Industrial Minerals

Stakeholder consultation for a new mining project in Pakistan.
Hidayat Hasan


The 20 years since the Rio Declaration on the Environment and Development have seen huge changes in the way the world expects environmental, and more recently, social risks associated with new projects to be evaluated.

The main driver for this change is public perceptions and expectations regarding the need for sustainable development. These in turn influence:

•  the regulatory regimes imposed by governments, with most countries having made significant changes to environmental and social laws since the Rio Declaration;
• companies themselves, who are more and more frequently volunteering to adhere to international codes or standards, or even working together to develop industry-specific guidelines such as those by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM); and
• financial institutions who are subject to increasing scrutiny by non-governmental organisations, such as Bank Watch, when providing project finance.

SRK has found from its...