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Drawing on both the stakeholder theory and Carroll’s Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid, this chapter explores sustainability practice challenges of a gold minning multinational enterprise in Ghana. Primary data was collected through observation and the interviewing of multi-stakeholder groups. We found that internal stakeholders perceive sustainability expenditure as costly. However, while employees of the case enterprise see the cost as depleting shareholders’ wealth, managers view them as investment with possible long-term benefits. Meanwhile, the external stakeholders perceive the gold mining enterprise’s sustainability expenditure as meagre and that beneficiary communities are not economically empowered to sustain those investments. Again, we found that government’s inability to clamp down illegal gold mining threatens economic and environmental sustainability. Additionally, members of the host community identify the lack of adequate employment opportunities within the entity as a hindrance to their economic empowerment. We submit that the resolution of the sustainability challenges would contribute to the balancing of stakeholders’ expectations: the conduct of ethical business through compliance to environmental laws; promotion of host communities’ social well-being; and improved economic returns for shareholders. By meeting the needs of stakeholders, gold mining enterprises could gain acceptance in their host communities and boost corporate reputation.

This paper aims to examine the interaction between formal and informal organisation of work inside the pit, with reference to the informal working or coping strategy of “making a plan” (planisa).

The research for this paper was ethnographic in nature and the participant observation was the main research technique used in the field.

The underground gold miners make a plan or engage in planisa to offset the production bottlenecks which affected their capacity to achieve their production targets and increase their bonus earnings. They “get on and get by” underground in order to cope with organisational constraints and management inefficiencies.

The paper highlights the limits of formal organisation of work and the significance of gold miners’ informal work strategy of making a plan (planisa) as an existing and alternative working practice that shapes their subjective orientation, agency and resilience to work structures and managerial strategies. Any strategy designed to improve the health, safety and productivity of underground miners must recognise, elaborate and systematically articulate the workplace culture of planisa as an existing work practice in the day‐to‐day running of the production process down the mine.

This study aims to understand the process, structure and determinants of persistent illegal gold mining in Indonesia.

An exploratory study included a literature review, field observations and in-depth interviews. Fieldwork was conducted at two mining locations in Kalimantan, Indonesia. Sixteen respondents representing key stakeholders: government, mining companies, mining associations and community, including illegal miners, were interviewed. The findings of the literature review were categorized as the push or pull factors within the topics, and field observations verified the literature review results regarding Indonesia. Interview data were analyzed using content analysis methods. A structural diagram of the actors and causal loop diagrams among the determinants of illegal gold mining was created and interpreted.

A complex activity process and structure were revealed involving a range of actors. Politicians, government officials and law enforcement authorities added the complexity to the structure. Six main determinants of persistent illegal gold mining emerged: financial, low entry barrier, regulations and policies, supporting resources availability, politics and power and psychosocial factors.

This study provides a deeper understanding for policymakers to consider when formulating policies on natural resources, and insights for mining companies to minimize conflicts with the community.

The study contributes to our knowledge of the complex structure and main determinants of illegal gold mining in Indonesia, which supports efforts to curtail this illegal activity.

This study aimed to document the life experiences of child miners (CMs) engaged in small-scale gold mining system (SSGMS) in Paracale using qualitative and ethnographic approaches. Findings revealed that the SSGMS started even before the Spaniards came in 1572. Pagbibitâ (underground mining), and pagkocompressor (underwater mining) were identified as types of SSGMS (pagkakabod) with common organizational structure and CMs. Their differences were in the nature of work, roles, costs, income, equipment, and processes. Majority of the CMs are males, out-of-school youth, eldest children, and have worked from two months to nine years. Altruistic factors, a source of inspiración, motivated them to engage on mining. They view their families as poor, and mining as their primary means of livelihood and family tradición. Their life threatening or work-related risks and impoverished living conditions unquestionably infringe their children’s rights. Their aspiración include having permanent employment, better family life and community, finishing their studies, and sending their siblings to school. Perseverance and hard work are their means to realize them.

Their experiences of labour explotación and destitution are indeed social issues. Espousing social development and community organizing frameworks, good governance, holistic alternative livelihood and learning system may minimize their plight as child miners.

This chapter seeks to explore what responsible management entailed in the country of Ghana, with regard to gold trade. Responsible management ‘… addresses the specific strategies, tactics or actions managers ought to pursue to address business’s accountability, obligations and duties to society and stakeholders’ (Carroll et al., 2019, p. 57). The Akan moral saying, ‘To possess virtue is better than gold’, purports that good ethics is of more value compared to wealth; and underpins Afro-communitarianism where common societal good is priced over individual gains. ‘The gold mining sector was largely administered by the Abusa system, which is still a feature in agriculture in modern Ghana’ (Iliffe, 1995, p. 147). This system operated a tripartite profit-sharing scheme, where the chief who is the landholder, received one-third of the production, the lessee or operator of the mine one-third and the workers the last third (Iliffe, 1995, p.147). Some traditional values and ethical concepts that guided doing business in ancient Ghana will be expounded in this chapter.

This chapter examines and discusses the unintended outcomes of the production bonus scheme the mine had instituted to motivate and increase the productivity of the frontline mining teams. This is crucial given that the maladministration of the bonus system could lead to a range of undesired outcomes such as deteriorating levels of trust between management and frontline workers, prioritisation of production at the expense of safety, poor work relations and ultimately low levels of organisational, employee and team performance. There are a number of organisational, management and labour factors that can render a production bonus scheme effective or ineffective. These factors influence the nature and extent of worker reactions to the bonus scheme.

This chapter examines and discusses the factors that influenced the reaction of the mining teams to the team-based production bonus scheme and the extent to which mine management fulfilled its side of the bargain in the implementation of the production bonus. The chapter highlights the manner in which the team-based bonus system influenced teams of stope workers to engage in their informal organisational practice of making plan (planisa) in order to offset the snags that jeopardised their prospects of earning the production bonus. The chapter reveals that, to a large extent, the productivity bonus generated conflict rather than cooperation at the point of production down the mine. As a result, the incentive scheme failed to live up to expectations by not eliciting the desired levels of organisational, worker and team performance at the rock-face.

The aim of this paper is to analyze relationships of cooperation and conflict between a mining company and the involved communities, focusing on the presence of the mining company (MSX) in Cerro de San Pedro, Mexico.

The paper focuses on the co‐operation and conflict between firms, communities, new social movements and the role of government.

The presence of the mining company has caused a severe social conflict among the inhabitants of San Pedro, Soledad y San Luis, alerting all who are concerned with historic heritage, cultural and environmental issues. At the center of the controversy is the cheap and efficient technology. Federal and state laws were violated. It is quite evident that there was a lack of sensitivity of foreign mining companies toward the consequences of their activities upon the communities and environment. This case also shows the lack of negotiation between firms, communities, new social movements and governments. Information about externalities and future costs of company activities is crucial but more crucial is formulation and implementation of more sensitive policies to avoid damage to the environment, biodiversity and health of the population. Governmental institutions must be aware that their decisions may affect the quality of life of present and future generations for the sake of a small increment in economic growth and large increase in private benefits of a small group of investors. More informed citizens tend to be more active protestors, such as the case of the students in San Luis. Contact between informed individuals of diverse groups and organizations helps to exchange experiences and create public opinion in favor of mobilization. Community participation and involvement in decision‐making of community development planning is quite limited by the lack of critical information. This fact is critical when the local government cannot provide the right information because there are other interests affecting the process.

The paper highlights the lack of sensitivity of foreign mining companies towards local communities.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate on governance, accountability, transparency and corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining sector of a developing country context. It examines the reporting practices of the two largest transnational gold-mining companies in Tanzania in order to draw attention to the role played by local government regulations and advocacy and campaigning by nationally organised non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with respect to promoting corporate social reporting practices.

The paper takes a political economy perspective to consider the serious implications of the neo-liberal ideologies of the global capitalist economy, as manifested in Tanzania’s regulatory framework and in NGO activism, for the corporate disclosure, accountability and responsibility of transnational companies (TNCs). A qualitative field case study methodology is adopted to locate the largely unfamiliar issues of CSR in the Tanzanian mining sector within a more familiar literature on social accounting. Data for the case study were obtained from interviews and from analysis of documents such as annual reports, social responsibility reports, newspapers, NGO reports and other publicly available documents.

Analysis of interviews, press clips and NGO reports draws attention to social and environmental problems in the Tanzanian mining sector, which are arguably linked to the manifestation of the broader crisis of neo-liberal agendas. While these issues have serious impacts on local populations in the mining areas, they often remain invisible in mining companies’ social disclosures. Increasing evidence of social and environmental ills raises serious questions about the effectiveness of the regulatory frameworks, as well as the roles played by NGOs and other pressure groups in Tanzania.

By empowering local NGOs through educational, capacity building, technological and other support, NGOs’ advocacy, campaigning and networking with other civil society groups can play a pivotal role in encouraging corporations, especially TNCs, to adopt more socially and environmentally responsible business practices and to adhere to international and local standards, which in turn may help to improve the lives of many poor people living in developing countries in general, and Tanzania in particular.

This paper contributes insights from gold-mining activities in Tanzania to the existing literature on CSR in the mining sector. It also contributes to political economy theory by locating CSR reporting within the socio-political and regulatory context in which mining operations take place in Tanzania. It is argued that, for CSR reporting to be effective, robust regulations and enforcement and stronger political pressure must be put in place.

The paper considers the development of the unique fiscal relationship that exists between the government of Fiji and Emperor gold mines. Over a period of 40 years Emperor has not only paid negligible amounts of taxes and royalties it has frequently been directly subsidised by the state. In 1983 the government signed the Vatukoula tax agreement which effectively gave new mines a tax holiday for over 20 years. At the time of writing, Emperor regularly declares a dividend, is profitable in comparison to similar mines and pays no corporate taxes. The tax agreement stands as unique among developing countries in terms of allowing all potential rents from the mine to pass directly to the mine owners and almost nothing to the resource owner.

The purpose of this study is to examine the exposures of Australian gold mining firms in the highly volatile period from 1995 to 2000. This period has been characterized by significant changes in gold price due to bulk sale of gold by collective central banks. Specifically, the paper aims to investigate several firm‐specific factors that are hypothesized to carry substantial influence on gold beta.

To estimate gold beta, we use the following multifactor model: R_g,t = α + β_g GPR_t + β_x FXR_t + β_m R_m,t + ε_t, where R_g,t is the return on the gold stock Index at time t, GPR_t is the gold price return denominated in US dollar at time t, FXR_t is the foreign exchange return of Australian dollar in terms of US dollar at time t, R_m,t is the market return at time t, and ε_t is the random error term at time t.

The paper finds that the values of gold beta are consistently greater than one, implying the sensitive nature of firms’ stock returns to gold price changes. This also suggests that investors holding gold mining stock would receive higher percentage increases in stock returns from a percentage increase in gold price returns, as opposed to investors holding gold bullion. Furthermore, these values have changed substantially over time with significant changes in gold price volatility. The most important and consistent relationship that we find is the impact of firms’ hedging behavior on their respective gold betas. This is consistent with Tufano's study. It implies that firms, which hedge a greater proportion of their gold reserves, are less sensitive to movements in gold prices. The finding therefore supports the risk management theory that hedging increases shareholder's wealth. However, cash operating costs, cash reserves and the level of gold production seem to influence very little on the firms’ exposure to gold price changes.

This study is of interest and important to the stock mining companies and investors because the extent of the effect of gold price movements on the stock returns of gold mining companies has significant impacts on returns for both firms and investors especially in their risk management and investment decisions, respectively.