to mine operation to mine closure, land rehabilitation and issues relating to the post-mining economy.”

Through AusAID, the Australian Government funds the centre to provide practical advisory, education and training services for developing countries, focusing on government and civil society institutions. There are also dedicated undergraduate and postgraduate Australian Mining Awards scholarships.

AusAID funds some Federal and State Government agencies to work more closely with their counterparts in developing countries to improve public sector capacity. Capacity-building support will also be given to select NGOs that are active in social and environmentally sustainable activities.

Recently the centre ran a course in one of Africa’s poorest nations, Burkina Faso. Mining is making a difference to this country which became Africa’s fourth biggest gold producer this year.

The five-week course run for government and resource company employees from throughout West Africa was delivered by the UWA-based Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) which is partnering with a new geological training institute, Teng Tuuma Geoservices, being established in Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou.

A joint venture between UWA, Curtin University and the minerals industry, CET has become one of the world’s largest exploration research and training groups. Offering training in diverse locations, it also welcomes students from many nations to the UWA campus. Apart from an extensive research portfolio on every continent except Antarctica, CET trains the geoscientists and other specialists currently in high demand by the minerals industry.

Calling on the expertise of eminent specialists, CET maintains strong links with industry and aims to become the mineral exploration geoscience equivalent of Harvard Business School in the US.

Also experiencing significant demand for its services, the International Mining for Development Centre has held land rehabilitation programs in Peru, and recently committed to developing a comprehensive training program for Indonesian mine inspectors.

The centre has also hosted a Ministerial delegation from Afghanistan and is currently running a 12-week short course for Afghanistan mine ministry officials.

With foreign troops preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, mining companies around the world are expressing interest in the minerals and hydrocarbons known to exist in the war-ravaged country.

Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Australia, Nasir Andisha, believes aid assistance through training scholarships will help his country.

“We have requested scholarships so people from our Ministry of Mines and from our mining sectors can come here to be trained,” he says. “And we have requested training of officials in terms of the regulations, taxing system, relationships, and also transparency and accounting regulations.”

While geologists and miners from China and India are already initiating what is hoped will be a post-war mining boom, no Australian companies yet operate in Afghanistan. However, the International Mining for Development Centre will certainly be playing a role in shaping the skills needed to “do mining well”, as Julia Gillard put it, and to spread the benefits from that troubled nation’s mineral endowment.

Published in Uniview Vol. 31 No. 3 Spring 2012