Environmental and organisational drivers for the nature of the relationship between illegal miners and mining companies

[摘要] Artisanal and/or illegal mining occurs throughout the African continent and is affectedby government institutions and their policies, mining companies and their activities aswell as the communities where it occurs. Mining companies, in particular, makesignificant investments in the communities around their mines via corporate socialresponsibility (CSR). Mining companies choose to either acknowledge that illegalminers are in fact a stakeholder in the community around the mine, and manage therelationship proactively, or they choose to accept that the activity is illegal and/or opt forthe government and police to get involved in managing the relationship.The research explores the possibility of mining companies and illegal minerscooperating with each other, instead of competing, and the nature of the miningcompanies CSR and stakeholder engagement (SE) strategies that make for a moretransformational relationship. The research establishes the environmental andorganisational factors that drive this relationship.Ten interviews were conducted with CSR practitioners, sustainability managers, assetprotection experts, consultants and geologists working for gold mining companiesoperating throughout Africa. Qualitative data was collected through the use of semistructuredinterviews and the data was analysed using content analysis.Through this research, a stakeholder identification and engagement tool has beendeveloped for mining companies and their managers to use throughout their globaloperations. This tool can be used to report and manage the relationship with illegalminers globally, as the relationship is highly dependent on the country setting andcontext.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria