The central location of the conference is the coalmine of Beringen, at present the largest and most complete coalmining site in Western Europe protected by law. The mine itself is situated in the middle of a large mining town built by the company (including schools, church, hospital, leisure and sport complexes, library, transport infrastructure, etc).
The conference will be preceded by a tour presenting the industrial and technical heritage of Belgium and the Euregion, and followed by a post conference tour presenting other aspects of the rich heritage of this area..

The conference does not only deal with coalmining, but includes all aspects of mining and the exploitation of mineral resources: ore, salt, stone mining, etc.

The aim of the conference is to offer a platform to individual researchers and representatives of organizations, research institutes and public authorities to present their activities, projects and results to a large international audience. Thus they can exchange, compare and confront their experiences and ideas with those of colleagues from abroad. They can compare their results and conclusions of other participants.

Although the theme of the congress is kept as open as possible, some aspects will receive special attention, e.g.:

- the social and community aspects of mining and quarries;
- mining villages and the housing conditions of miners;
- the social and cultural life in mining communities (overall culture and festivities, sports, religion, songs and folk life, oral traditions,...) and the survival of these after the closure of the mines;
- international links and border-crossing aspects of mining and qarrying (as well technical aspects as economic (e.g. shareholders) and social aspects);
- the multicultural and multi-ethnic character of most mining communities, the co-habitation of migrants and local population, the co-habitation of different ethnic and religious communities;
- the preservation, restoration, interpretation and presentation of large mining complexes, including the adaptive re-use of these buildings;
- safety, pollution (e.g. soil pollution, asbestos,...) and the decontamination of past mining sites - including the effects these have on conservation and accessibility;
- recording and documenting, preserving, managing and interpreting mining landscapes;
- recording, documenting and presenting those aspects that cannot be preserved (e.g. underground galleries)
- the preservation, management and opening of large mining archives to researchers and the public - including prints and drawings, plans, general documentation, books and journals: the need for international co-operation ?

This list is not limitative, but other themes and aspects can be added and proposed by participants.

The conference organizers aim at keeping the conference and its themes as open as possible, to enable participants to present without limitations their activities, research, projects and results. Thus one expects being able to draw a general overview of all the existing initiatives - to promote international cooperation and exchange of information.

05.- Cultural Heritage