A drinks reception follows this lecture.
Abstract
The mining industry operates in an environment increasingly demanding of its products. However, establishing the moral case for taking natural resources from one area to benefit another with most of the profits leaving the host country is becoming increasingly difficult. The same is true of the often irreparable change to delicate ecosystems from mining – why should plants, animals and peoples suffer, often die, in one place to benefit development in another while dominantly enriching distant investors?
Most modern mining companies try to operate in an environmental- and community-friendly way but with varying degrees of success. Mining companies answer to shareholders and are regulated by governments; they make common use of tax havens and fiercely resist increased taxation or any hint of “resource nationalism”.
We all use the products of mining and a rapidly developing world is placing increasing demands on the mining industry to satisfy its needs. There is a moral dilemma on how this done. This is an often uncomfortable debate that is not often raised, especially by the multinational miners themselves.
Large segments of our industry are suffering the effects of self-inflicted over-investment during the post-GFC period with almost all mining companies now reverting to more conservative growth strategies. However, increasing demand for most commodities appears likely to continue although probably at a less accelerated rate than recently. Reserves of almost all commodities are being easily replaced by brownfields expansions and/or developments of known deposits with ‘peak metal’ not on the horizon.
Mining companies and universities should lead society in establishing an honest debate on the morality of mining in the context of the forecast demand for its products.