ICMM has published a toolkit to help mining companies understand the factors that influence community support and measure the level of community support at a particular project or operation. The Understanding company-community relations toolkit “provides a structured approach for companies to understand the basis for community support and how to measure perceptions of support. It enables companies to identify the reasons why community support may be lacking at a project or operation, and develop targeted approaches for improving company-community relationships.”
The toolkit is designed to help companies understand the nature of their relationships with communities – irrespective of whether these are supportive or otherwise. Ultimately the emphasis is on helping companies achieve relationships that are supportive. For this reason, the term ‘community support’ features prominently throughout the toolkit. This approach outlined in the toolkit recognises that a company’s attitudes and behaviours towards host communities, and the context in which it operates, play a fundamental role in determining the degree to which communities support a particular project or operation and the quality of relationships between the company and the community.
There is little consensus or clarity on what community support means in practical terms – or how it can be measured. “Perception surveys can help companies understand the opinions and perspectives of community members about a project or an operation, but there is no publicly available guidance on the factors that can influence community support or how these might be measured, ” said ICMM’s CEO Tom Butler. “This is the gap that we hope to address with this toolkit.”
In a separate development, the ICMM has also announced that it will convene a global review of tailings storage facility standards and critical controls. Butler said, “I would like to express my profound sadness for the tragic loss of life that resulted from the recent Samarco tailings dam collapse in Brazil, and to extend my deepest sympathies to all those affected by the disaster. In recent weeks, we have been consulting with member companies to determine how best to respond as an organisation with a commitment to leadership in environmental and safety performance within the mining and metals industry. ICMM places an emphasis on collaborative learning and in convening this review, we support our industry in seeking to avoid such an event from happening again.”
The review will be led by ICMM and include external experts and member company representatives. It will focus on surface tailings management across the membership, including a review of standards, critical control strategies, governance and emergency preparedness. “This review will build on an existing body of knowledge on tailings management and serve as an important resource not only for our members but the wider industry,” said Butler. Work on the review has already commenced.