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Geotechnical News • December 2017
GEO-INTEREST
kind of improved environmental and
social practices that society expects.
However, such a conclusion is only a
small part of the story. Like society,
the industry itself is a complex web
of interconnected but very different
parts. It has a deep history and for
some change doesn’t come easily.
Now at a time when contemporary
society has more need for the com-
modities produced by mining more
than ever before (as a small example,
an electric car requires four times
the copper used by a traditional car),
finding a way forward to bring greater
alignment between industry practices
and society’s values is more important
than ever.
The complex nature of the
mining industry
There are likely about 10,000 min-
ing companies in the formal mining
industry across the world employing
2-3 million people. There is also an
informal mining industry (artisanal
and small scale) that employs some 15
– 20+ million people. Rules and prac-
tices governing the formal industry are
different than the informal industry.
In addition to the mining companies,
there is a rich mix of other interests
including the financial services indus-
try (investors, banks, insurance com-
panies), providers of a broad range of
services, equipment and supplies, host
communities, governments, and a vast
maze of civil society organizations.
A majority of companies within the
formal industry are listed in pub-
lic stock markets. There are also a
significant number of state-owned
companies, and an unknown number
of privately held companies. Table 1
below offers a profile of the compa-
nies in the formal part of the industry.
These companies operated in countries
across the world. Vast variations in
culture serve as hosts, cultures that are
often little respected and poorly under-
stood by the mining company. Skill at
intercultural communications within
mining companies slowly improves,
but only slowly.
Like any part of society, there are
leaders and laggards when it comes to
performance. Figure 1 captures this
range elegantly. To bring change, each
part of this spectrum must be treated
differently. For the leading edge,
the opportunity to bring innovative
improvement to not only themselves
but also to society speaks to their
desire for creativity. Their best comes
through facilitating voluntary action;
setting hard rules may in fact drive
their performance down to a least
common denominator. For hostile
avoiders, only hard rules will make
any difference. They will volunteer
nothing that they see as beyond their
personal interest.
Table 1. Company profile within the formal part of the complex mining industry ecosystem.
Company category Portion of
industry
employees
comment
Global giants
1% or less
Tens of thousands • Global giants and seniors control the majority of available
capital, they have multiple operations
• they can be vertically integrated to some extent with activi-
ties extending from exploration through production and into
manufacturing;
• their focus is on the industry
Seniors
1.5 %
Thousands
Intermediates
6 %
Hundreds
• types: producers (focus on growing reserves) and manage-
ment groups (technically skilled, produce for others);
• often growing and expanding
Production juniors 17 %
Tens to hundreds • small (often one mine) producers
• some growing, some shrinking
• their focus is on their mine
Exploration juniors 34 %
A few to 50
• a number of different “types”: site accumulator, one site, one
state, regional niche, focus on a particular geology
• volatile and market dependent
• they are finders, not producers
• their focus is on their exploration project(s)
Investment juniors 42 %
a few to 10s
• volatile and market dependent
• their focus is on accessing venture capital and growing their
stock price
Source: McDonald, 2002
