Transfert Environnement et Société was last week at the Summit on the social acceptability of the mining sector in Tucson, Arizona, to learn about international advances on the subject and humbly share its expertise and experiences.
Our main findings and avenues for reflection:
➡ What costs the industry dearly is its difficulty in being vulnerable in its communications, in recognizing its mistakes, in managing uncertainty, and in communicating its risks with transparency:
🎯No one expects the mining industry to be perfect… Claim you’re not!
➡ The justification for critical and strategic minerals projects does not necessarily excite host communities… nor environmental groups:
🎯 The industry will have to answer difficult questions sooner rather than later: how do its projects really fit into the biodiversity crisis, degrowth and circularity?
➡ The mining industry still favors promotion and communication campaigns: “if only we had more money to carry out major campaigns, the population would change their minds and love us”.
🎯 No.
➡ Local indigenous and non-indigenous communities are not a problem, but a solution.
🎯 As each company is different (mission, vision, values and philosophy), each community is unique (identity, needs, expectations and aspirations)…Find ways of passage together!