Mining in search of its better angels

In January 2013, Anglo American's CEO, Mark Cutifani, visited the Vatican to chat with Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana.

Turkson was one of the frontrunners for the top job at the Vatican but lost out to Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis around the time Cutifani was appointed head of the global mining giant.

Cutifani, who despite being Catholic had not set foot inside a church for 47 years, wanted to learn something from the church about how to engage with local communities across Africa. The Catholic Church was known to be a backer of Africa-based NGOs supporting communities that are in conflict with mining companies.

Cutifani told journalists shortly after the visit that it was part of an effort to better engage with all stakeholders.

"I said to him: 'We don't know how to engage those NGOs, can you help us understand where we might start the conversation ... what we're coming here to do is to listen, and try to understand how we can engage in a different conversation as an industry.'"

Several months later, Cutifani was back at the Vatican. This time with CEOs of other large mining companies, including Rio Tinto, Newmont, India's Zamin and African Rainbow Minerals.

It is to their considerable credit that the CEOs of mining companies seem keen to address the growing problem of community antagonism and the enormous gap between what companies say ( and many apparently believe) they contribute to communities and what members of those communities experience.

The problem for Cutifani and the other CEOs is that they are not dealing with churches' time frame.

Churches look to lifetimes to engage with and save people. They are happy to plod away at getting to know all of the community - the women, the men, the youth, the elderly, the disabled, the able. Anglo, Rio Tinto and ARM need to produce profits, or the promise of profits, in the next six months. In very exceptional circumstances, perhaps the next three or four years. And when they talk about "engaging", what they really want to be able to do is talk to the imaginary single representative of the community.

A second significant problem is that mining companies engage with only those communities they want to upend. They don't want to develop relationships with any old community; they want them with communities that suffer the great misfortune of living on top of valuable minerals. Inevitably the extraction of these minerals will make the land uninhabitable. From day one there's a fundamental conflict of interest.

In the old days this wasn't too great a problem for the mining companies. But since 1994, that problem has not only become bigger, it's become remarkably complex as government policy becomes increasingly erratic.

Ironically, while leaving companies worse off, the post-1994 changes have done little to improve the lot of the communities.

Much community land is held in trust by the government on behalf of community members, and the authority to issue prospecting and mining licences now lies with the government. C ommunities have very little say in what happens to land they have lived on and farmed for generations. If they are well organised, they can agitate and delay mining activity, or they may even be able to ensure they get the opportunity to buy a stake in the mining venture on their land.

Understandably, delegates at last week's Alternative Mining Indaba appear to be as opposed to the idea of nationalisation as the mining executives attending the Mining Indaba are.

Communities see the government's role as, at best, ill-considered but more likely corrupt. They are increasingly angry about well-placed politicians, bureaucrats and backers of top ANC parliamentarians - all outsiders - being given access to "their" wealth through BEE deals.

Communities and mining companies have much to gain from a more constructive and trusting relationship; reduced scope for political machinations; and increased certainty.

But creating this might require the patience of a saint, which is in short supply in markets obsessed with the short term.