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Presentations from Northland Resources and SRK Consulting will focus on good governance and corporate responsibility of new mining operations at the forthcoming Euro Mine Expo event from June 12-14, 2012 in Skellefteå, Sweden. Jonas Lundström, Vice President of HR and Corporate Communications at will be speaking about the Pajala project when Northland will begin mining operations; while Richard Evans, Senior Environmental Consultant at SRK will talk about building mines in partnership with neighbours and government.
“It’s difficult for us to ask anyone because they’ve been dead for a hundred years”, says Jonas Lundström about Northland’s challenge to realise Sweden’s biggest completely new mining project of modern times. He will be speaking about all the challenges and the short journey from starting construction to mining and delivery. The Kaunisvaara project outside Pajala in Norrbotten is Northland Resources’ furthest advanced mining project. Within the framework of the project, two new iron ore mines are being developed at the present time – Sahavaara and Tapuli. One of the factors that make Kaunisvaara so interesting is that the properties of the ore make it possible to produce a concentrate with an iron content of all of 69%. Even though Kaunisvaara is situated in an area with a long history of mining and close to existing infrastructure, there was a lot that needed to be built up. For example, the ore must be transported by truck 150 km to a transshipping terminal in Pitkäjärvi, from where it is transported by rail on the Ore Line to the port of Fagernes in Narvik in Norway, where a new terminal is being built.
Richard Evans from SRK comments: “Anybody who has worked in or for the mining industry knows that ‘a mine is not an island’. When planning a new mine there is open land between a mine and society and mines have a huge influence on this land. Mines impact greatly on the physical environment and the social and cultural fabric of communities that surround them”, says Evans. He points out that in modern times mines realise that they not only need to care about their investors. They need to care about society. They need to gain a ‘social licence to operate.’
“These days consulting stakeholders is synonymous with corporate social responsibility. And a socially responsible corporation realises that financial markets and consumers may penalise mines for what they perceive as anti-social behaviour such as by a drop in shareholder value, loss of good will, or poor public image. So mines care because it could affect their bottom line,” Evans adds.
“A socially responsible corporation also realises that there will be greater investment in companies that are socially responsible and vice versa. Now you can’t be a socially responsible corporation and get a social licence to operate if you don’t talk to and care about your stakeholders.”
For more information, see www.eurominexpo.com
