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Communities agreements

Our community agreements are negotiated agreements with communities and Indigenous Peoples.

We have many agreements with community groups around the world, including exploration agreements, Good Neighbour agreements, cultural heritage management agreements, environmental management agreements, and Life-of-Mine agreements, which covers many aspects related to the lifecycle of a mine. They help us establish respectful relationships with the communities where we operate and are often the result of years of engagement.

Our agreements document mutual obligations and expected behaviours from our employees and contractors. They help reduce the impact of our projects on communities, people and environment. And they help make sure benefits are shared directly with those affected and empower communities to decide how to use these benefits.

Our agreements establish a framework for engaging with communities and Indigenous Peoples, often going beyond legal requirements and forming long-term relationships. These frameworks also set value-sharing models for financial and non-financial benefits to communities for access to land, cultural heritage management, employment, business development, training and education and other important areas.

These agreements provide accountability mechanisms and performance indicators covering all stages of the mining lifecycle from exploration through to closure so the parties can hold each other accountable to deliver on their commitments.

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What our agreements typically cover

  • Land access provisions and consent to certain activities
  • Financial benefits
  • Local employment and training opportunities
  • Economic development and business opportunities
  • Social, cultural and community support
  • Environmental co-management
  • Cultural heritage management, protection and protocols
  • Governance and procedural arrangements, including implementation provisions

Working with Indigenous communities in Australia

Following the tragic destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia in May 2020, we have changed the way we work with communities and Indigenous Peoples, particularly in how we protect heritage. We are moving to a model of co-management, working in partnership with Indigenous Peoples across our operations. Our approach aims to enhance our understanding and appreciation of Indigenous cultural heritage and ensure that Indigenous voices inform our planning and decision making.

We continue to work to regain the trust of Traditional Owners and the wider community. We are actively engaging with Traditional Owners in Western Australia to understand existing and historic issues better and find ways we can deliver more effective outcomes together.

It is our intention that revised agreements will seek to agree on a clear pathway for resolution of any differences of views that may emerge. We will also continue to work with Traditional Owners and local communities to build sustainable business development and employment participation opportunities.

Read more about the changes we have made since Juukan Gorge.

Read more about our approach to cultural heritage.

Sunset at Yindjibarndi

Juukan Gorge

We are committed to learning the lessons and have taken decisive action
Woman weaving colourful threads, Peru

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the collective social embodiment of a community, often inherited through tradition or with some historical association.

Working with Indigenous communities in Canada

We have 12 active long-term impact benefits/participation agreements in Canada. Our agreements include areas such as training and employment procurement, land and water management, joint environmental monitoring and community investment. We are also working in partnership with Indigenous communities to look at how we protect and preserve cultural heritage.

Our history with agreement making

Our approach to engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples was fundamentally reshaped by key legal events in Australia with the High Court’s Mabo decision in 1992, and the introduction of Native Title legislation, which recognised Native Title to land in 1993. Under this law, the “right to negotiate” provision facilitated a culture of agreement making in Australia.

We are proud to be the first mining company in Australia to embrace Native Title to land and to form agreements with Traditional Owners.

In Canada, our first agreement was at the Diavik Diamond Mine, where, in 1999, we signed a Socio Economic Monitoring Agreement (SEMA) with the Northwest Territories government and 5 impacted Metis, First Nations and Inuit organisations. This was followed by the signing of individual Participation Agreements with each of the communities in 2000 and 2001.

The development of new assets, such as Oyu Tolgoi in Mongolia, has also allowed us to explore agreement processes in a context that go beyond Indigenous groups to land-connected Peoples more broadly.

Why Agreements Matter

Learn more about how and why we make agreements

Why Agreements Matter
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