Industry’s reckoning: Why are world’s top miners at the Vatican? – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – September 10, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

To bastardize a famous quotation from the bible, it may be easier for a camel
to pass through the eye of a needle than a mining boss to enter the kingdom of
god. With a little more good behaviour from the mining companies, that may
change. (Eric Reguly – Globe and Mail – September 10, 2013)

The CEOs of some of the world’s top mining companies did not come to the Vatican to pray, see Pope Francis or traipse through the sweltering halls of the Vatican Museums. They came to discuss ways to make their industry a bit less devilish and you have to give the Vatican credit for all-star drawing power. Any mining conference would have been envious of the guest list.

Saturday’s “day of reflection with the mining industry,” which was organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, the Vatican department that deals with earthly matters such as promoting humans rights, included the CEOs of Anglo American, Rio Tinto and Newmont Mining. Those three men alone represented companies with well more than $100-billion (U.S.) in market value. The chairmen, presidents or senior executives of dozens of other companies, ranging from AngloGold Ashanti to African Rainbow Minerals, made the pilgrimage too.

Why did they come? It was certainly not to seek publicity. The executives did not arrive with their usual gaggle of spin doctors. They did not come because they were cozened into it. In truth, AngloGold floated the idea of a Vatican mining conference in January. There was no formal press conference. A post-conference chat in the offices of the president of the pontifical council, Cardinal Peter Turkson (who was a leading contender to replace Pope Benedict XVI) was attended by precisely one journalist – me.

The goal instead, said Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh, was “to open a dialogue where mining interfaces with the community … to hear other views with the promise of all of us making a difference.”

The Vatican is not against mining. Cardinal Turkson noted that mining was the first industry to be mentioned in the bible (in the book of Deuteronomy). It acknowledges that mining can bring wealth and employment to poor countries. It knows equally well that what’s good for the mining company and its shareholders does not necessarily translate into “the common good.”

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