Editorial: A fresh look at mining’s CSR success stories

Admittedly, our eyes tend to glaze over at the thought of reading a 74-page report on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in mining, but a newly released one by the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, the UN Development Programme, the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the World Economic Forum balances the characteristic vagueness of so many CSR reports with interesting case studies of mining’s CSR success stories.

The report, entitled “Mapping mining to the sustainable development goals: an atlas” (though there’s no mapping and it isn’t actually an atlas), sets out to define mining’s relationship to the UN’s wider Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2015–2030, updating the ones that had been laid out in 2000.

Large-scale mining is a global industry with 6,000 companies employing 2.5 million people, and the report’s authors recognize that, when managed appropriately, mining “can create jobs, spur innovation and bring investment and infrastructure at a game-changing scale over long time horizons.” If it is managed poorly, however, “mining can also lead to environmental degradation, displaced populations, inequality and increased conflict,” as well as gender-based violence, tax evasion and corruption, and increased risk of health challenges.

The report is based on research and interviews with 60 global experts from industry, civil society, governments, academia, international organizations and financial institutions conducted in mid-2015, and there was public consultation in early 2016.

The UN’s somewhat idiosyncratic list of 17 SDGs is: end poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life below water; life on land; peace, justice and strong institutions; and partnerships for the goals.

In short, the UN’s SDG approach may indeed be useful to a mining company looking for a globally standardized framework through which to review, organize and communicate its CSR activities.

But it’s in the case studies where we see examples of mining companies taking innovative approaches to CSR challenges:

• Since 2015, BHP Billiton has publicly released information on all the tax and royalty payments it makes to national and subnational governments on a project-by-project basis (US$7.3 billion last year), voluntarily going beyond the commitments it made under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) by releasing information on payments in countries that are not part of the EITI.

• In Burkina Faso, Canadian gold miner Semafo has helped 600 members of the Gnogondémé of Yona cooperative near its mine build and operate the village’s new shea butter production centre, in cooperation with TFO Canada (a non-profit export promoter), with some of the soap product marketed through Montreal-based start-up Karitex.

• Teck Resources created its “Zinc and Health” program in 2014 to combat zinc deficiency in diets, including a $5-million partnership with UNICEF to provide zinc and oral rehydration salts to children in India, as a simple treatment for diarrhoea. In Canada, Teck runs a battery recycling campaign, where the company donates the amount of zinc it collects to UNICEF, and keeps batteries out of landfills. In Nebraska, Teck has helped restore bighorn sheep habitats by importing 41 sheep from around its reclaimed Luscar pit in Alberta, which now provides year-round habitat for bighorn sheep.

• The Ebola outbreak in West Africa spurred ArcelorMittal personnel in Liberia to lead the creation of the Ebola Private Sector Mobilization Group, which included many London-based miners and grew to 400 people by December 2014, with companies coordinating their communication networks, equipment and expertise to respond to Ebola. The group estimates it gave away at least 50,000 litres of chlorine, 4 million latex gloves and 55 vehicles, and trained 50,000 employees.

• For the last four years, Barrick Gold has partnered with NGO White Ribbon to prevent gender-based violence in the mining communities around its operations in Zambia, Nevada and Papua New Guinea. In Peru at its Pierina mine, Barrick helped local subsistence farmers adopt better farming techniques and animal husbandry, which quadrupled income and lowered the cases of childhood malnutrition.

There are plenty more examples from firms such as Vale, Resolution Copper, Goldcorp, Unigold, Thiess, New Gold, Newcrest, Codelco, De Beers and Rio Tinto, available by downloading the report at www.unsdsn.org.