Journal articles on the topic 'Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation – Management'

The growing application of data mining to boost corporate profits is raising many ethical concerns especially with regards to privacy. The volume and type of personal information that is accessible to corporations these days is far greater than in the past. This causes many consumers to be greatly concerned about potential violations of their privacy by current data collection and data mining techniques and practices. The purpose of this study is to identify the ethical issues associated with data mining and the potential risks to a corporation that is believed to be operating in an unethical manner. The paper reviewed the relevant ethical policies and proposed ten data mining systems development practices that can be incorporated into a software development lifecycle to prevent these risks from materializing.

Knowledge is a very crucial resource to promote economic development and society progress which includes facts, information, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. With knowledge has being increasingly prominent, knowledge management has become important measure for the core competences promotion of a corporation. The paper begins with knowledge managements definition, and studies the process of knowledge discovery from databases (KDD),data mining techniques and SECI(Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization) model of knowledge dimensions. Finally, a simple knowledge management prototype system was proposed which based on the KDD and data mining.

From the beginning of the 21st century, knowledge exchange between Poland and Vietnam in mining and geology has been focusing in technology, education and training. Since years, Polish academic and commercial partners have been developing a close collaboration with Vietnam National Coal – Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited. Major outcomes of the collaboration are installations and operation of mining equipments and machines in Vietnamese mining companies, and excellent training programs for graduate and post graduate students and mining staff for both countries, etc. From aspects of knowledge management in globalization, the article highlights the outstanding outcomes of knowledge exchanges between the two countries, outlines cultural and economic challenges for the exchange and proposes some improvement in the future.

Damodar River basin is one of the most important river basins in India. The rich natural resource base of the basin in terms of coal, minerals, forests and fertile agricultural lands have supported livelihood of millions of people over centuries. The Damodar basin morphology character causes frequent flooding in the lower catchment during monsoon. Over the centuries this natural disaster severely affects the life and property of the lower catchment. Presence of coal and minerals initiated mining and industrialisation in the basin since last 150 years. Damodar Valley Corporation was formed in 1948 to manage water resources and sustainable development of the basin. But DVC at present became a large power corporate with little role for basin management. The fast unplanned economic development with rapid urbanisation is damaging the Damodar River ecosystem. This in turn affects the life and livelihood of large number of people in the basin. A new basin management strategy needs to be adopted in the present situation to save the river and the people of the basin area from the imminent environmental disasters. JEL Classification: Q56

This article reports on a study that assessed the organisational learning activities for the purposes of retaining critical knowledge in three Southern African Development Community (SADC) public broadcasting organisations. The article reports the partial findings of a doctoral study that focused on analysing the knowledge retention strategies in three public broadcasting corporations, namely, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), Department of Broadcasting Services (DBS) and Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC), in the SADC. The aim of the study was to establish how organisational learning strategy captured and retained knowledge in these public broadcasting corporations. A structured self-administered survey questionnaire was used to purposively sample 162 professionals and managers in the three organisations. The study concluded that through organisational learning the three public broadcasting organisations captured and retained knowledge but were limited by the lack of knowledge management officials. The study recommends the establishment of knowledge officers’ posts to manage the organisational knowledge and to implement sound mentorship programmes to assist learning in these organisations. While the Human Resources (HR) departments may be managing the training of individuals as a way of acquiring knowledge, the study further recommends that the management should provide HR with more funds to improve the learning culture that allows for innovation, continuous knowledge creation and transformation.

<div><p><em>This research sets out to unravel the history of Lennox Mine from its inception in 1970 tracing the contribution of the mine to the economic development of Zimbabwe from its colonial beginnings up to the current period when the new visionary owner, Honourable Gandiwa Moyo, Deputy Minister of Mines who inherited a dysfunctional mining enterprise set it on course again as a pillar for economic production, under the erstwhile management of the Lennox General Mine Manager, Edgar Mashindi. The research seeks to explore how the mine management, operating under harsh economic conditions prevailing in Zimbabwe has empowered African entrepreneurs and employees and resuscitated life to the dying town of Mashava. Mashava is back on its former footing as a lively booming bedroom town of Masvingo City, forty kilometres away: supermarkets, bars, salons, housing projects, new shops are sprouting up once again as Mashava claims its proud place as a gold producing enclave of the Zimbabwean economy. Hundreds of unemployed youths from all over Zimbabwe have descended on Mashava, seeking employment and investment opportunities resulting in an unprecedented economic boom which is being felt country wide. Only recently hordes of flea female market traders opened shop at Mashava to sell clothes, shoes, household furniture and related paraphernalia to local residents and they reported that business was excellent and confirmed business plans to return every month end to sell their wares. A few years back Mashava was an abandoned mining town with all services shut down after the Capitalist oligarchic organization which owned Mashava ceased all operations and expropriated capital to Australia and Europe and started out new commercial ventures in those respective European countries. The Zimbabwean Electricity Supply Association [ZESA] shut down electricity supplies to Lennox Mine after the mine incurred a debt of close to a quarter of a million. Today, Lennox has agreed on a payment plan and electricity has been reopened triggering high gold productivity as the mine returns to its normal production levels.</em></p></div>

In a report issued in 1994, the Jenkins Committee advocated the integration of managerial statistics, which could be used to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of a firm's management, into financial statements. This study traces the development, and subsequent demise, of similar managerial information within the financial statements of the Quincy Mining Company in the nineteenth century. Two contemporary models for financial disclosure are developed for comparative purposes and it is concluded that the Quincy Mining Company intentionally restricted the information available to shareholders. By clarifying the disclosure practices of a single firm in an unregulated environment, this study provides insights to the origins of modern financial reporting.

Goldmining contributes substantially to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Zimbabwean economy through revenue generated from exports, however it also incurred numerous challenges to the environment. Amongst others, these challenges embody ecological degradation; water and air pollution; and depletion of natural resources. In this paper, we establish the effects of mining operations on the environment through a comprehensive literature review, and how the integration of environmental management accounting practices (EMAPs) such as material flow cost accounting (MFCA), life cycle costing (LCC), and activity-based costing (ABC) could be integrated into a conceptual framework to address environmental challenges. EMAPs were chosen as they generate both physical and monetary data, which could promote transparency in material usage within the goldmining sector. Our analyses revealed a substantial body of literature on separate and individual EMAPs, yet very little was found on the integration of EMAPs. The main contribution of this work is the development of an integrated conceptual EMAPs framework on the strength of sets of qualitative propositions, aimed at promoting green goldmining for Zimbabwe as a developing economy. Future work would involve the validation of the framework among key stakeholders in the Zimbabwean goldmining industry.

The geological industry of Kazakhstan is transiting to CRIRSCO, the international system of reporting standards for mineral reserves. In view of the set tasks, the problem of adjusting the geological and economic assessment of deposits is being updated in order to adapt it to the international requirements and to increase accessibility and transparency for a potential external investor. This research has been carried out on the basis of the Kazakhmys Corporation LLС, the largest international company engaged in exploring, mining and processing of various minerals. The authors of this paper have made an attempt to expand the geological and economic assessment of the enterprise by digitizing the key business processes. On the basis of the formed factual database of the geological and economic indicators and characteristics of the stratiform pyrite-copper-lead-zinc deposit Kusmuryn, which is part of the Kazakhmys Corporation LLС, the economic indicators of extracting associated components have been calculated. Digital transformation is a key area of technological development of the mining industry in Kazakhstan for the coming years. In this regard, automation of calculating the geological and economic assessment of the investigated field will allow the company not only to reduce investment and operating costs, but also to deepen the internal analytical work to monitor the effectiveness of the applied digital solutions. Transformation of the economy of Kazakhstan presupposes state support for promising regions. The article shows that transition of the Kusmuryn deposit to underground mining in the medium term will accelerate the solution of pressing regional problems and remove social tension in the monotowns adjacent to the deposit. In order to strengthen its position in the global economy, Kazakhstan strives to achieve socio-economic goals in the field of sustainable development. It has been established that changing the method of production and automation of business processes of the Kazakhmys Corporation LLС will have a positive effect on the energy efficiency due to more rational use of available technologies. The research will improve the validity of predictive management decisions to strengthen the financial and economic situation and the international positions of the mining and smelting enterprise.

The article outlines the principles of design of repeated geotechnology at the development of reserves in the conditions of collapsed deposits of the Zhezkazgan field for the purpose of rational management of underground mining processes. This is an integral design principle of the mine technical system with repeated geotechnology, and the foundation for the practice of designing and operation of the subsoil at the development of mineral deposits. At the designing of a mine technical system with repeated geotechnology aimed at the development of collapsed subsoil reserves, the risks and natural and man-made emergencies related to the production are taken into account. Under modern conditions, mining design cannot be employed in isolation from the principles of sustainable development, which implies not only orthodox meaning but also the development that ensures society existence without threatening the needs of future generations. In this connection, the ongoing research incorporates designing of mine technical systems with due account for the principles of sustainable development, which correspond to the current priority direction related to the development of repeated geotechnology within new frames of sustainable development of repeated underground mining of reserves in the conditions of collapsed deposits of the Zhezkazgan field. This contributes to the efficient use of resource-replenishing repeated geotechnology and the possibility of the most complete development of the georesource subsoil potential due to the enhancement of the ore potential at the operation of underground mines of Kazakhmys Corporation Ltd., which is one of the largest copper mining companies in the world.

Taking into account current trends in the development of ergatic maritime transport systems, the factors of the navigator’s influence on vessel control processes were determined. Within the framework of the research hypothesis, to improve navigation safety, it is necessary to apply predictive data mining models and automated vessel control. The paper proposes a diagram of the ergatic vessel control system and a model for identifying the influence of the navigator “human factor” during navigation. Within the framework of the model based on the principles of navigator decision trees, prediction by data mining means is applied, taking into account the identifiers of the occurrence of a critical situation. Based on the prediction results, a method for optimal vessel control in critical situations was developed, which is triggered at the nodes of the navigator decision tree, which reduces the likelihood of a critical impact on vessel control. The proposed approaches were tested in the research laboratory “Development of decision support systems, ergatic and automated vessel control systems”. The use of the Navi Trainer 5,000 navigation simulator (Wärtsilä Corporation, Finland) and simulation of the navigation safety control system for critical situations have confirmed its effectiveness. As a result of testing, it was determined that the activation of the system allowed reducing the likelihood of critical situations by 18–54 %. In 11 % of cases, the system switched the vessel control processes to automatic mode and, as a result, reduced the risk of emergencies. The use of automated data mining tools made it possible to neutralize the negative influence of the “human factor” of the navigator and to reduce the average maneuvering time during vessel navigation to 23 %

Purpose Sustainability reporting serves as a means of communication between corporations and their stakeholders on sustainability issues. This study aims to identify and account for the contents of sustainability reporting communicated through the websites of the plants in five continents of the same multinational mining corporation. Design/methodology/approach This study uses data published by Newmont Mining Corporation. The corporation has regional headquarters in five continents: Africa, Asia, Australia and North America and South America. The data were drawn from the websites of the five plants adjacent to those regional headquarters. Economic, environmental and social aspects of sustainability as reported by each plant were identified; to do so, a disclosure analysis based on the elements of the Global Reporting Initiative and the United Nations Division for Sustainability Development was used. These aspects were then compared and contrasted to highlight if, and to what extent, institutional isomorphism influences variations in sustainability disclosures among plants compared with the parent company. Findings It was found that most of the reporting about sustainability matters comprises narratives; there were also a few physical measures but very little financial information. Notwithstanding that the websites of all five plants used similar headings, the contents of reports differed. The reports from the plants in Australia, South America and Africa were more comprehensive than those from the plants in Asia and North America. The authors attribute these differences to institutionalisation of location-specific characteristics, including management discretion, legislation and societal pressures influencing sustainability reporting. The authors argue that managers responsible for preparing sustainability reports and who work essentially as sustainability accountants should develop templates and measures to raise the standard and comprehensiveness of reports for improved communication, information and behaviour. Originality/value Extant studies on sustainability reporting have focused mainly on comparisons between sustainability reports published by different corporations or sustainability reports published in different years by the same corporation. The authors believe that this is one of the first studies to have examined differences in sustainability information published by different subsidiaries within the same large corporation and the first to show how concurrent disclosures can differ.

Environmentally safe management of hydrocarbon exploration and production activities is becoming increasingly important, particularly in sensitive marine areas. LeProvost Environmental Consultants have been working closely with Hadson Energy Limited, Western Mining Corporation Ltd and West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd to produce environmental impact assessments, environmental management plans and monitoring programs for oilfields recently developed on the North West Shelf. Many of the well sites are located in areas with sensitive ecological habitats, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangroves and prawn spawning and fishing grounds. Consequently, operators in these areas have been required to produce comprehensive Environmental Management Plans and Oil Spill Contingency Plans, to gain development and operating approvals from the Western Australian Government.Formulation of these plans begins with baseline surveys of the biological, physical and social characteristics of the study area. Hydrodynamic modelling of the metocean conditions produces oil spill prediction envelopes to highlight the areas that may potentially be affected by an oil spill, if one should occur. Site-specific oil spill response procedures are then designed to cater for the sensitive marine habitats of the area, using the resources that are available in the region to deal with an oil spill.Results to date from the Marine Biological Monitoring Programs for three oilfields have supported predictions that no significant adverse impacts on the environment would result from the development and operation of the oilfields.

Subject area International business, Strategic management Study level/applicability BA and MA; courses: International business, Management courses with special focus on emerging and developing countries, Intercultural management, Strategic management. Case overview Freetown, Sierra Leone, West Africa, June 2013 – Representatives of the London Mining Corporation and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH were discussing the details about the official launch of the From Mines to Minds project. The From Mines to Minds project consisted of two components technical, vocational and educational training at St. Joseph's and functional adult literacy for people who could not benefit from the upgrade of St. Joseph's in 17 communities around the mine site. Each of them had committed 200,000 euros to the project. While the mining company favored an early launch due to internal and external pressures, the development agency evaluated that they needed to have a consolidated program before advertising it locally and nationally. This joint decision on the official launch revealed more structural issues in the “fit” between these two organizations in this cross-sectoral partnership designed to contribute to local and national sustainable development. Expected learning outcomes The purpose of the case is twofold. The first aim is to introduce students/participants to the challenges that arise when entering into a cross-sectoral partnership with another organization in a development project. The second aim is to expose students to the operational, business and strategic challenges related to operating in the volatile local and national context of a least developed economy. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email: support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This research investigates what happens to sustainability disclosure in the light of an industrial disaster. Drawing from legitimacy theory, the disaster is treated as a moment of crisis, in which the relationship of trust between the company and its stakeholders suffers and has to be reconstructed to legitimise the company's operations once more. While past studies revealed an increase in corporate disclosure after a disaster, the authors' results highlight a different behaviour. The analysis focuses on six companies involved in industrial disasters with a global media coverage, before and after the event. The sample includes, among others, Tepco for the leakage of nuclear material from the Fukushima power plant and Carnival Cruise Corporation in relation to the sinking of the Costa Concordia. Findings obtained using text mining techniques suggest that there is a tendency to reduce the quantity of information provided in the year of the disaster, which represents a precise managerial strategy aiming to avoid further drops in corporate legitimacy.

<p>The implementation of conflict resolution phase III study showed that a win-win solution is beneficial to both sides of the conflict. The whole area is selected based on the amount of the most numerous mining and oil palm plantations which are plagued by the problem of external conflict, both with agencies and communities around the mines and plantations in East Kalimantan.</p><p>The results of the implementation indicate that the conflict resolution is done through an integrated way with the principle of "win win". This has been proven through focus group forum that has agreed on a settlement process which is not detrimental to all parties though maximum expectations are not quite achievable. Several successfully resolved cases are disputed lands (mines and plantations) and the negative impact of the exploitation of the mine.</p><p>In general, this is well received by all participants of the FGD, however, there are input / suggestions as follows: 1) the government must engage all elements and take responsibility for CSR programs that have been agreed, 2) agreed decision is not only tripartite coordination, but should include aspects of Coordination, Integration and Synchronization, 3) the Court should modify the rules based on Regional Acts, in which all decisions is not only relying on litigation, but also on the non-litigation, 4) It should incorporate aspects of mental development and HR potential of the local community through a variety of training (workshops) required by the surrounding community.</p><p>Based on observations and FGD, it shows that this design can be done and turns out to be beneficial for all parties concerned, though there is an obstacle when claims for compensation are too high (replacement land with a maximum price) whereas the companies only want to replace with a low price supported by evidences are not owned by the local residents. However, the principle of "win-win solution" works well on solving the conflict that has been happening.</p>

In his seminal work The Multinational Challenge to Corporation Law Professor Phillip Blumberg assets that, “jurisdiction continues to be one of the most litigated areas involving the clash of enterprise and entity.”1 Indeed, in a world where business is increasingly conducted through the medium of economically integrated multinational enterprises (MNEs), the question of whether a forum has jurisdiction over disputes arising out of the operations of non-resident entities of the MNE brings into contrast the mismatch between the territorial reach of the legal system and the transnational reach of the enterprise. In terms of corporation law this raises the further matter of whether, and how far, the legal organisation of the MNE into distinct legal entities, in distinct legal jurisdictions, should affect the applicable rules of private international law as to the reach and scope of forum jurisdiction. Such issues have recently been aired before the English courts in a series of cases, arising out of the asbestos mining and milling operations of the British based MNE Cape plc in South Africa, which culminated in a judgment given by the House of Lords on 20 July 2000. It is the purpose of this paper to explore the issues of jurisdiction over non-resident entities of MNEs, first, through an examination of these cases in the light of Cape's industrial and management structure. It is striking how little such matters are addressed in the Anglo-American legal literature pertaining to private international law. Rather than considering the economic realities of the cases in issue, and developing new doctrines to deal with them, lawyers have tended to rely on legal concepts—in particular, the territorial nature of legal jurisdiction and the single unit corporate form—to lead them to often unsatisfactory results that would appear to a lay person not to accord with justice. A clearer understanding of the economic realities of group operations thus seems essential for the development of law in this area.

The text examines the experience and aspects of organizing remote work of oil and gas corporations in the context of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the high volatility of global energy markets in 2020. The purpose of the article is to comprehensively consider the challenges and opportunities for organizing remote work of various groups of personnel of an oil and gas corporation within a crisis and corporations’ adaptation mechanisms. Research results. The article reveals the main preconditions for organizing remote work of administrative personnel of oil and gas companies during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, identifies general trends and main difficulties and challenges that have arisen in the course of adapting business processes to remote work. At the same time, it was noted that the main difficulty for oil and gas corporations is the organization of remote work of production personnel due to the unavailability of production and technological chains and infrastructure, where the adaptation potential is very limited. In this regard, the concept of a hybrid strategy for providing remote work opportunities for employees of oil and gas corporations is proposed. This hybrid strategy involves a combination of development and improvement of currently used remote working methods for administrative personnel with large-scale investments in digitalization and automation of production processes and in human capital. Conclusions. The concept of a hybrid strategy proposed by the authors is conformed with the global trends in the development of highly automated mining, transport and processing complexes in the fuel and energy complex, up to completely deserted automated production facilities, however, of course, the implementation of such strategies is associated with high costs and forms a number of new risks, which will require synchronization with the overall strategy human resource management at the corporate level, as well as with public policy measures in the process of transition to «Industry 4.0».

International visitor surveys (IVS) are traditionally designed to provide destinations with marketing data and intelligence. The New Zealand Tourism Research Institute has been developing new approaches to IVS implementation and data collection in the Pacific Islands that can provide a much richer source of information [1]. The research outlined here is the first to utilise an IVS to explore the positioning of cuisine in the culinary identity of a destination – specifically, the cuisine of the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands is known primarily for its sun, sea and sand features, rather than its culinary attributes. Drawing on data mining of the Cook Islands IVS (2012–2016) and a web audit of destination websites and menus, this paper considers the positioning of food and food-related activities within the Pacific nation’s tourism experience. National tourism organisations are increasingly seeking competitive advantage by utilising their local cuisines as tourist attractions. Research suggests that distinctive local cuisines can act as both a tourism attraction, and as a means of shaping the identity of a destination [2, 3]. In addition to providing an important source of marketable images, local cuisine can also provide a unique experience for tourists. This reinforces the competitiveness and sustainability of the destination [2]. The cuisine of the Cook Islands has come up repeatedly in recommendations for how the country can grow its tourism revenue. Recommendations have been made to improve the food product on offer, develop a distinctive Cook Islands cuisine based on fresh, local produce, and to promote a Cook Islands cuisine experience [4, 5], and to use these to market the Cook Islands as a destination for local food tourism experiences [4]. Despite these recommendations, Cook Island cuisine features less prominently than stereotypical sun, sea, and sand marketing images, and little is known about tourists’ perceptions of and satisfaction with food and food-related activities [6]. Our research addresses this gap by mining IVS data to gain a deeper understanding of tourists’ experiences and perceptions of food in the Cook Islands and assessing whether local food can be positioned as means of creating a unique destination identity. Two methods were used to develop a picture of where food sits in the Cook Islands tourist experience: one focussed on tourist feedback; and the other focused on how food is portrayed in relevant online media. Analysis of all food-related data collected as part of the national IVS between 1 April 2012 and 30 June 2016 was conducted (N = 10,950). A web audit also focused on how food is positioned as part of the Cook Islands tourism product. After identifying the quantitative food-related questions in the IVS, satisfaction with these activities was analysed. Qualitative comments related to food experiences were also examined. The results suggest that participation in food-related activities is generally a positive feature of the visitor experience. The web-audit revealed, however, that food is not a salient feature in the majority of Cook Islands-related websites, and when food did feature, it tended to be oriented towards international cuisine with a ‘touch of the Pacific’ rather than specifically Cook Islands cuisine. This reinforced findings from the IVS data mining that Cook Islands food is presented as a generic tropical ‘seafood and fruit’ cuisine that, largely, lacks the defining and differentiating features of authentic Cook Island cuisine. High participation rates in food-related activities and overall positive evaluations by visitors emerged from the IVS data, yet a dearth of images and information on the country’s food suggests that the Cook Islands is not exploiting its cuisine and food experiences to their full potential. As a direct result of this secondary analysis of IVS data, which highlighted the importance of and potential for food-related activities, the Cook Islands Government is now actively addressing this gap by developing a range of food-related resources and information that can better link tourism to local cuisine. In addition to developing a greater presence of local food in online resources, the Cook Islands Tourism Corporation has also taken on board the messages from the IVS to drive the development of Takurua [7] – an initiative to develop and document local, traditional cuisine and share it with the world. This approach is part of a broader ongoing effort to differentiate the Cook Islands from other South Pacific destinations through its unique cultural attributes. Data mining and secondary analysis of IVS data has not been restricted to the identification of food-related opportunities. Secondary analysis of IVS data in the Pacific has also been used to investigate the impact of other niche markets such as events [8] and to gauge the impact of environmental incidents, for example Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu [9] and algal bloom in the Cook Islands [10], thus reinforcing that IVS data are a rich source of information and are indeed more than just numbers. Corresponding author Tracy Berno can be contacted at tracy.berno@aut.ac.nz References (1) New Zealand Tourism Research Institute (NZTRI). Cook Islands Resources and Outputs; NZTRI: Auckland. http://www.nztri.org.nz/cook-islands-resources (accessed Jun 10, 2019). (2) Lin, Y.; Pearson, T.; Cai, L. Food as a Form of Destination Identity: A Tourism Destination Brand Perspective. Tourism and Hospitality Research 2011, 11, 30–48. https://doi.org/10.1057/thr.2010.22 (3) Okumus, F.; Kock, G.; Scantlebury, M. M.; Okumus, B. Using Local Cuisines when Promoting Small Caribbean Island Destinations. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing 2013, 30 (4), 410–429. (4) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Linking Farmers to Markets: Realizing Opportunities for Locally Produced Food on Domestic and Tourist Markets in Cook Islands. FAO Sub-regional Office of the Pacific Islands: Apia, Samoa, 2014. (5) United Nations. “Navigating Stormy Seas through Changing winds”: Developing an Economy whilst Preserving a National Identity and the Modern Challenges of a Small Island Developing State. The Cook Islands National Report for the 2014 Small Islands Developing States (SIDS) Conference and post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1074217Cook%20Is%20_%20Final%20NATIONAL%20SIDS%20Report.pdf (accessed Jun 10, 2019). (6) Boyera, S. Tourism-led Agribusiness in the South Pacific Countries; Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA): Brussels, 2016. (7) Cook Islands Tourism Corporation (CITC). Takurua: Food and Feasts of the Cook Islands; CITC: Avarua, Cook Islands, 2018. (8) Thorburn, E.; Milne, S.; Histen, S.; Sun, M.; Jonkers, I. Do Events Attract Higher Yield, Culturally Immersive Visitors to the Cook Islands? In CAUTHE 2016: The Changing Landscape of Tourism and Hospitality: The Impact of Emerging Markets and Emerging Destinations; Scerri, M., Ker Hui, L., Eds.; Blue Mountains International Hotel Management School: Sydney, 2016; pp 1065–1073. (9) Sun, M.; Milne, S. The Impact of Cyclones on Tourist Demand: Pam and Vanuatu. In CAUTHE 2017: Time for Big Ideas? Re-thinking the Field for Tomorrow; Lee, C., Filep, S., Albrecht, J. N., Coetzee, W. JL, Eds.; Department of Tourism, University of Otago: Dunedin, 2017; pp 731–734. (10) Thorburn, E.; Krause, C.; Milne, S. The Impacts of Algal Blooms on Visitor Experience: Muri Lagoon, Cook Islands. In CAUTHE 2017: Time for Big Ideas? Re-thinking the Field For Tomorrow; Lee, C., Filep, S., Albrecht, J. N., Coetzee, W. JL, Eds., Department of Tourism, University of Otago: Dunedin, 2017; pp 582–587.

This article examines the history of mining in British Southeast Asia during the early twentieth century. In particular, it focuses on the histories of the Burma Corporation and the Duff Development Company, which were located in British-occupied Burma and Malaya, respectively. It argues that despite being represented as “rogue” corporate ventures in areas under “indirect” colonial rule, the contrasting fates of each company—one successful, one not—reveal how foreign-owned businesses operating in the empire became increasingly beholden to British colonial state regulations during this period, marking a shift in policy from the “company-state” model that operated in prior centuries. The histories of these two firms ultimately demonstrate the continued significance of business in the making of empire during the late colonial period, bridging the divide between the age of company rule and the turn toward state-sponsored “development” that would occur in the mid-twentieth century.

Artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) has devastating impacts on the environment, such as deforestation, over-stripping of overburden, burning of bushes and use of harmful chemicals like mercury. These environmental impacts are a result of destructive mining, wasteful mineral extraction and processing practices and techniques used by the artisanal small-scale miners. This paper explores the ecological problems caused by ASM in Mzingwane District, Zimbabwe. It seeks to determine the nature and extent to which the environment has been damaged by the ASM from a community perspective. Interviews, questionnaires and observations were used to collect qualitative data. Results indicated that the nature of the mining activities undertaken by unskilled and under-equipped gold panners in Mzingwane District is characterised by massive stripping of overburden and burning of bushes, leading to destruction of large tracts of land and river systems and general ecosystem disturbance. The research concluded that ASM in Mzingwane District is an ecological time bomb, stressing the need for appropriate modifications of the legal and institutional frameworks for promoting sustainable use of natural resources and mining development in Zimbabwe. Government, through the Ministry of Small Scale and Medium Enterprises, need to regularise and formalise all gold mining activities through licensing, giving permanent claims and operating permits to panners in order to recoup some of the added costs in the form of taxes. At the local level, the Mzingwane Rural District Council (MRDC) together with the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) need to design appropriate environmental education and awareness programmes targeting the local community and gold panners.

As part of an Integrated Multiple Case Study (Yin, 2013), a method applied for the implementation of a Sustainable Management Model for the Mining-Metallurgical Industry of Mexico, the individual study of the mining analysis unit is presented, which is in the closing stage and belongs to the Au-Ag-Pb-Cu-Zn Mineralization Trend of the national territory. In addition to collaborating with the validation of the Model in field, this study aims to evaluate whether environmental, practices comply with legislative requirements and align with the international suggestions of the UN (2016) through Sustainable Development Goals selected from the agenda 2030. The contribution of this study lies in the importance that is generated from the closure strategy they have followed and how it impacts on the environment, involving ecological and social aspects primarily; the mining unit in the closing stage has been involved in clashes led by radical groups, arguing excessive devastation of important areas, forcing the corporation to execute plans for total closure.

The paper focuses on the origins and development of agricultural co-operative societies in Zimbabwe since 1954 with particular reference to Gowe-Sanyati and evaluates their role in facilitating the channelling of production inputs to farmers and the marketing oftheir produce. It examines the criteria for eligibility to membership of such associations, namely who could belong and who could not, as well as their administrative structures and practices. In addition, the paper evaluates the societies’ impact on their members, on African development and on the national economy. In 1954 the Government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) began investigations on the needfor co-operative societies (co-ops) in order to promote African development through facilitating the acquisition of production inputs and the marketing of agricultural products. In 1956, the first co-operative society was established, while the main focus of thispaper’s interest, the Gowe Irrigation Co-operative Society of Sanyati in the northwestern part of the country, was established in 1967. Established by a government agency known as the Tribal Trust Land Development Corporation (TILCOR), now the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA), the co-operative society flourished and became a model for the distribution of agricultural inputs and credit to African farmers. It collapsed in 1969 due to a number of factors, among them poor management andcorruption.

Since 2007, people's spending habits began to change: from cash to the bank card, from mobile phone to non-cash transactions, from traditional finance to network finance. And the rapid rise of emerging industries results in many of the P2P Financial Corporation established, it makes the P2P platform trading volume continue to rise at an alarming rate. In this context, the industry self-discipline environment is like the mining of good and evil. The atmosphere was foul, bad phenomenon, investors difficult activist phenomenon, the phenomenon of credit default as one falls, another rises to a series of problems, such as serious absence of P2P financial supervision to promote the healthy and sustainable development, is a major problem for all participants, which must to be solved.Firstly, P2P development of management mode in the current situation in our country is discussed, and then it analyzes the P2P network of financial management platform , finally it proposes the existing problems in the relative countermeasures and suggestions of effective P2P financing mode, hoping to promote its advantages, overcoming the disadvantages of P2P.Â

seven military classics (Jiang Ziya, the methods of theSima, Sun Tzu, Wu Qi, Wei Liaozi, the three strategies of Huang Shigong and the Questions and Repliesbetween Tang Taizong and Li Weigong). The entities studied then were nation states. Later, corporationsoften became just as powerful as states and their leaders demanded similar strategic thinking. Many ofthe ideas came initially from geopolitics as developed in the 19th century, and later with the spread ofmultinational companies at the end of the 20th century, with geoeconomics.What is unique for intelligence studies is the focus on information— not primarily geography ornatural resources— as a source for competitive advantage. Ideas of strategy and information developedinto social intelligence with Stevan Dedijer in the 1960s and became the title of a course he gave at theUniversity of Lund in the 1970s. In the US this direction came to be known as business intelligence. At afast pace we then saw the introduction of corporate intelligence, strategic intelligence and competitiveintelligence. Inspired by the writings of Mikael Porter on strategy, as related to the notion of competitiveadvantage the field of competitive intelligence, a considerable body of articles and books were written inthe 1980s and 1990s. This was primarily in the US, but interest spread to Europe and other parts of theworld, much due to the advocacy of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP). In Francethere was a parallel development with “intelligence économique”, “Veille” and “Guerre économique”, inGermany with “Wettbewerbserkundung” and in Sweden with “omvärldsanalys,” just to give someexamples.On the technological side, things were changing even faster, not only with computers but alsosoftware. Oracle corporation landed a big contract with the CIA and showed how data analysis could bedone efficiently. From then on, the software side of the development gained most of the interest fromcompanies. Business intelligence was sometimes treated as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customerrelations management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM). Competitive intelligence wasassociated primarily with the management side of things as we entered the new millennium. Marketintelligence became a more popular term during the first decade, knowledge management developed intoits own field, financial intelligence became a specialty linked to the detection of fraud and crime primarilyin banks, and during the last decade we have seen a renewed interest for planning, in the form of futurestudies, or futurology and foresight, but also environmental scanning. With the development of Big Data,data mining and artificial intelligence there is now a strong interest in collective intelligence, which isabout how to make better decisions together. Collective intelligence and foresight were the main topics ofthe ICI 2020 conference. All articles published in this issue are from presentations at that conference.The common denominator for the theoretical development described above is the Information Age,which is about one’s ability to analyze large amounts of data with the help of computers. What is drivingthe development is first of all technical innovations in computer science (both hardware and software),while the management side is more concerned with questions about implementation and use.Management disciplines that did not follow up on new technical developments but defined themselvesseparately or independently from these transformations have become irrelevant.Survival as a discipline is all about being relevant. It’s the journey of all theory, and of all sciencesto go from “funeral to funeral” to borrow an often-used phrase: ideas are developed and tested againstreality. Adjustments are made and new ideas developed based on the critic. It’s the way we createknowledge and achieve progress. It’s never a straight line but can be seen as a large number of trials andsolutions to problems that change in shape, a process that never promises to be done, but is ever-changing,Journal of Intelligence Studies in BusinessVol. 10, No 2 (2020) p. 4-5Open Access: Freely available at: https://ojs.hh.se/5much like the human evolution we are a part of. This is also the development of the discipline ofintelligence studies and on a more basic level of market research, which is about how to gatherinformation and data, to gain a competitive advantage.Today intelligence studies and technology live in a true symbiosis, just like the disciplines ofmarketing and digital marketing. This means that it is no longer meaningful to study managementpractices alone while ignoring developments in hardware and software. The competitive intelligence (CI)field is one such discipline to the extent that we can say that CI now is a chapter in the history ofmanagement thought, dated to around 1980-2010, equivalent to a generation. It is not so that it willdisappear, but more likely phased out. Some of the methods developed under its direction will continueto be used in other discipline. Most of the ideas labeled as CI were never exclusive to CI in the first place,but borrowed from other disciplines. They were also copied in other disciplines, which is common practicein all management disciplines. Looking at everything that has been done under the CI label the legacy ofCI is considerable.New directions will appear that better fit current business practices. Many of these will seem similarin content to previous contributions, but there will also be elements that are new. To be sure newsuggestions are not mere buzzwords we have to ask critical questions like: how is this discipline definedand how is it different from existing disciplines? It is the meaning that should interest us, not the labelswe put on them. Unlike consultants, academics and researchers have a real obligation to bring clarityand order in the myriad ideas.The articles in this issue are no exception. They are on collective intelligence, decision making, BigData, knowledge management and above all about the software used to facilitate these processes. Thefirst article by Teubert is entitled “Thinking methods as a lever to develop collective intelligence”. Itpresents a methodology and framework for the use of thinking methods as a lever to develop collectiveintelligence.The article by Calof and Sewdass is entitled “On the relationship between competitive intelligenceand innovation”. The authors found that of the 95 competitive intelligence measures used in the study59% were significantly correlated with the study’s measure of innovation.The third article is entitled “Atman: Intelligent information gap detection for learning organizations:First steps toward computational collective intelligence for decision making” and is written by Grèzes,Bonazzi, and Cimmino. The research project shows how companies can constantly adapt to theirenvironment, how they can integrate a learning process in relation to what is happening and become a"learning company".The next article by Calof and Viviers entitled “Big data analytics and international market selection:An exploratory study” develops a multi-phase, big-data analytics model for how companies can performinternational market selection.The last article by Vegas Fernandez entitled “Intelligent information extraction from scholarlydocument databases” presents a method that takes advantage of free desktop tools that are commonplaceto perform systematic literature review, to retrieve, filter, and organize results, and to extract informationto transform it into knowledge. The conceptual basis is a semantics-oriented concept definition and arelative importance index to measure concept relevance in the literature studied.As always, we would above all like to thank the authors for their contributions to this issue of JISIB.Thanks to Dr. Allison Perrigo for reviewing English grammar and helping with layout design for allarticles.Have a safe summer!On behalf of the Editorial Board,

Unconventional energy sources have become increasingly important to the global energy mix. These include coal seam gas, shale gas and shale oil. The unconventional gas industry was pioneered in the United States and embraced following the first oil shock in 1973 (Rogers). As has been the case with many global resources (Hiscock), many of the same companies that worked in the USA carried their experience in this industry to early Australian explorations. Recently the USA has secured significant energy security with the development of unconventional energy deposits such as the Marcellus shale gas and the Bakken shale oil (Dobb; McGraw). But this has not come without environmental impact, including contamination to underground water supply (Osborn, Vengosh, Warner, Jackson) and potential greenhouse gas contributions (Howarth, Santoro, Ingraffea; McKenna). The environmental impact of unconventional gas extraction has raised serious public concern about the introduction and growth of the industry in Australia. In coal rich Australia coal seam gas is currently the major source of unconventional gas. Large gas deposits have been found in prime agricultural land along eastern Australia, such as the Liverpool Plains in New South Wales and the Darling Downs in Queensland. Competing land-uses and a series of environmental incidents from the coal seam gas industry have warranted major protest from a coalition of environmentalists and farmers (Berry; McLeish). Conflict between energy companies wanting development and environmentalists warning precaution is an easy script to cast for frontline media coverage. But historical perspectives are often missing in these contemporary debates. While coal mining and natural gas have often received “boosting” historical coverage (Diamond; Wilkinson), and although historical themes of “development” and “rushes” remain predominant when observing the span of the industry (AGA; Blainey), the history of unconventional gas, particularly the history of its environmental impact, has been little studied. Few people are aware, for example, that the first shale gas exploratory well was completed in late 2010 in the Cooper Basin in Central Australia (Molan) and is considered as a “new” frontier in Australian unconventional gas. Moreover many people are unaware that the first coal seam gas wells were completed in 1976 in Queensland. The first four wells offer an important moment for reflection in light of the industry’s recent move into Central Australia. By locating and analysing the first four coal seam gas wells, this essay identifies the roots of the unconventional gas industry in Australia and explores the early environmental impact of these wells. By analysing exploration reports that have been placed online by the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines through the lens of environmental history, the dominant developmental narrative of this industry can also be scrutinised. These narratives often place more significance on economic and national benefits while displacing the environmental and social impacts of the industry (Connor, Higginbotham, Freeman, Albrecht; Duus; McEachern; Trigger). This essay therefore seeks to bring an environmental insight into early unconventional gas mining in Australia. As the author, I am concerned that nearly four decades on and it seems that no one has heeded the warning gleaned from these early wells and early exploration reports, as gas exploration in Australia continues under little scrutiny. Arrival The first four unconventional gas wells in Australia appear at the beginning of the industry world-wide (Schraufnagel, McBane, and Kuuskraa; McClanahan). The wells were explored by Houston Oils and Minerals—a company that entered the Australian mining scene by sharing a mining prospect with International Australian Energy Company (Wiltshire). The International Australian Energy Company was owned by Black Giant Oil Company in the US, which in turn was owned by International Royalty and Oil Company also based in the US. The Texan oilman Robert Kanton held a sixteen percent share in the latter. Kanton had an idea that the Mimosa Syncline in the south-eastern Bowen Basin was a gas trap waiting to be exploited. To test the theory he needed capital. Kanton presented the idea to Houston Oil and Minerals which had the financial backing to take the risk. Shotover No. 1 was drilled by Houston Oil and Minerals thirty miles south-east of the coal mining town of Blackwater. By late August 1975 it was drilled to 2,717 metres, discovered to have little gas, spudded, and, after a spend of $610,000, abandoned. The data from the Shotover well showed that the porosity of the rocks in the area was not a trap, and the Mimosa Syncline was therefore downgraded as a possible hydrocarbon location. There was, however, a small amount of gas found in the coal seams (Benbow 16). The well had passed through the huge coal seams of both the Bowen and Surat basins—important basins for the future of both the coal and gas industries. Mining Concepts In 1975, while Houston Oil and Minerals was drilling the Shotover well, US Steel and the US Bureau of Mines used hydraulic fracture, a technique already used in the petroleum industry, to drill vertical surface wells to drain gas from a coal seam (Methane Drainage Taskforce 102). They were able to remove gas from the coal seam before it was mined and sold enough to make a profit. With the well data from the Shotover well in Australia compiled, Houston returned to the US to research the possibility of harvesting methane in Australia. As the company saw it, methane drainage was “a novel exploitation concept” and the methane in the Bowen Basin was an “enormous hydrocarbon resource” (Wiltshire 7). The Shotover well passed through a section of the German Creek Coal measures and this became their next target. In September 1976 the Shotover well was re-opened and plugged at 1499 meters to become Australia’s first exploratory unconventional gas well. By the end of the month the rig was released and gas production tested. At one point an employee on the drilling operation observed a gas flame “the size of a 44 gal drum” (HOMA, “Shotover # 1” 9). But apart from the brief show, no gas flowed. And yet, Houston Oil and Minerals was not deterred, as they had already taken out other leases for further prospecting (Wiltshire 4). Only a week after the Shotover well had failed, Houston moved the methane search south-east to an area five miles north of the Moura township. Houston Oil and Minerals had researched the coal exploration seismic surveys of the area that were conducted in 1969, 1972, and 1973 to choose the location. Over the next two months in late 1976, two new wells—Kinma No.1 and Carra No.1—were drilled within a mile from each other and completed as gas wells. Houston Oil and Minerals also purchased the old oil exploration well Moura No. 1 from the Queensland Government and completed it as a suspended gas well. The company must have mined the Department of Mines archive to find Moura No.1, as the previous exploration report from 1969 noted methane given off from the coal seams (Sell). By December 1976 Houston Oil and Minerals had three gas wells in the vicinity of each other and by early 1977 testing had occurred. The results were disappointing with minimal gas flow at Kinma and Carra, but Moura showed a little more promise. Here, the drillers were able to convert their Fairbanks-Morse engine driving the pump from an engine run on LPG to one run on methane produced from the well (Porter, “Moura # 1”). Drink This? Although there was not much gas to find in the test production phase, there was a lot of water. The exploration reports produced by the company are incomplete (indeed no report was available for the Shotover well), but the information available shows that a large amount of water was extracted before gas started to flow (Porter, “Carra # 1”; Porter, “Moura # 1”; Porter, “Kinma # 1”). As Porter’s reports outline, prior to gas flowing, the water produced at Carra, Kinma and Moura totalled 37,600 litres, 11,900 and 2,900 respectively. It should be noted that the method used to test the amount of water was not continuous and these amounts were not the full amount of water produced; also, upon gas coming to the surface some of the wells continued to produce water. In short, before any gas flowed at the first unconventional gas wells in Australia at least 50,000 litres of water were taken from underground. Results show that the water was not ready to drink (Mathers, “Moura # 1”; Mathers, “Appendix 1”; HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 21-24). The water had total dissolved solids (minerals) well over the average set by the authorities (WHO; Apps Laboratories; NHMRC; QDAFF). The well at Kinma recorded the highest levels, almost two and a half times the unacceptable standard. On average the water from the Moura well was of reasonable standard, possibly because some water was extracted from the well when it was originally sunk in 1969; but the water from Kinma and Carra was very poor quality, not good enough for crops, stock or to be let run into creeks. The biggest issue was the sodium concentration; all wells had very high salt levels. Kinma and Carra were four and two times the maximum standard respectively. In short, there was a substantial amount of poor quality water produced from drilling and testing the three wells. Fracking Australia Hydraulic fracturing is an artificial process that can encourage more gas to flow to the surface (McGraw; Fischetti; Senate). Prior to the testing phase at the Moura field, well data was sent to the Chemical Research and Development Department at Halliburton in Oklahoma, to examine the ability to fracture the coal and shale in the Australian wells. Halliburton was the founding father of hydraulic fracture. In Oklahoma on 17 March 1949, operating under an exclusive license from Standard Oil, this company conducted the first ever hydraulic fracture of an oil well (Montgomery and Smith). To come up with a program of hydraulic fracturing for the Australian field, Halliburton went back to the laboratory. They bonded together small slabs of coal and shale similar to Australian samples, drilled one-inch holes into the sample, then pressurised the holes and completed a “hydro-frac” in miniature. “These samples were difficult to prepare,” they wrote in their report to Houston Oil and Minerals (HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 10). Their program for fracturing was informed by a field of science that had been evolving since the first hydraulic fracture but had rapidly progressed since the first oil shock. Halliburton’s laboratory test had confirmed that the model of Perkins and Kern developed for widths of hydraulic fracture—in an article that defined the field—should also apply to Australian coals (Perkins and Kern). By late January 1977 Halliburton had issued Houston Oil and Minerals with a program of hydraulic fracture to use on the central Queensland wells. On the final page of their report they warned: “There are many unknowns in a vertical fracture design procedure” (HOMA, “Miscellaneous Pages” 17). In July 1977, Moura No. 1 became the first coal seam gas well hydraulically fractured in Australia. The exploration report states: “During July 1977 the well was killed with 1% KCL solution and the tubing and packer were pulled from the well … and pumping commenced” (Porter 2-3). The use of the word “kill” is interesting—potassium chloride (KCl) is the third and final drug administered in the lethal injection of humans on death row in the USA. Potassium chloride was used to minimise the effect on parts of the coal seam that were water-sensitive and was the recommended solution prior to adding other chemicals (Montgomery and Smith 28); but a word such as “kill” also implies that the well and the larger environment were alive before fracking commenced (Giblett; Trigger). Pumping recommenced after the fracturing fluid was unloaded. Initially gas supply was very good. It increased from an average estimate of 7,000 cubic feet per day to 30,000, but this only lasted two days before coal and sand started flowing back up to the surface. In effect, the cleats were propped open but the coal did not close and hold onto them which meant coal particles and sand flowed back up the pipe with diminishing amounts of gas (Walters 12). Although there were some interesting results, the program was considered a failure. In April 1978, Houston Oil and Minerals finally abandoned the methane concept. Following the failure, they reflected on the possibilities for a coal seam gas industry given the gas prices in Queensland: “Methane drainage wells appear to offer no economic potential” (Wooldridge 2). At the wells they let the tubing drop into the hole, put a fifteen foot cement plug at the top of the hole, covered it with a steel plate and by their own description restored the area to its “original state” (Wiltshire 8). Houston Oil and Minerals now turned to “conventional targets” which included coal exploration (Wiltshire 7). A Thousand Memories The first four wells show some of the critical environmental issues that were present from the outset of the industry in Australia. The process of hydraulic fracture was not just a failure, but conducted on a science that had never been tested in Australia, was ponderous at best, and by Halliburton’s own admission had “many unknowns”. There was also the role of large multinationals providing “experience” (Briody; Hiscock) and conducting these tests while having limited knowledge of the Australian landscape. Before any gas came to the surface, a large amount of water was produced that was loaded with a mixture of salt and other heavy minerals. The source of water for both the mud drilling of Carra and Kinma, as well as the hydraulic fracture job on Moura, was extracted from Kianga Creek three miles from the site (HOMA, “Carra # 1” 5; HOMA, “Kinma # 1” 5; Porter, “Moura # 1”). No location was listed for the disposal of the water from the wells, including the hydraulic fracture liquid. Considering the poor quality of water, if the water was disposed on site or let drain into a creek, this would have had significant environmental impact. Nobody has yet answered the question of where all this water went. The environmental issues of water extraction, saline water and hydraulic fracture were present at the first four wells. At the first four wells environmental concern was not a priority. The complexity of inter-company relations, as witnessed at the Shotover well, shows there was little time. The re-use of old wells, such as the Moura well, also shows that economic priorities were more important. Even if environmental information was considered important at the time, no one would have had access to it because, as handwritten notes on some of the reports show, many of the reports were “confidential” (Sell). Even though coal mines commenced filing Environmental Impact Statements in the early 1970s, there is no such documentation for gas exploration conducted by Houston Oil and Minerals. A lack of broader awareness for the surrounding environment, from floral and faunal health to the impact on habitat quality, can be gleaned when reading across all the exploration reports. Nearly four decades on and we now have thousands of wells throughout the world. Yet, the challenges of unconventional gas still persist. The implications of the environmental history of the first four wells in Australia for contemporary unconventional gas exploration and development in this country and beyond are significant. Many environmental issues were present from the beginning of the coal seam gas industry in Australia. Owning up to this history would place policy makers and regulators in a position to strengthen current regulation. The industry continues to face the same challenges today as it did at the start of development—including water extraction, hydraulic fracturing and problems associated with drilling through underground aquifers. Looking more broadly at the unconventional gas industry, shale gas has appeared as the next target for energy resources in Australia. Reflecting on the first exploratory shale gas wells drilled in Central Australia, the chief executive of the company responsible for the shale gas wells noted their deliberate decision to locate their activities in semi-desert country away from “an area of prime agricultural land” and conflict with environmentalists (quoted in Molan). Moreover, the journalist Paul Cleary recently complained about the coal seam gas industry polluting Australia’s food-bowl but concluded that the “next frontier” should be in “remote” Central Australia with shale gas (Cleary 195). It appears that preference is to move the industry to the arid centre of Australia, to the ecologically and culturally unique Lake Eyre Basin region (Robin and Smith). 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