EDITORIAL PAGE — Sincerity equals credibility

The past year has not been an easy one for the mining industry, at least on the environmental front. Last summer, Cambior and Golden Star Resources reported an effluent spill at their Omai gold mine in Guyana, and, more recently, Placer Dome has been taking heat for a tailings spill at the Marcopper mine in the Philippines, where it holds a minority interest.

It is impossible to deny that these are black marks against the companies involved, and against the mining industry in general. The companies themselves concede as much.

These incidents, coming as they do after highly publicized environmental problems at the Summitville mine site in Colorado, have provoked plenty of controversy. They have been widely publicized and, as a result, have generated strong public response, mostly emotional.

Typically, there have been calls for commissions of enquiry, which is not unreasonable. But even before the reasons for the failures are identified and solutions found, some parties want criminal charges to be laid. Others spout rhetoric implying mining companies are more interested in profits than in environmental protection, that they are devoid of a social conscience and that they nonchalantly ride roughshod over the rights of local landowners.

Critics will point to these incidents, and suggest that they are representative of a dehumanized industry that has divorced ethics from business. As such, they will be used as ammunition by opponents of new mines still in the permitting phase, particularly high-profile projects such as New World in Montana.

If such efforts go unchallenged, rhetoric and emotion will once again be allowed to prevail over reason. Science will be the culprit, and not the solution. And many will come to believe that, without science and without industry, the rivers affected by these mine spills would still be pristine and local peoples would be living an idyllic life in a natural state, unburdened by technology and unshackled by commerce.

Since the 1960s, it has been fashionable to be critical of science and technology. On an emotional level, these views had strong appeal. But, all too often, they did not hold up under scrutiny because they were spawned by bias and riddled with superficial thinking. A famous case in point was the Club of Rome’s dire warning, in the 1970s, that the world would soon be exhausted of its resources.

Fortunately, the easy days are over for environmental extremists and critics of science and technology. The public is becoming more skeptical of the apocalyptic tone of environmental extremists, and becoming more aware of the high environmental standards natural resource companies now embrace. As to nostalgia for the pre-industrial age, most people know (instinctively at least) that life was no picnic hundreds of years ago, when most of the world’s population faced brutality, ignorance and want. And since the collapse of communism, capitalism is being given credit for having delivered a better quality of life to more people around the world than any other system.

So what does all this mean for mining companies and how they handle environmental accidents? Upfront and honest is best, and co-operation with local communities and government is a must. It is also important to provide the public with a sensible and rational explanation of the problem, its effects, and how it can be solved. Sincerity is the only way to build up industry credibility.