Development of the Stakeholder Engagement Plan as a Mining Social Responsibility Practice

Abstract

This chapter addresses the development of social responsibility practices for Newmont Mining Corporation’s Emigrant Rain Project in the State of Nevada, USA. It results from Newmont’s concerns related to conflicts on permitting the Emigrant Mine over the past 12 years, which brought the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Newmont Mining Corporation together to investigate the concept of a Good Neighbor Agreement. A Good Neighbor Agreement can be used to understand the relationships between various stakeholders, to improve communication, and to help resolve disagreements. For this purpose, we identified groups of relevant stakeholders based on location, which include the Carlin group, the Twin Creeks Group, and the Long Canyon Group. For the first group, which is geographically close to the examined site, we established levels of influence and their interest in the Emigrant Rain Project, composed stakeholders’ matrixes and maps, and identified the stakeholders’ engagement risks and stakeholders’ engagement methods. For all groups together we conducted a survey to identify the opinions and concerns related to the mining industry in Nevada. The results of this research will be used to develop Good Neighbor Agreements as a general tool for conflict resolution.