In a business as sensitive as mining, broad-based community support is essential. Indeed, good management of community relationships is as necessary to business success as the good management of operations—after all, gaining community support is vital to obtaining or maintaining a licence to operate.
EUROTALC members set out to build enduring relationships with their neighbours, based on mutual respect, active partnership, and long-term commitment. Wherever they operate, they do their best to accommodate the different cultures, lifestyles, heritage and preferences of their neighbours, particularly in areas that are industrially underdeveloped.
Mutual respect depends on understanding the issues that are important to our neighbours and on our neighbours understanding what is important to us. To do this, many of our members run structured, closely coordinated community relations programmes hinged around a range of formal and informal consultation tools that gauge peoples’ perceptions of the effects and consequences of their activities.
EUROTALC member operations also promote active partnerships at European, national, regional, and local levels, and organise a diverse range of sustained initiatives and outreach programmes in support of education, employee development, sport, culture and the arts.
European Minerals Day
EUROTALC members actively participate in the European Minerals Day organised in conjunction with the European Industrial Minerals Association every two years since 2007. The event provides an excellent opportunity for local communities to find out more about the world of minerals and how they are mined and processed, from extraction to the manufacture of everyday products. It aims to boost awareness of the importance of minerals and to demonstrate that mining companies are responsible neighbours who care about the environment. Typical events consists of guided visits to quarry operations, plants and rehabilitated areas, showcasing the company’s good environmental practices as well as the unique and often rare biodiversity that finds is habitat in active quarry and mine sites. For more information: http://www.mineralsday.eu.
