Professor Chris Austin welcomed the officers on behalf of the University
Fifteen mining officers from the Indonesian Ministry of the Environment will study how the Australian mining industry cares for its environment over the next month.
The environmental mining officers have enrolled in a special course of study by Charles Darwin University that will see them examining environmental practices at several mines in the Top End.
The course will include mine environmental regulation, water quality monitoring and assessment and the rehabilitation of mined areas after mine closure.
Funded by AusAid, the environmental mining course is the first of its kind under an agreement between the Australian and Indonesian governments.
The course is a collaborative effort between the Supervising Scientist Division of the Australian Government Department of the Environment and Heritage, CDU, the Northern Territory Government and the Indonesian Ministry of the Environment.
Dr Sean Bellairs, a lecturer in plant science and restoration ecology at CDU, said the course participants would visit the Ranger mine at Jabiru as well as mine sites at Mt Todd, Pine Creek, Rum Jungle and the Woodcutters’ mine site near Batchelor.
‘They will spend the first two weeks looking at working mines and at mine sites that have been restored,’ Dr Bellairs said. ‘They will be shown how to recognise environmental impact issues, how to monitor that impact and how to restore mine sites.’
The second part of their course will involve management training so that on their return to Indonesia the officers will be able to train up other members of the mining work force.