Building Trust in Mining: Strategies for Community Engagement and ESG Compliance

In this episode, we chat with Nick Bell, Global Sector Lead Mining, Minerals, and Metals at Worley, who are a global leader in engineering, project delivery, and consultancy for the energy, chemicals, and resources sector and helps customers achieve sustainable transformation, net-zero targets and innovative solutions. Nick has a background in metallurgy and engineering and has worked for some of the leading engineering consultancies during his career. We talk about some of the biggest challenges that the mining industry is facing, trust in our industry, the risks and opportunities in automation and long-term global trends that will shape the mining industry over the next decade. KEY TAKEAWAYS The mining industry faces significant challenges in meeting the growing demand for critical minerals, particularly due to a decline in major deposit discoveries and lengthy mine development timelines, which average around 16.9 years. Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) requirements are becoming increasingly stringent, complicating the permitting process and increasing costs for miners. The industry must find ways to balance the need for more metals with these elevated ESG standards. Trust between mining companies, local communities, and regulators is crucial for project success. Establishing a common purpose and practicing the four legs of trust—reliability, openness, acceptance, and congruence—are essential for fostering collaboration. Automation presents significant opportunities for improving safety and productivity in mining operations. However, the industry must carefully manage the change associated with automation, as it can impact employment and community relationships. BEST MOMENTS "Projects move at the pace of trust... finding a common purpose against which everybody can align is very, very difficult."  "We're simply not finding enough major deposits that... proved to be economically viable in today's environment." "If you can't find... a common purpose, it's our job as the industry to build that trust."  "The elevated ESG requirements... mean that it lengthens the time and the costs of getting that metal to market." "Now is still a good time to be in mining compared to any time in my history."  VALUABLE RESOURCES Mail:        rob@mining-international.org LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ X:              https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast  Web:        http://www.mining-international.org GUEST SOCIALS https://www.worley.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/worley/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-bell-383b919/ ABOUT THE HOST Rob Tyson is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first-world to third-world countries from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia. We source, headhunt, and discover new and top talent through a targeted approach and search methodology and have a proven track record in sourcing and positioning exceptional candidates into our clients' organisations in any mining discipline or level. Mining International provides a transparent, informative, and trusted consultancy service to our candidates and clients to help them develop their careers and business goals and objectives in this ever-changing marketplace. CONTACT METHOD rob@mining-international.org https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ Podcast Description Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight into people’s experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.