Towards sustainable mining

“The return on investment from aggressively improving company-wide sustainable development knowledge and initiatives can make other traditional investment initiatives seem trivial.”

— Bob Willard, The Sustainability Advantage.

We are living in a time where the models we’ve traditionally known, with respect to communities, no longer appear to be applicable. In Canada, we’ve gone from the experience of the one-company town (paternalistic and controlling) to a hands-off relationship relying on governments to support municipal infrastructure and civic institutions. Currently the industry faces various demands from local communities, including Aboriginals, with regard to benefits, diversification and sustainability of the community after mine closure.

One of the things that changed for our industry, and others, is that the world is more connected than ever before. It truly is a global village, and chances are that whatever happens, regardless of wherever it happens, will be known quickly, especially if it has negative consequences.

Falconbridge’s Raglan base metals mine in far northern Quebec and BHP Billiton’s Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories are examples of operations that have developed good relations with their neighbours, but even these companies will tell you that such a relationship cannot be taken for granted; it requires ongoing attention.

There is strong public demand for industry action on performance, and if regulators do not act, non-government organizations will. Such concerns as tailings failures, cyanide spills, mishandling of mercury, and legacy issues have fueled this demand.

We can no longer be complacent about society’s need for our products. The need may be there, but it is not “at any cost” in “any location.” For too long, our industry has been playing defensive, responding late to society’s growing expectations for change.

The mining industry needs a “licence to operate.” The key to this is aligning our priorities and values with our communities of interest, through dialogue. At the heart of it all is improved performance, which will then allow us to improve our reputation as an industry. As we gain easier access to land and decrease our cost of business by improving permitting, trimming legal fees, lessening insurance rates, and decreasing the number of regulatory hurdles, we will begin to earn recognition as a workplace of choice and be seen as a strong investment.

We will eventually earn a more positive international reputation, increase our global competitiveness and improve our productivity, thus providing higher returns on investment. This is not just theory: research shows that dialogue reduces the risks of opposition to investment decisions, which makes for good business.

Toward this end, the Mining Association of Canada has developed an initiative dubbed “Towards Sustainable Mining” (TSM), which is being guided by a 12-member task force. Already, the following steps have been taken:

q The MAC approved a guide for managing communication-related crises in communities.

q By June, all MAC member companies are required to have a plan in place for dealing with such crises.

q Areas for improvement, especially as regards abandoned mines, have been outlined.

q Each member company has identified a leader responsible for implementing the TSM.

By dynamically aligning our actions with the values and priorities of our communities of interest, we can reduce uncertainty. This, combined with new performance objectives, is leading toward stronger criteria for MAC membership.

We are seeing evidence of early success from TSM in the form of economical solutions to environmental issues, and the Canadian Nature Federation has expressed support for the initiative.

Consider also the recent review of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. By working closely with environmental and Aboriginal organizations, the MAC forged a strong consensus on badly needed amendments to the act. We now have a bill before parliament and we are lobbying with the Canadian Environmental Network and the Assembly of First Nations to obtain further improvements.

Collaboration with others, be it on the Species at Risk Act or on environmental research, has generated better results than we would ever have achieved acting alone.

The communities in which mining companies operate know that, at the end of the day, we have to make money. If companies operate ethically and respect and contribute to the communities where they operate, there is greater likelihood they will succeed.

— The preceding is an edited version of a presentation made at the annual convention of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada, held in Toronto. The author is the president of the Mining Association of Canada.