Mining and Corporate Social Responsibility in China

“Greening and harmonious mining development” was one of the often-mentioned phrases at the recent China Mining 2007 conference which was held in Beijing in mid November. LEAD Fellows Mehrdad Nazari (Europe, C7, and Senior ESIA & CSR Advisor, Prizma LLC) and Chengbo Wang (China, C5, and Academic Director of LEAD China) were amongst the 2,500 conference participants.

Mehrdad was invited to co-chair a morning session on Corporate Social Responsibility and Community Development. He also delivered a short course on the Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards. These are social and environmental standards and guidelines used by a growing number of financial institutions and investors to benchmark and manage social and environmental investment risks in emerging markets. Mehrdad’s participation at the China Mining 2007 event was co-sponsored by Hunter Dickinson Inc and Centerra Gold Inc.

Grappling with “greening and harmonious mining development” is not a uniquely Chinese challenge, although it has been pushed into the limelight in advance of the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games. Applying sustainable development principles and securing social license to operate remain key challenges facing the extractive industry worldwide. Increasingly, cross-sectoral learning, collaboration and delivery models are being viewed as a more effective approach to increase positive and sustainable developmental impacts associated with extractive projects.

LEAD’s own efforts in this area include facilitating a number of training workshops for Newmont Mining Corporation in USA, Ghana and Peru. This programme, which was delivered by an international group of LEAD Fellows and Trainers was called 'Building Sustainable Futures with Communities.' It was designed as a professional development programme for Newmont's community relations and development personnel. LEAD will also be hosting a short course on Equator Principles and IFC Performance Standards, tailored to the mining and extractive sector, on April 4, 2008, in London.

Download course information

Please contact Mehrdad (Mehrdad@prizmasolutions.com) to receive further information about the short course and Isabela Souza (Isabela@lead.org) to learn more about LEAD’s training and partnership opportunities.

Release date: Monday, December 10, 2007