Can Impact & Benefit Agreements Work as a Bridge Towards More Sustainable Practices in Mining Industry?
Andre M. Xavier & Sarah Kimball, Norman Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering, University of British Columbia Mandatory actions, such as environmental impact assessment (EIA), have been enforced, aiming to assure that mining activities are being dealt properly with all environmental issues. However, those requirements are not sufficient to address socio-economic and cultural issues. Supra -regulatory mechanisms, such as Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA), have been adopted by mining companies to negotiate directly with potential affected parties, such as Aboriginals. This paper analyzes the First Nation Raglan IBA as a tool between mining companies and communities. This paper also confronts IBA with Gibson’s model of sustainability in order to understand whether IBAs could work as a bridge towards more sustainable practices. Because IBA is a recent practice in Canada it is difficult to assess the effectiveness in the long-term. It can be concluded that confidentiality and the role of
