Bob Rae on engagement: ‘Face-to-face really matters’

About US$20 billion worth of projects globally in the industry today are stalled due to poor government or community relations, Gordon Bogden, a geoscientist and director on the boards of several mining companies, told a conference in Toronto this week hosted by PwC in partnership with The Northern Miner. “Mining is the number one industry to take people out of poverty around the globe so it’s critical to global development, not just in Canada,” he said. “But it’s been stalled. Why? Because of issues with respect to, often, community engagement, and this lack of partnership, so how do we move that forward?” Failing to engage properly with local communities can be a huge obstacle to economic growth, Bogden continued, given that mining and all of the ancillary businesses that go along with it, is one of the biggest contributors to gross domestic product. In Canada, mining makes up about 12% of GDP, while globally the figure is closer to 20%. Read the complete article at NorthernMiner.com/news