KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

ROK in the 14th ASOMM+3:

Increased Global Roles of KIGAM

The 14th ASOMM+3 Meeting was held virtually on October 7th, 2021. This year’s host country is Vietnam, and the 10 ASEAN Member States (AMS) and the ‘Plus Three Countries-China, Japan, and Republic of Korea’ joined as with the observatory status on this particular meeting. Although we live in the ongoing pandemic world, AMS and the Plus Three Countries struggle to move onto the ‘New Normal’ time.

As for the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) was the representative organization, and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) and the Korea Mine Rehabilitation and Mineral Resources Corporation (KOMIR) were the participating organizations to continue on the ASEAN Mineral Cooperation Activity Agendas.

KOMIR presented about the national critical minerals strategy international cooperation activities for sustainable development ROK and ASEAN. Furthermore, KOMIR mentioned ROK’s international roles to meet with the ASEAN’s mineral needs in their applications in the future.

KIGAM also gave a presentation about the contribution in increasing trainees’ capacities with high-quality education & training programs. In December 2020, the “1st Geological Mapping and Mineral Explorations” online program proceeded as the follow-up of the 13th ASOMM+3 Meeting. This KIGAM’s online training program is specially made for the AMS. In this program, 19 trainees from the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Singapore, and Malaysia joined, joined, and left positive reviews. The KIGAM’s International School for Geoscience Resources (IS-GEO) will, once again, launch the online training program about mineral potential mapping in November of 2021.

Korea values the importance of amicable relationships with AMS, and we will continue to broaden the cooperation level with them.