Guidelines for Social and Environmental Acceptability in Mine Development

The Equator Principles (2006) (www.equator-principles.com) are guidelines adopted and promoted by some financial houses to help manage their risk due to mine (or other apparently controversial) projects.  The guidelines are similar to the RMA and provide assurance that even the biggest, greediest and dodgiest (i.e. the money men !!!) are not silly when it comes to development.

Modern successful projects be they land development, dairy in the McKenzie Basin, windfarms or dare I say it, mines are built by embracing the driving principles of the day.  Social and environmental responsibility is as much a part of any project as technical viability.

And the reason is simple.  It’s about money.  No investor will risk their hard hoarded millions on a project doomed to fail through public opposition.  (Brown and Murray (2007) “Commitment, Compliance and Capacity – How Environmental, Safety, Security and Financial Issues Affect Lender’s Risk”. Proceedings “Project Evaluation Conference” Melbourne, June 2007).

RDCL does a lot of work in the Philippines and Asia.  In our opinion, social issues are the overwhelming cause of delay on projects in those areas.  And it’s the same in New Zealand.

The (use of) natural resource debate is about the challenge of bringing “the companies” and the community together for meaningful change, to utilise resources available to us and improve the lives of the current and future generation.

The laws, guidelines, intelligence and collective goodwill will bring about the right result

The Equator Principles require:

• Review and Categorisation – puts a project in the framework
• Social and Environmental Assessment – do them and show results
• Applicable Social and Environmental Standards – international
• Action Plan and Management System – commitment
• Consultation and Disclosure – demonstrate it
• Grievance Mechanism –part of management system
• Independent Review – show it
• Covenants – to comply, to provide, to decommission
• Independent Monitoring and Reporting – external
• Reporting – publicly at least annually