This publication contains mainly papers presented at the Workshop on Industrial Minerals and Offshore Aggregates in Asia and the Pacific organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)from 3 to 8 May 1999 in bangkok in cooperation with the Coordinating Committee for Coastal and Offshore Geoscience Programmes in East and Southeast Asia (CCOP). This workshop was one of a series conducted by the British Geological Survey with funding from the World Bank Information for Development Programme and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID). Its aim was to provide specialists from government and the mining and consuming industries in developing countries with an application of field and laboratory evaluation techniques for industrial minerals, effective databasing of the resulting information and use of this information to formulate responsible long-term strategies for resource management and lad-use planning. Based on the Workshop's modules, the publication is structured in two parts to provide guidelines in evaluation and development of industrial minerals and offshore aggregates (Chapter 1) and to report on current developments and problems in non-metallic sector and offshore minerals in selected countries of Asia (Chapter 2).

Countries covered in this publication are: Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka.