The world’s biggest gold miner believes social responsibility is an area that mining companies, particularly gold companies, need to “try to raise the bar”.
Newmont Australia group executive Hans Umlauff made the comments following a presentation entitled ‘Building Reputation Capital’ at Diggers and Dealers.
Newmont regards Diggers and Dealers as an important opportunity to interact face to face with fellow miners, as well as demonstrate leadership.
Mr Umlauff said increasing the industry’s reputation – aspects including safety, environmental and community – was a logical thing to do. Not only is it the human thing to do, it also makes sound business sense, he said.
Newmont is currently looking at the joint development of the large Boddington gold mine, situated in an environmentally sensitive part of Western Australia.
It also recently reached an agreement with a local Indigenous community near Wiluna.
It has been allowed to explore an area in return for the establishment of trust fund and fund community support programs.
Mr Umlauff said building good relations with local Indigenous communities, based on negotiation rather than litigation, was particularly important in the Australian mining industry.
“When you consider one of the frustrations of exploration in Australia for mining companies, the difficulty of getting access to land – it is just such a slow process,” he said.
“But if you can actually deal and negotiate directly with the owners of that land its just a far more productive way of getting quick access.”
He disagreed with the assertion that agreements with Indigenous communities placed unreal expectations on smaller, less cashed-up exploration and mining companies.
“It’s not a case of being a disadvantage to juniors; it’s actually helping the whole image of the mining industry,” Mr Umlauff said.
