Issues of Concern

Published by MAC on 2007-10-13

Over the past fifteen years the global mining industry has found itself under unprecedented pressure to reform. In response eight major mining companies launched the Global Mining Initiative in 1998. This spawned the two-year Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project and the founding of the International Council for Mining and Metals (ICMM) in 2002.

That year also saw the effective launch of the World Bank's Extractive Industries Review (EIR), as the globe's biggest funding agency grappled with demands that it withdraw from all investment in mining, oil and gas.

Some organisations, though previously critical of the industry, sincerely believe that mining companies are now prepared to redress human rights abuses, fully compensate for past damage, and forge reciprocal partnerships with local resource owners.

However, many others - above all mining-affected communities - don't share such optimism. Indeed, on-the-ground opposition to specific projects has, if anything, actually increased over the past five years. Mining companies stand accused of lack of transparency at best and continued complicity in a wide range of social, cultural and environmental violations.

An early attempt to focus on these wrongs, and to formulate a peoples' agenda against them, was the Mining Communities Charter, first drafted by Minewatch Asia Pacific in 1999 (and which gives this web page its name.)

London Declaration (La Declaracion de Londres)

The Charter was followed two years later by the London Declaration, launched at a consultation between representatives of scores of mining-affected communities in eight different countries. The Declaration not only challenges recent industry-led initiatives, but demands that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) follow strict guidelines before "dialoguing", or dealing, with companies. The editors of the MAC site are all signatories to the Declaration, which has been circulated around the world - meriting quotation in mining industry media too.

Key questions

* Can mining contribute to community-led sustainable development - or it implicitly bound to destroy essential resources?

* What is the meaning of "fully informed prior consent" to a minerals project - and is it ever attainable?

* Are there qualitative differences between small-scale mining projects and those of multinational corporations?

* What role - if any - does "ethical" or "socially-responsible" investment" play among banks, insurance companies and multilateral agencies, which fund the industry?

These and other key questions are addressed in a wide variety of documents posted on the articles and papers section of this page.

We warmly welcome your comments on any of these documents and proposals for additions. However, if you wish to send a long document, please advise us first, stating its rough size (in bytes) and format (pdf, word). If possible include a short summary of the content. Thank you!