WP6: Socio-economics of mining

Objective

The project will analyse the socio-economic context of modern gold mining in relation with the environmental issues, aiming to identify the nature of conflicts, proposing solutions, and ways to increase the level of mutual confidence and acceptance, and the benefits to the community and stakeholders. The approach is strongly oriented towards sustainability and long term development of the mining areas. The research will be carried out by active cooperation with the local community and stakeholders in Romania, Finland, and Portugal.

Approach

A. Characterizing the socio-economic environment on the selected mining sites

  • Assessing the public perception on mining across the study sites and by respect to other mineral resources
  • Analysis of the relations with the stakeholders
  • How the project responds to the expectations and needs of the community; what is the level of community engagement?
  • Tools for enhancing the mechanisms of the corporate social responsibility

B. Designing the post-operational development of the mining areas

An analysis of the options and alternatives of post-operational development of the mining areas will be performed. The following factors will be analysed and compared between the study sites:

 

  • Proposed technical solutions for mine closure
  • Proposed post-mining land-use
  • Use of the environmental bonds
  • Identity of the local community (i.e. tradition in mining/other activities, educational level, skills, autochthonous/non-native population ratio)
  • Priorities of the socio-economic development after mine closure
  • Economic opportunities: independent of mining, or related to the former mine

Expected results

The research on socio-economic issues pursues to develop tools for enhancing the mechanisms of the corporate social responsibility as well as community engagement and management of the relations with the stakeholders in gold mining areas. The special focus is in the post-operational development of the mining areas, including the mine closure procedures and post-mining land-use, the use of the environmental bonds and the priorities of the socio-economic development after mine closure. A set of best practice procedures in post-mining development will be drawn.