Focus of the issue: replenishment of stocks
National Geologic Data Bank as a Mechanism to Attract New Investments
To attract investments in exploration is one of the priorities of the Government that were set by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, as of September 2 of this year at a joint session of the Chambers of the Republic’s Parliament.
"There are still cases when people get rights for natural resources development, but they do not invest in them, and in fact they eliminate them from the economic exchange," said the Head of State in his speech. -The deposits, in which people do not invest money, must be returned to the State and transferred to other investors. So we can attract new investments in exploration”.
“How to strengthen monitoring in the subsoil use area and start the mechanisms of active investments attracting in exploration” - these are the questions we discuss with Kazbek Aydarovich Irgebayev, who represents the Republic State Enterprise "Information and Analytical Centre of Geology and Mineral Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan» of the Geology and Subsoil Use Committee of the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
- One of the most effective ways to enhance the exploration process could be the creation of a single National Geologic Database of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NDB), which will include operational and statistical information about all the fields of Kazakhstan, regardless of the component.
Nowadays, there are in the world more than 50 national and regional databases, 37 of which were created and are successfully working using high and unique technologies. They are divided into two categories according to the creation form: private and public. The first ones were created according to the initiative of the subsoil users to share the information, distribute and reduce the costs of their organization, while the second ones were created and managed by countries Governments or by the State budget or through other sources.
- What is the relevance of the creation and development of the National Geologic Database?
- Over the last few decades, the companies involved in the development of mineral resources have accumulated a great amount of information. There were spent billions of dollars to gain it. At the same time, a large amount of the gained information was lost every year as a result of an inefficient management. Most of the collected information was unique. It was impossible to get some of this information again.
The situation was further complicated by the fact that the technologies of collection, storage, collation and analysis of data were constantly developing and it naturally led to the obsolescence of the existing systems and to reduce their effectiveness. Most of the old information was presented in the form of unstructured data, such as spreadsheets, text files, paper documents and other physical media. This type of data was difficult to manage
So there was an emerged need to create single information storage for the entire minerals and raw materials complex. Later, applying increasingly developing technologies, integrated software products began to be used, and there were also developed more sophisticated interfaces based on spatial information presentation with unique capabilities for forecasting and simulation, performance of all kinds of tasks. Thus, the concept and modern National Databases appeared.
A modern NDB is an informational complex of opportunities for the adoption and implementation of any decisions and set tasks with the use of new technologies and developments. The value of the information stored in the NDB is determined by the degree of its use. If it is just kept, it is a simple way to save information, and if we use it, it is a strong instrument of influence.
- Who is investing in the creation of the National Geologic Database? Is it the Government? - .
- I would like to note that the NDB doesn’t require public funds; it will be financed by the subsoil users through the conclusion of appropriate agreements for monitoring their activities.