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Australians believe mining plays an important role in the prosperity of the nation, but much needs to be done to bolster the industry’s acceptance, trust and support – CSIRO
RENO (MINEWEB) – A CSIRO survey report released Tuesday at the International Mining and Resources Conference in Melbourne, Australia, found “Australians consider that mining is a worthwhile pursuit when you weigh up all the associated benefits and costs”.
However, lead CSIRO researcher Dr. Kieren Moffat noted, “”The survey shows Australians broadly accept mining and that acceptance underpins the social license to operate, but it shows that support is fragile and subject to things like perceptions of mining impacts, governance and the sharing of benefits.”
“Australians across mining, non-mining and metropolitan regions strongly agreed that mining contributes significantly to the economy, to the standard of living, to our way of life and future prosperity,” said Moffat. “Those surveyed in each group also generally agreed that mining creates jobs, opportunities and infrastructures in regions.”
“There are however relatively strong community perceptions that mining impacts negatively on the environment, water quality, agriculture, climate change and the health of local communities,” Moffat advised.
The Australian attitudes toward mining report, authored by Moffat, Airong Zhang and Naomi Boughen, summarizes the findings from a survey of 5,121 Australians about their attitudes toward the mining industry at the end of 2013 and in the first quarter of 2014. The majority of those surveyed came from metropolitan regions, following by those living in non-mining regions, and finally by those in mining regions.
The negative impact of mining on the environment rated the highest among the concerns found in those surveyed. The impacts on water quality (both groundwater and surface water) generated the highest rate of concern among the respondents, follow by impacts on the environment in general, mining’s negative impacts on agriculture and mining’s contribution to climate change.
There was also moderate agreement that mining has a negative impact on the health of local communities.
The respondents were also asked about the “distributive fairness of mining-associated benefits, how fairly they felt they were treated in decision-making processes regarding the industry, the level of faith they had in our legislative and regulatory frameworks for managing mining, and more broadly, the degree to which they trust important players in the industry,” said CSIRO.
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