10 minute read
CSR & MINING | Using technology and data to strengthen your social license
By Carolyn Burns
In this digital age there are so many opportunities to use technology and data to improve stakeholder engagement. From video calls to social media platforms, mobile apps, group chats and data portals, it has never been easier to connect with a wide group of people. In 2021, 88% of Canadians used mobile internet. Globally, almost 66% of the population has a cellphone and 60% were active internet users. ere are five of the best ays yo can se technology and data to strengthen your social license to operate.
1 | Share more information with more people. Companies can use digital platforms to provide updates on mine site activity, summaries of meetings, as well as access to company reporting and grievance mechanisms. In many cases, it might also be appropriate to share pictures or videos of mine site visits or meetings with community members.
At the corporate level, most companies now use data portals to share annual sustainability and ESG information. These portals are being expanded to include more timely data related to mining impacts, community concerns and the company’s social performance. We can also use video and virtual reality (VR) tools to share visual representations of mine plans or current mining activity. Videos are also an important way we can summarize complicated information or show the significance of incidents.
The great thing about communications for local stakeholders is that they can be re-purposed for other stakeholder groups like investors and governments to highlight your approach to communication and engagement.
2 | Learn about the people you are engaging with. Social media also presents opportunities to gather more information about the people you are engaging with. Desk top research through LinkedIn, Facebook and community websites can give you a good sense of who you are working with, what their background is and how to connect on a more personal level. Regularly listening to local stakeholders on social media can provide useful information about the issues and opportunities that are important to them.
3 | Get feedback from a broader set of people. In-person discussions and events are extremely important and provide a certain type of information about community dynamics and interests that you cannot get from technology. But social media and technology can help balance out the power dynamics that play out at in-person events and allow
us to reach a much broader group of people. This is particularly true when it comes to connecting with women, kids or racialized people. It can provide opportunity for them to voice their opinion and be especially helpful if their opinion differs from community leadership. You can use the usual social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to build polls, or questionnaires for people to respond to.
Work with community representatives to make sure that digital tools are appropriate for the group. In some regions, communities are super comfortable with What’sAp groups, or online polls and surveys. In other regions you might have to se specific apps that or on basic phones, ith limited internet, and use the right terminology and language. Ulula is a great example of an organization that works with companies and community groups to design and implement apps so that communities can provide feedback on impact assessments, grievance mechanisms and health and safety audits.
4 | Learn more about yourself. Social media and data can provide a company with great insight about their relationships with stakeholders and how effective their social performance is. As noted above, listening to community comments and discussion on open social media platforms will give the company a sense of community concern about a broad range of activities including mining. Some mining impacted communities in Canada have closed Facebook groups, but many also use Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to express their opinions. Using these tools, you can get a sense if you are sharing the right information, if it is resonating, and what are the general opinions or questions that community members have.
Companies can also use their own data to determine if they are meeting commitments and expectations around social performance. Regular tracking and reporting on impacts like
local hiring and procurement, water, community development programs can help track how well you are hitting targets. Likewise, tracking and reporting grievances, attendance at community meetings, social incidents will tell you much about how effective your engagement with communities is. For example, a decrease in the number of grievances might mean that less people are aware of or using your grievance mechanism. Growing attendance at community meetings can indicate that more people are interested in learning about mining activity and people feel comfortable and confident to engage with the company.
5 | Work with partners. NGOs are also using technology and data to connect with comm nities and hear abo t specific iss es. ver the past si years, UNICEF has used RapidPro and UReport as a real time tool to collect credible, up-to-date information from youth. Their tools integrate with popular channels, including Facebook Messenger, Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber to help them reach people in 36 countries. UNCIEF then works with governments and the private sector to interpret massive data sets and share results that can drive action. This is a great example of an entry point for companies and NGOs to work together, to form relationships and share resources required to support good outcomes for communities and build a strong social license to operate. CMJ
CAROLYN BURNS is executive director of the Devonshire Initiative. The Devonshire Initiative is a multi-stakeholder forum focused on improving development outcomes in the mining context. You can learn more about the DI at www.devonshireintiative.org .
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BC exploration thriving in the post-pandemic economic recovery
By Iain Thompson
Arene ed optimism filled the air in as domestic mar ets reopened, s pply chain net or s began to recover and restrictions that had previo sly disr pted on site operations ere grad ally lifted. anada s e ploration e pendit re sa the highest gro th and attracted the largest share of global b dgets ith an increase of , ahead of stralia and the . . With e pendit re increasing across all b t one risdiction, there s lots to celebrate. t one region in partic lar is catching eyes. espite local di c lties in the form of forest fires and infrastr ct re disr ptions from flooding, the e ploration ind stry in ritish ol mbia e perienced a record setting year, entering in f ll s ing. he ann al ineral and oal ploration rvey sa the province achieve a increase in e pendit re year over year. imilarly, the total n mber of pro ects and drilling increased by and , respectively. With e ploration reaching a near year high since spending pea ed in , e set o t to analyze the contrib ting gro th factors and ey trends for the coming year.
Dominant spending trends remain
he north est region contin ed to hold its place as the premier destination for e ploration spending in the province, evidenced by interest from both local companies and ma or international prod cers incl ding e mont s p rchase of old and e crest ining s investments into the region. dditionally, anco ver based scot eso rces is c rrently developing the remier gold pro ect in the area, hile eena eso rces contin es its investment into the s ay ree pro ect. his activity, in part, led the north est region to acco nt for of all e ploration spending in , gaining a increase in spending from the previo s year. he largest mp in spending occ rred in the so th central region, hich sa a increase from levels. ogether, the north est and so th central regions acco nted for three arters of all e ploration spending in the province. s anticipated, gold e ploration as also a dominant contrib tor to e ploration e pendit re gaining even more last year than the po erf l ptic it e perienced in as many investors floc ed to the metal as a safe haven investment. ploration e pendit re contin ed to increase as mar et variability drove demand for the metal and prices rose to more than , per oz. thro gho t the year.
Critical mineral security strengthens in the digital age
n the a e of ongoing geopolitical t rb lence and pandemic ind ced s pply chain disr ptions, a stronger national foc s as placed on developing a more rob st orth merican s pply for critical minerals. art of this incl des advancing the oint ction lan on ritical inerals ollaboration bet een anadian and . . governments. he lan highlights a list of select minerals considered essential to technologies that ill enable a s ccessf l transition to a greener economy. With many of these metals fo nd in . . copper, molybden m, zinc and nic el the province has a ripe opport nity to be a ey player in the global energy transition, s pporting the development in rene able energy and clean technology, ranging from electric vehicle batteries to permanent magnets and ind t rbines. his sentiment as certainly echoed last year, as critical metal e pendit re ent p. opper e ploration sa the largest increase, ith prices contin ing to rally to ne highs to ard the end of . imilarly, nic el and zinc bo nced bac from previo s spending declines.
Advancement towards late-stage exploration to maximize proven assets
ltho gh as a year of nprecedentedly high levels of spending, e ploration contin ed its trend to ards the advanced and mine eval ation stages improving the economics of e isting discoveries rather than to ards finding ne deposits. rassroots and early stage e ploration acco nted for of total e ploration, compared to of late stage and or mine lease e ploration. his may be attrib ted to pro ects ith significant previo s or nat rally advancing thro gh the e ploration lifecycle. r it co ld be that favorable mar et conditions have allo ed an inventory of pro ects ith promise to be contin ed no that capital can be more readily raised. egardless, it s enco raging to see s ch positive gro th across all facets of the ind stry. nd this gro th is e pected to contin e deep into as post pandemic recovery, reopening of global economies and record high commodity prices are e pected to drive demand for critical metals. ec ring and developing s pplies of these minerals ill position anada for long term, s stainable economic gro th, and . . has the opport nity to be at the forefront of this effort. ot only to provide materials for ne technologies, b t to drive f rther ob creation, economic development and investment that ill position . . as a global leader in mineral and e ploration development. CMJ
IAIN THOMPSON is the mining and metals consulting leader at EY Canada, based in Vancouver. For more information visit www.ey.com/en_ca/mining-metals.
