Phuket Mining Museum built, to open in December

[dirtydog]

B50.6m Mining Museum built, to open in December

KATHU: Work is complete on the 50.6-million-baht Kathu Mining Museum building, which is expected to open to the public by December.

Project consultant and a well-known local historian Sommai Pinphutthasilp told the Gazette that construction of the museum building, located on the Kathu-Koh Kaew Rd, began in September 2005.

Work was completed about six months after the original target date of October 2006 because of delays in finding a suitable contractor, said K. Sommai.

“We will announce the official opening date within two months, after appointing a subcontractor to install the exhibition pieces. Right now only the building itself is complete,” he added.

“The exhibition floor plan is now being designed. We have to find a subcontractor, which could take some time, but we expect to open this year,” he said.

Funding for exhibitions, about 10 million baht, is from the Phuket Governor’s discretionary provincial development budget.

The 7,000-square-meter museum will tell the story of Phuket’s tin mining history and explain the tin mining process.

Entrance fees have yet to be set.

Phuket Gazette

[thaibook]

^ 50.6 million? Who paid for this? A little extravagent for a mining museum..

[dirtydog]

I could think of better tourists attractions to spend that sort of money on, hell a couple of million a year could have been used just to keep the place reasonably clean, that would be a start.

[thaibook]

^ What about places like Kburi and the Bridge over the River Kwai. Last I checked, the museum there, the name has slipped my mind, is not in great condition. Honestly, at least for me, I am more interested in what happened during WWII than some mining place....

[Spin]

I had no idea that mining occured in Phuket, I know that Pattaya is famed for all its tunnelling but mining in Phuket? well i never!

[El Gibbon]

An outstanding example of the Phuket Chinese scoins having fortunes of public money spent to slap them on the back for raping the place at slave wages.

Just about all the lakes, specifically around the golf courses, were once deep pit tin mines. Now that they are full of water these same families 'charge' the province for water during times of drought. Nice folks.

Money could be better spent on improving roads, like the "hill" into Patong for one.

E. G.

[Mr Earl]

Money could be better spent on improving roads, like the "hill" into Patong for one.

E. G.

Or more desalinization plants and general improvments to the water infrastructure.

Even just some money to the Patong police would be nice so they could improve the traffic system and control the idiots who are turning the streets in to a speedway.