Call on the Mining Industry

Access to the discourse and the opportunity to speak and be heard is a decisive prerequisite for exerting influence.

Example

This is clearly illustrated by the example of the climate debate. It has long been known and scientifically substantiated that the global climate is changing. However, it was only with the student protests of the Fridays for Future movement that a broad social awareness was created that led to political attention.

In the mining sector a number of challenging discourses are ongoing and more can be expected in future, such as the benefits and downsides of the use of AI in mining or even question of social justice that arise from the increasing demand for minerals that are needed for electrification and the generation of renewable energies, among other [see EU 2022:3]. This is necessary in order to sound out its responsibility within the company and also for society.

For the mining sector, the model of core responsibility is a call to become actively involved in the social discourse at an early stage. Thanks to its specialist expertise and direct proximity to mining technologies with their potentials and risks, the mining sector can make profound expert contributions to an otherwise abstract discourse on responsibility. The field of responsibility (and ethics) in mining is not yet advanced. This makes it all the more important for mining professionals to deal with ethical issues in a well-founded manner, to be heard in the discourse and to deal with their "own core responsibility", the core responsibility of the mining sector.

A responsible approach in mining concerns us all. Collectively, it is about structuring our society responsibly and making it sustainable for the future. It is therefore up to all of us collectively to decide which standards and rules we impose on ourselves in order to limit or unleash our responsibility. "Ultimately, we are only responsible for what we are held responsible for - by others or ourselves." From the perspective of core responsibility, this applies equally to companies, to areas within the company (e.g. the operations department of a mining company), and to society as a whole in its plurality and diversity.