National Geological Laboratory officially opened in K Chhnang
THE National Geologica l Laborator y of Cambodia, which is a project funded through a $ 3 million grant from China, was launched in Long vek commune, Kampong Tra lach district in Kampong Chhnang prov ince on Wednesday.
Minister of Mines and Energ y Suy Sem and Chinese Ambassador Wang Wentian officiated the launching ceremony of the new nationa l laborator y which took t wo years to build on a 14,000sqm plot.
General Department of Mineral Resources director-genera l at t he Ministr y of Mines and Energ y Yos Monirath told The Post t hat China’s Ministr y of Natural Resources and the Autonomous Administration of Guangxi province f unded t he laborator y.
He said: “It is important for Cambodia to have its own geologica l and mineral resource laborator y, because prev iously when we wanted to identif y the t y pe of mineral and its qualit y, we had to send a ll samples to be tested abroad.
“We a lso have a laborator y at t he Inst itute of Technolog y of Cambodia, but it is only for simple lab testing purposes. If we want to test the sample of a piece of stone to k now its mineral composition, t hat cannot be done.
“But with this new laboratory [in Kampong Chhnang province], we can study the samples of various minerals.”
Monirath said the new geologica l laborator y will ta ke on t he role of t he nationa l laborator y of the Kingdom for analysing samples of mineral resources in Cambodia.
The ministr y said the ceremony was a lso attended by its senior officia ls and a delegation of t he Ministr y of Natural Resources and Autonomous Administration of the Guangxi region, Kampong Chhnang prov incial governor Chhour Chandoeun, loca l authorities, and municipa l and prov incia l Departments of Mines and Energ y.
Monirath said a focus of bilatera l collaboration between Cambodia and China is to develop the Kingdom’s mining sector. In f uture, he said t here would be more cooperation between the t wo countries in human resource training and research in the Cambodian mining sector.
He said Cambodia had opened up the mining sector for foreign investments since it had not grown significantly in prev ious years.
Cambodia, he said, wanted to attract bilatera l and multilatera l cooperation and private investments in the mining sector and welcomed any countr y t hat is interested to conduct a study or investment.