Notes from the Field

Consequences of Technology Transfer in the Pueblo Viejo Gold Mine explores an important issue: making mining sustainable. Mining cannot go away, because civilization depends on it; therefore, mining must be made to work within existing natural and societal environments. This paper studies a case where the reality fell short of the ideal. The sociological approach used to model the project and its consequences is very interesting to engineers such as ourselves. We also make a suggestion for applying technology transfer models to mining projects.

Ramon Fernandez-Caamano and Scott Johnson imply that use of an economic transfer model by the mining company and the state caused the poor outcome of the mining project. It probably did: not because economic models per se are bad, but because the model used at Pueblo Viejo was incomplete. Mining has long based project decisions on economic models, but in today's world the economic models include aspects that are treated as entirely separate models in this paper, an approach that changes their utility significantly. In modern industrial practice, economic models include all costs that can be even approximately quantified, regardless of the nature of the technology transfer that occurs: contextual collaboration, capacity transfer, and so on. The income from the project must cover the expense of the quality of the transfer.

Because of the widespread recognition of consequences such as those described, economic models applied in mining now attempt to include the effects of technology transfer. Mitigating the effects of a mine adds costs that must be borne by the enterprise. An inevitable consequence is that mineral deposits must contain greater value to be considered mineable under these more comprehensive models than under the incomplete economic models. Especially during a trend of decreasing mineral availability because of previous mining, this reduces the number of viable mining projects and increases the mineral price needed for viability.

Nevertheless, the current—and necessary—world view is that mines must be sustainable; when the project is complete, there can be no negative legacy for subsequent generations. Although this definition of sustainability incurs large economic costs, the industry has realized that even higher costs are incurred by not adequately addressing impacts on current and future stakeholders. The world has changed since Pueblo Viejo, and mining has changed with it.

Further, mining technology is severely constrained by the nature of the useful minerals. Separation of useful minerals from waste is controlled by the mineralogic situation as it is found. An example is the difference between the oxide ore and the sulfide ores reported by the authors. These are very different cases; the mining of one does not follow naturally from the other. Oxide gold extraction is simple and inexpensive (allowing much lower gold content to be mined). Sulfide gold extraction is complicated and expensive, and requires very different equipment. The oxide and sulfide ores are two completely different mines that merely happen to be at the same place.

It can be argued that at Pueblo Viejo a transfer of technology never took place or was at best temporary. When the mine was closed, what was transferred? No useable technology was left behind. The lack of positive legacy was further exacerbated by the hands-off attitude of the mining company, and was abetted by a government more interested in immediate income than in long-term societal outcomes. Could the legacy have been the transfer of new knowledge in addition to technology? More broadly, could or should things other than mining technology be transferred to the local stakeholders as a cost of doing business? One possibility would be technology for mitigating the effects of mining. What else could qualify—technology, knowledge, other?

We applaud this paper as part of an ongoing effort to make obsolete the destructive consequences of projects such as Pueblo Viejo. We encourage Comparative Technology Transfer and Society and its contributors to continue to work in this area. For optimal effectiveness, follow-on studies should engage the mining industry. The consequences of mining affect everyone and cannot be avoided; they must be properly managed. For ongoing initiatives already started by the mining industry, researchers...