The important factors for the redevelopment of abandoned mines in Thailand : case study compares the mines redeveloped by the government and private sector.

Abstract

The article is a part of research aims to investigate important factors for the redevelopment of abandoned mines in Thailand. The research compares the development process of two uncontaminated mines, one developed by the government and another by private sector. The data was collected via semi-structured interviews with the project administrators. The result illustrated that physical factor is the first supporting factor enabling the developer to choose and proceed with the development. While stakeholder factor helps supporting the whole operation process, from the start until the project is finished and open until today. Besides, management factor relating to project leader’s vision plays important part driving the operation completed. The study of two abandoned mines contributes to important lessons that the major obstacles to the mining redevelopment in Thailand come from policy factor which keeps changing, law and regulation factor which still lacks of supports for remediation process, and financial and economic factor which relates to the search for funding agencies. These three obstacles can cause further problems in management during the whole operation process. The data together with the study of abandoned mine redevelopment in overseas indicate in the same way that Thailand should develop supporting mechanisms for these three factors to increase numbers of mining redevelopment and pushing these projects to the success.