Enhancing Australia's Economic Prosperity
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Resources

The Australian Government is committed to creating a policy framework to expand Australia's resource base, increase the international competitiveness of our resources sector and improve the regulatory regime, consistent with the principles of environmental responsibility and sustainable development.
Community Engagement and Development Handbook

The concept of 'community' is commonly used in the minerals industry to indicate the geographic community in the operation's area of interest. In the context of the mining industry, an example of where the 'community' of a mine may be broader that just people living in the surrounding area is where the mine is a fly-out or drive-in drive-out operation and the workforce and their families live in a distant town or city. Leading practice now identifies two related ways in which mining companies can interact with people: community engagement and community development.

Community engagement and development are complex and challenging activities. Mining companies, like many organisations (both public and private) need to be able to respond to the evolution of understanding in social practice as well as changing community expectations and political contexts. It also needs to be understood that what works in the context of one community may be ineffective or even counter productive in another. Moreover, the outcomes of some community development activities may not be known until some years later.

Publications

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