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This study aims to lay out a framework to quantify the impacts of mining booms on the macro-economy in Laos.

A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is used to investigate the impact of the mining sector on the Laos’ economy by examining this sector’s increase in both stock and the productivity of capital.

It was found that higher capital stock and productivity lead to increased value added, production, exports and investment in the mining sector. These increases result in higher real gross domestic product, exports and investment. Unfortunately, the effects from the associated Dutch disease negatively impact real production and value added in the agriculture and industry. Suitable macroeconomic management and prudent administration of the windfall income from mining are therefore important.

The finding is important for policymakers to implement policy to deal with the negative impact of mining booms.

It is the first study to attempt to investigate the impact of the mining sector on the Lao economy using the CGE model. Second, we also provide recommendation to cope with the negative impact from mining booms which provide important implications for other developing countries that face the negative impact from mining booms.

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 purpose of this paper is to explore the current challenges and drivers for data mining in the AEC sector.

Following a comprehensive literature review, the data mining concept was investigated through a workshop with industry experts and academics.

The results showed that the key drivers for using data mining within the AEC sector is associated with the sustainability, process improvement, market intelligence, cost certainty and cost reduction, performance certainty and decision support systems agendas in the sector. As for the processes with the greatest potential for data mining application, design, construction, procurement, forensic analysis, sustainability and energy consumption and reuse of digital components were perceived as the main process areas. While the key challenges were perceived as being, data issues due to the fragmented nature of the construction process, the need for a cultural change, IT systems used in silos, skills requirements and having clearly defined business goals.

With the increasing abundance of data, business intelligence and analytics and its related concepts, data mining and Big Data have captured the attention of practitioners and academics for the last 20 years. On the other hand, and despite the growing amount of data in its business context, the AEC sector still lags behind in utilising those concepts in its end products and daily operations with limited research conducted to explore those issues at the sector level. This paper investigates the main opportunities and barriers for data mining in the AEC sector with a practical focus.

This chapter presents an investigation into the theory of labour market segmentation and income inequality in the Ghanaian mining sector. Mining activity especially gold mining has been a significant component of exports as well as employment and income earning in the three major mining regions of Ghana. While income growth is an economic benefit, the high incomes associated with the mining sector may lead to greater income inequality. This chapter provides an analysis of mining activity and income inequality in the Western, Eastern, and Ashanti regions of Ghana. The application of labour market segmentation and the Gini coefficient (a measure of inequality) for personal income are found to be significantly associated with the type and levels of mining employment. However, this observation is not linear as income inequality initially increases with mining activity before decreasing at medium to high levels of mining employment, thus following a Kuznets curve pattern. Segregating datasets for indigenous and expatriate staff reveals very different patterns of income inequality. It poignantly increases with indigenous and/or local community personnel relative to expatriate technical personnel at high levels of mining employment; income inequality is lower among the local community residents relative to nationals from other regions and/or from neighbouring countries. This means segmented labour markets (SLM) within the mining industry are likely to be a problem as they result in increased income inequality among locales relative to foreign expatriates.

This paper aims to propose an empirically grounded governance framework based on complex adaptive systems (CAS) principles to facilitate formation of well-connected regional supply chains that foster economic development, adaptability and resilience of mining regions.

This study is an exploratory case study of the South Australian (SA) mining industry that includes 38 semi-structured interviews with the key stakeholders and structural analysis of the regional supply network (RSN).

Findings demonstrate the applicability of the CAS framework as a structured approach to the governance of the mining industry regional supply chains. In particular, the findings exemplify the relationship between RSN governance, its structure and interconnectivity and their combined impact on the adaptability and resilience of mining regions.

The data set analysed in the current study is static. Longitudinal data would permit a deeper insight into the evolution of the RSN structure and connectivity. The validity of the proposed framework could be further strengthened by being applied to other industrial domains and geographical contexts.

The proposed framework offers a novel insight for regional policy-makers striving to create an environment that facilitates the formation of well-integrated regional supply chains in mining regions through more focussed policy and strategies.

The proposed framework is one of the first attempts to offer a holistic structured approach to governance of the regional supply chains based on CAS principles. With the current transformative changes in the global mining industry, policy-makers and supply chain practitioners have an urgent need to embrace CAS and network paradigms to remain competitive in the twenty-first century.

Purpose – To review the performance and growth of mining industry in India against current global vision and trend of the industrial growth internationally. Also, to evolve the strategic policy for evaluating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme initiatives taken by the Indian mining industry at large as well as the impacts thereof, with special reference to affected and most vulnerable mining belts in India.Design/methodology/approach – An attempt has been made in the chapter to have a holistic sectoral review of the overall performance of the mining industry in India for the past one decade, as well as its claimed impact on improvement of ecological quality and socio-economic growth in the mining belts. The chapter reviews the state of the impact of ‘CSR’ initiatives and programmes on environment as well as the mining community in terms of stakeholders’ involvement and protection of rights in developing socio-economic business equity. The chapter also critically analyses the policy dimensions – including mining industry's operational framework, which can attribute towards developing future strategy for sustainable development of the mining industry at large, through evolving a series of reform processes, adequately backed up by innovative CSR policy and programme initiatives, together with well-defined implementation, monitoring, evaluation strategies and standards.Findings – The mining industries in India have a huge potential for growth to support the other industries for which bulk of the raw materials are derived from this industrial segment. Several research and developmental studies conducted by different organisations spread across the globe have convincingly been able to link the prospect of industrial growth and long-term sustainability with the stakeholders’ participatory and proactive roles along with those of the industry for holistic and integrated socio-economic development of the mining areas. This has been possible through careful designing of the CSR programmes and initiatives by several mining companies in India (with varying degree of success and failures) with close monitoring and performance evaluation of the impact of the programmes in ecological, economical and sustainability terms against certain pre-designed standards. Such standards – as they are constantly evolving – should inter alia include ethical and transparency dimensions to ensure total involvement of the local community in the mining-affected areas. Proper compensation mechanisms and socio-economic growth of the mining community will not only improve productivity, but will also take care of ecological and economic safeguard of the mined coal blocks that are highly vulnerable to ecological degradation and economic exploitation. As for future strategy for sustainable industrial growth of the mining industry in India, there should be constant monitoring and evaluation of the various provisions of the various Acts related to mining, minerals, metals, energy, power, environment, etc. that are constantly under review and reforms processes with a view to guiding the future strategy. International co-operation in the mining sector will go a long way for sustainable growth and development of the mining industry in India for boosting the economic growth of the country.Research limitations/implications – Future research on the theme should focus on identification of replicable and sustainable model of CSR practices in the mining industry by developing illustrative business models on the basis of global experiences. Sustainability reporting and identification of better qualitative as well as quantitative parameters, tools and techniques to study the impact of CSR practices on the socio-economic growth of the affected mining community should be the focus of future research.Social implications – The findings (serving as messages) of this piece of research will certainly have an impact on society. This in turn, will, hopefully influence public attitudes, and by implications, it will also influence (corporate) social responsibility or environmental issues.Originality/value of the chapter – The chapter is innovative and, among other things, addresses some of recently reported burning issues affecting the interests of the mining industry on one hand, and the national economy of the affected countries on the other.

Given Chile's high projected deficit of skilled labor in its mining industry, the purpose of this paper is to explore the gender barriers present that hinder women from entering the sector.

To do this, a descriptive and interpretative study was undertaken and in‐depth interviews were conducted with 70 male and female workers belonging to the operating areas in the mining companies located in northern Chile. The data were transcribed and analyzed through a qualitative approach using discourse analysis by thematic categories.

The results show that gender barriers are related to: self‐discrimination of workers themselves, family demands, and male dominance in the field.

These results are relevant for strategic planning in the mining industry. They allow us to redirect policies to incorporate women in the sector in order to counteract the aforementioned deficits. The practical implications of this study for the mining sector in general include the incorporation of, for male employees, awareness workshops focussing on the importance of the inclusion of women in mining and aspects that favor this process and, for female employees, leadership and empowerment workshops. These initiatives will help to generate a more satisfying work environment that promotes better human resource management and productivity of the sector.

The chapter describes the phenomenon of company–community agreements in the mining sector, situates them relative to two veins of responsible investment activity, and assesses whether they might serve as a proxy for the “community relations” expectations of responsible investors.

Based on an evaluation of two recent company–community agreements and surveying of executives from mining firms that have signed agreements with Indigenous communities, it was found that: (1) though imperfect as a proxy for many of the “community relations” expectations of responsible investors, company–community agreements offer benefits and make provisions that exceed current expectations, especially with respect to the recognition of the right of Indigenous communities to offer their free, prior, and informed consent to mine developments; and (2) mining executives recognize the utility of agreement-making with communities, and are comfortable with such efforts being interpreted as recognition of the right of Indigenous communities to consent to development.

The chapter serves to introduce responsible investors to the emergence of company–community agreements in the global mining sector, and calls upon them to advocate for their further use in order to reduce the riskiness of their investments, address social justice concerns, and assist communities to visualize and realize their goals.

For the first time, the growing phenomenon of company–community agreements in the mining sector is situated within responsible investment scholarship. Additionally, drawing on both logic and evidence, the chapter challenges the responsible investment community to rethink its approach to screening and engaging the mining sector in order to advance the interests of Indigenous communities.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the South African mining sector’s contribution to the national economy. It also discusses the socio-economic challenges that the sector has faced in terms of operational efficiency, productivity and safety. The chapter then briefly discusses the formal and informal organisational aspects of restructuring work processes in the South African mining industry. It concludes with a synopsis of each of the chapters of this book.

The fundamental purpose of this research is to compare Pakistan’s mineral policy instrument with that of leading developing minerals-based economies and to highlight the gaps. Mineral resources development can act as an engine for country growth and have the potential to transform economies and societies. The extent to which such transformation takes place varies depending upon the method of their use.

This paper conducts a gap analysis between Pakistan and leading developing minerals-based economies to identify key policy gaps. Two basic principles were kept in mind with the choice of countries: first, only developing countries were considered and, second, at least two countries had to be Islamic. Eight developing countries Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, India, South Africa, Kazakhstan and Turkey were selected.

The most important finding of the exercise is that Pakistan’s mineral sector is lacking an enabling institutional, fiscal and regulatory framework for the optimal development of its mineral resources.

Pakistan’s mineral resources have the potential to expand its economy and benefit its citizens. For this to happen, Pakistan must first establish what beneficiation is realistically expected from its mineral resources and, second, formulate a mineral policy based on leading practices to attract mining investment and aim for a sector contribution to gross domestic product of 5 per cent.

This paper presents original work on how Pakistan should formulate its mineral policy to extract maximum benefit from its mineral resources.