Knowledge exchange leads to "green mining" - Serbia and Finland sign geology agreement

Geological institutes of Serbia and Finland yesterday signed an agreement to improve their cooperation in the exhange of knowledge and technologies for sustainable, environment-friendly mining.

This document was signed by directors Dragoman Rabrenovic and Elias Ekdahl at the first Finnish-Serbian seminar "Geology, Mineral Resources and Green Mining Technologies".

Director of the Geological Institute of Finland stressed that "mining should be invisible in the future," that is, it should have the least possible impact on the environment and people's health.

- We all agree that recycling and energy savings are crucial, but it is also necessary to find new sources of raw materials. We should also consider closing mines, that is, reclaiming such sites. Sustainability is the keyword today, with the society being increasingly critical of the mining sector. A green mining program is already launched in Finland. The aim of our government is to make Finland a pioneer in sustainable mining - said Ekhdal.

As he pointed out, Finland produce 80 percent of the state-of-the-art technologies for the mining sector in cooperation with Sweden.

The Finnish government has earmarked EUR 60 million for the "green mining" program in the budget - for mining companies, technology institutes and research centers. Aside from increasing the efficiency and ensuring the environmental benefits of the new mining technology, the aim is also to discover new models of land recultivation to use after the exploitation or reclamation of closed mines.

- We are working with 12 countries worldwide, so we have a lot of experience. Also, we learn through working with others. Our cooperation with Serbia focuses on laboratory issues, data management, raw materials, metallurgy development, new sources of raw materials, etc. - said the director of the Finnish Geological Institute.

Tomislav Subaranovic, state secretary at the Ministry of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning of Serbia, stated that that ministry was advocating the introduction of a new mining technology for the sake of reducing the harmful effects of mining on the environment.

He also announced that a draft of new Law on Geological Exploration and Mining would be presented next week.

Finnish Ambassador to Serbia Pekka Orpana assessed at the event that Serbia and Finland had a "huge potential" for the development of mining, with environmental sustainability and social sustainability being critical to the process as they can contribute to the competitiveness of that industry.

- Signing of this agreement is an important step towards further cooperation between the two countries in the improvement of mining. This field has a great potential, but it also involves numerous challenges, so that the exchange of knowledge and technologies is very significant - said the ambassador.