The Director for CSR and Corporate Affairs at mining company Teck emphasized the importance of strengthening relationships with the local communities. To further strengthen constructive exchanges, the Quechua Indigenous Community of Huatacondo and the mining company Teck Quebrada Blanca will present a paper together during the Srmining 2015 conference.
What has your experience with the communities been like?
For Teck, it is essential to create shared value through the generation of local employment, local economic benefits and infrastructure development. Without the support of the communities, our efforts would not be sustainable over time and, therefore, we could not operate. Even though our relationship with the communities has been difficult at times, we also look at these situations from a long-term perspective. In this regard, we would describe our relationship with the communities as positive even though each community has different needs and specific demands. Maintaining an open-door policy and demonstrating, with actions, our desire to work closely with them has allowed us to generate a frank and fruitful dialogue. Our long term vision is to minimize our impacts, including those that affect the environment, the economy and the social environment. Through two-way and transparent communication, we want to develop and maintain a friendly relationship based on mutual trust.
What have you gained from working with the communities?
By working with communities we create a virtuous circle and the people of the communities can benefit from our work in a self-determined way. When a community considers that there has been an improvement as a result of interactions we have had with them, it is clear that we are moving forward and our mining activities are contributing to the economic and social development of the area.
What other experience have you had in addition to one that Teck Quebrada Blanca will be presenting en Srmining 2015?
In addition to the work we have done jointly with the Huatacondo community, another example that demonstrates our frank relationship with the community is the case of Andacollo, which will also be presented at the Srmining conference. It is an example of how we have worked on four areas of particular interest to the community: health, environment, infrastructure and social development.
What can events such as Srmining bring to the mining industry?
Events like Srmining are important as they allow us to share experiences and move towards a more strategical social responsibility management within the mining industry. The events are a key forum for understanding the approaches and concrete actions that other companies have successfully implemented to enhance relationships with the community. These events bring together mining companies and experts in matters related to human rights issues, community empowerment, indigenous people, among other things and therefore create opportunities that help us to enrich our work and enable us to expand our range of options in terms of social responsibility.
