Sustainable Management of Mining Operations: An Overview

Today, most mining companies declare their commitment to the values of sustainability in their Vision, declarations and policies, but not many achieve an efficient integration of those values down into the operational levels of the organization. Corporate commitment is an essential condition for integrating sustainability, but is not sufficient. Another key condition is a business culture where sustainability is a high professional and business value and sustainability objectives are implemented through commitment rather than compliance. Furthermore, the integration process requires of an organizational structure specific roles and integration mechanisms and adequate management systems. In this paper, I would like to focus on the very complex management task for the integration of sustainability down to the operational levels of mining companies, the organizational structures and the management roles and systems required for integratio