Sustainable Development and Mining: Contradiction or Confirmation?

This paper explores the relationship between mining and sustainable development (SD) in South Africa. It examines the progress of mining and its interactions with labour, communities and the environment, the role of South African mining in the world context, and its economic contribution. It reviews the role of the South African Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act in achieving SD. And it considers the nature of contributions by mining to eradicating poverty, creating employment, meeting the basic needs of communities and providing access to social services. 1 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND SUSTAINABLE MINING Interpretations of sustainable development (SD) vary in their emphasis, between extreme positions in favour of conservation (reluctantly accepting economic development as long as the environment is not disturbed at all), and those in favour of industrial development (with occasional attention to environmental and social aspects). The balance between these views varies, for example with the country or region being discussed, with many observers in southern Africa paying more attention to the need to reduce poverty than to the condition of the environment. Much attention has been paid to real and illusory damage by mining to the environment and to society. The industry has defended itself mainly on the basis of its contribution to economic development, the employment created by mining and the importance of the materials produced by mining, though it has realized that it has to both minimize the negative effects and to contribute more directly to society. This realization has been led by the industry’s need to gain, or at least improve, acceptance by labour, government, local communities, investors and other interested groups. Nevertheless, what comes through is the view that sustainable development is the same as sustainable mining. That is, SD can not be achieved unless mining (and other industry) continues and progresses. The concept of SD originates essentially from widespread public awareness of pollution of natural sites resulting from industrial activities. Such pollution has occurred for a long time. For example, from the late 1800s acid mine drainage from coal mining contaminated the Little Conemaugh River in Cambria County, Pennsylvania in the United States. Public concern became widespread in the 1960s after incidents such as the “burning” of the Cuyahoga River flowing through Cleveland, Ohio, in 1969. (Scrip, 2002). Major US legislation for environmental protection such as the National Environmental Policy Act was initiated around that time (Freer, 1993). Insufficient progress in reducing poverty in the world combined with concern for the quality of the environment to drive international organizations to investigate paths towards improvement on a world scale. At the same time it was accepted, at least at the governmental level, that economic progress was also an essential aspect. A number of international initiatives such as the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, the World Commission on Environment and Development of 1987 and the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg increasingly emhasized the need to consider the effects of economic and social factors in development as well as that of the environment. The 1987 sessions, known as the Brundtland Commission, provided the commonly accepted working definition of SD as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (Open University, 2002). In some commentaries a fourth aspect, governance, is added to the ecological, social and economic pillars of SD. 2 ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY Contributions by the mining industry to the economy are fundamental to the industry’s claim of sustainability. How valid is this part of the claim?