TWO-WEEKS TRAINING PROGRAMME ON MINE MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE ASSURANCE 14 - 25 Sept, 2015

A two-weeks training programme on Mine Management and Compliance Assurance was conducted by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, India in collaboration with the Geological Survey and Mine Bureau (GSMB), Sri Lanka, from 14 to 25 September 2015. There were 7 GSMB officials, and 9 consultants from private organizations like GSMB Technical Services (Pvt.) Ltd, Master Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd., CML – MTD (Pvt.) Ltd., and Business Promoters & Partners Engineering (Pvt.) Ltd.,. 

Mr. Sujit Kumar Singh, Programme Manager, CSE, welcomed the guest to the training programme. During his introductory speech, Mr. Sujit highlighted the importance of this training for both, the mining officials as well as the private company officials. He also emphasized the need for capacity building in order to develop better mine management practices, for better compliance, and for carrying out thorough monitoring. This was followed by a brief presentation from Ms. Swati Sambyal, (Senior Research Associate, CSE), sensitizing the participants about CSE and its past work in Sri Lanka. 

The programme facilitated experience sharing on mine management, rules and regulations, and compliance assurance. The programme covered topics like environmental and social issues associated with mining projects, environmental clearance process in India and Sri Lanka and their comparison, mining and its impact on bio-diversity, mine planning, laws and rules applicable for mining, mining technologies, mining and its impacts on hydrology, and its mitigation, framework for conducting mine inspections, mine safety and its reference to open cast and underground mining, tools and techniques used for impact assessment, air quality assessment, best practices in mine management (air, water, waste and noise), and benefit sharing. Apart from this, there were class exercises to give hands-on experience to the participants on strength and weakness of environmental clearance process in India and Sri Lanka, ToR preparation for mining projects, mineral assessment, preparation of inspection checklist for mine inspection, preparation for environmental management plan (EMP) for mining projects, review of EIA and EMP report of mining project, and environmental clearance conditions. The key resource faculties from CSE for this programme were Mr. Sujit Kumar Singh, Dr D.D. Basu, and Mrs. Srestha Banerjee. The external speakers invited for this programme were Dr. S. P. Banerjee (Ex- Dean, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad), and Mr. Arun Kumar Yadav, an independent consultant.

The programme received a very positive feedback from all the participants. Most of the participants said that the knowledge acquired from this training will be useful to them in their fieldwork, and will help them to monitor compliance during inspection. They have requested for more site visits in order to get more practical exposure.