Looking Ahead - Mining and the Environment: From Ore to Metal - page 859

First, mining corporate culture is often dominated by assumptions that derive from the
distinctive historical and cultural legacy of 'European' males conventionally from a variety
of education and training disciplines, notably mining engineering, engineering and geol-
ogy. Furthermore, because mining exploration is a 'rugged' activity often conducted in
challenging physical settings, a tough-minded approach is embedded in mining culture.
Mining exploration camps in developing countries are often the personii cation of 'fron-
tier' culture (Singleton et al . 1997).
Second, mining professionals in the i eld are both adaptive and receptive to their sur-
rounds. They have to be. Alternatively, that very same 'tough mindedness' can be an
Achilles heal where a more complex notion of adaptation is required.
Following the exploration and feasibility stages, the project moves to construction
and then operation. During construction, the focus of management attention is to meet
budgets and schedules. The personnel recruited to manage construction, whether on
the proponent's staff or the contractors, are those with a successful track record of deliv-
ering projects on time and on budget. At this stage, it is common for other aspects of
the project including environmental and social aspects, to be down played, if not totally
ignored.
Following construction and commissioning, the focus changes again. Early issues
involve recruitment and training of the operations workforce, and i ne tuning the opera-
tions in an attempt to achieve target production levels. In fact, for the remainder of the
operating period, the achievement of production targets and the cost of production per
unit of product, are the overriding focuses of traditional mining operations. Miners then
traditionally had a rigid sense of what constitutes the core business of mining. The tough
mindedness so characteristic of miners can become intolerance for different views and
value sets, and a strong capacity to resist external pressures. In essence, this conventional
mindset translates to business models that clearly articulate mining as concerned predomi-
nantly with the sequence of mining activities. The danger here is that other critical aspects
may be under-estimated or overlooked.
There may be merits in reframing the nature of mining in the minds of both mine
managers and their corporate employers. This may involve revising the mining industry's
notion of the mining value chain and indeed the value proposition of international mining.
This would involve a basic shift from the understanding of mining as an extraction and
processing industry, to recognizing it additionally as a complex logistic operations indus-
try with pronounced global and local ethical and sustainability obligations taking place in
a world of diverse interests. A revised value proposition would also mean accepting the
wider responsibilities of mining ventures and accepting non-mining principles, such as:
●

This would involve a basic
shift from the understanding
of mining as an extraction
and processing industry, to
recognizing it additionally as
a complex logistic operations
industry with pronounced global
and local ethical and sustainability
obligations taking place in a
world of diverse interests.

A new mining venture in a region characterized by traditional livelihoods and long
established communities will be transformed by some measure as a result of the min-
ing activity;

●

International mining operators therefore have a moral obligation to set in place plans,
processes and mechanisms that will guide that transformation in a way that is benei -
cial to local and regional communities;

●

This requires mining operators to go beyond limited programmes of community
engagement such as employment and training schemes for local communities, pro-
viding assistance to establish local business enterprises and purchasing materials from
local suppliers, to more comprehensive partnering of regional stakeholders, and

●

In essence, international mining operators now take responsibility for assisting in
the sustainable transformation of local communities and traditional economies, over
the entire life of the mining activity, and in such ways that the benei cial legacies of
sustainable outcomes extend long after the mining activity itself has ceased.