UK Scientists Hold Workshop On Sustainable Mining

The School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) recently held a week-long workshop on sustainable mining in the Philippines.

Photo Insert: LJMU’s School of Biological and Environmental Sciences recently delivered a week-long sustainable mining workshop in the Philippines.

The workshop, hosted by the University of the Philippines Los Baños, covered a variety of innovative environmental and ecological monitoring systems for aquatic habitats, and it was attended by mining experts, government officials, scientists, and academics from across the country.

The Philippines is one of the world's most mineral-rich countries, particularly in metals such as chromium, copper, nickel, and cobalt, all of which are crucial to the global net-zero transition.

These metals are essential components of batteries as well as green technology such as solar panels, wind turbines, and electric automobiles. However, no new mining activities have happened in the Philippines in the last ten years, raising public worry about the environmental and human health implications of future mining activity.

The symposium was held as part of the PAMANA (Filipino for "legacy" or "heritage") project, which is co-funded by the UK Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC) and the Philippine Department of Science and Technology (DOST).

It is a huge international partnership involving five UK institutions (Liverpool John Moores University, University of Glasgow, University of Hull, University of Exeter, and Brunel University London) and four Philippine universities.

The major goal of the PAMANA project is to develop a new national-scale framework for monitoring and analyzing the environmental and ecological impacts of mining in the Philippines.

Experts from LJMU are presently active in the development of unique, technology-led techniques and their integration with Philippine regulatory institutions. Through new regulatory standards and monitoring methodologies, the purpose is to assist the Philippines in developing and expanding their mining activities while conserving the environment and ecosystems.

The workshop was the first stage in developing the capacity of Philippine researchers, government monitoring agencies, and mining firms to monitor and mitigate the future environmental and social repercussions of mining.

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