Building a future in mining

When done with the full and informed consent of your community, the potential social and economic benefits from extracting the natural resources in your traditional territory can change lives. Mining can provide a permanent path to a better future for an Indigenous community by contributing to long-term capacity-building.

That better future will only happen if community economic development goes beyond simply collecting a royalty payment from the mining company while outside workers get the jobs and supply the services to the mine.

PMC will help you advance your community’s interests at every stage of mining development, from exploration through closure, by assisting you to:

Work with the mining company to develop an Impact and Benefits Agreement (IBA) that provides long term prosperity for your community.  A well-crafted IBA assures the community of specific benefits flowing from every stage of mining activity and provides both the mining company and the community with predictability. PMC will help you use the negotiation of an IBA as an opportunity to market your capabilities and maximize the lifetime economic benefits to your community.

Engage and communicate with your community to promote awareness of opportunities and provide people with the tools—education, training, career advice—to pursue them. PMC will help you develop a community engagement process and communication plan after the signing of an IBA, to ensure that as many opportunities as possible stay in your community.

Create a human resource strategy to prepare and recruit members of your community for the direct and indirect jobs that mining creates. PMC will help you inventory the skills available in your community, and consult the developer to identify the skills that will be required—both directly and indirectly—to operate the mine. If important skills are not available in your community, it is not a weakness. It is an opportunity for growth.

Develop businesses to supply goods and services to the mine such as brush clearing, catering, security, fuel supply, equipment rental, accommodation and much more. Mine owners can and will work with familiar suppliers—outside suppliers—if they are not persuaded that local businesses can provide what they need at a competitive price and quality of service. PMC can help you create the human resource management structure to develop those businesses, and assist in arranging joint ventures with outside firms to jump start your entry into various business sectors.

We can help you take the necessary steps now to ensure that an important legacy of your mining development is a community that is socially and economically—and sustainably—better off than when you started.