Snowden Mining is an Australian company utilising its standing in the mining sector to partner with an influential Chinese state-owned company, the Design Institute. Snowden Mining spent years in building a relationship and trust with their Chinese counterpart that eventually led to global expansion of their joint service.

Snowden Group achieved a breakthrough for the Australian service sector by cooperating with one of China’s central technical design institutes for the mining sector. They jointly support Chinese global mining investments through their special expertise in international mining codes and their application. Codes, such as the Australian Joint Ore Reserves Committee Code (JORC Code), the Canadian National Instrument NI 43-101 and the South African Code for the Reporting of Mineral

Resources and Mineral Reserves (SAMREC), regulate the publication of mineral exploration reports for investors. These reports protect investors from misleading information and are done against the respective codes by accredited competent persons.

Snowden Group discovered a market opportunity when Chinese mining companies started outbound investment and discovered that while possessing rich technical and industry know-how, they lacked crucial regulatory expertise in working with international mining codes which impacted on their ability to source external funding for their projects. Snowden identified a key design institute in Beijing as the best partner to offer consulting services in international mining codes to Chinese mining companies.

Snowden initially worked with Chinese geologists, mining engineers and other experts to translate the codes into Chinese and interpret them from a Chinese perspective. Over time this lead to closer cooperation with Snowden giving presentations in Beijing and training Chinese mining engineers and geologists in Perth. Relationship building took the better part of three years. Once confidence was established, the negotiation of a cooperation agreement was completed within months. The cooperation agreement established a joint platform for the Design Institute and Snowden Group to offer their services to Chinese state-owned mining companies intending to invest overseas.

For example, Snowden was brought into a Chinese mining project in a Southeast Asian country where the Design Institute had already done feasibility studies and required Snowden to contribute specific technical expertise through working together with the Chinese team. In projects of this nature, Snowden has the international expertise and connections, while the Design Institute has the expertise required for the Chinese regulatory environment.

Source: NAB Sponsored 2014 Australia-China Trade Report Commissioned by The Australia China Business Council (ACBC). Page 32.

Read the full Australia-China Trade Report here.

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