Canadian companies working to improve industry’s image
Over the years, Canadian mining companies operating overseas in developing countries have earned a bad reputation for their treatment of the environment, workers and local indigenous people.
There have been recent high-profile cases of Canadian mining companies being sued in Canadian courts for alleged violence against protests in Guatemala and alleged use of slave labour in Eritrea. Less frequently in the headlines are the positive things some Canadian miners are doing in the countries where they operate.
B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO), for example, has won a number of awards for its corporate responsibility efforts in Nicaragua, the Philippines, and Namibia, and NexGen Energy Ltd. (TSX:NXE), a Vancouver uranium mine developer, recently won an award from the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada for social development programs it has initiated in La Loche, Saskatchewan.
Goldcorp Inc. (TSX:G), meanwhile, has invested in medical clinics, mine reclamation and new approaches to reducing the use of water where it operates. While some of these efforts are intended to address mining’s reputation and to improve social licence, some just make economic sense, said Brent Bergeron, Goldcorp’s executive vice-president of corporate affairs and sustainability.
“There is an aspect of it that’s reputational,” he said. “But I also look at it from the point of view of driving value for our mine sites and being very sensitive to what our communities and what our stakeholders are asking of us.”
For the rest of this article: https://biv.com/article/2018/12/miners-aim-rebuild-global-reputation