Community Relations & Social Performance in Mining Training Course

The Community Relations & Social Performance in Mining Training Course equips community relations managers, mine managers, and government officials with the practical knowledge needed to build stable relationships between mining operations and the people who live around them. Mining stays in one place for decades, changes land use and local economies, and often begins in remote areas with limited public services. Social performance has therefore become a core operational issue for new projects, especially in Africa, where a loss of community trust can delay construction, interrupt production, and damage relations with government. The course focuses on the social issues particular to mines and on projects at the early stages of development, rather than on stakeholder engagement for major projects in general. Participants examine exploration-stage entry into communities, land access and compensation, physical and economic displacement, livelihood restoration, in-migration, artisanal and small-scale mining, water and dust concerns, mine security, and the social dimension of closure. They consider how customary land rights, traditional authorities, and local government interact with formal mining rights. Particular attention goes to the early life of a new project, when first promises, informal understandings, and contractor behavior set the tone for decades of coexistence. Participants work with reference points used across the sector, including the IFC Performance Standards, the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, and the ICMM Mining Principles. They learn to integrate social performance into mine planning, budgets, and management accountability; to design effective grievance mechanisms; to negotiate community development agreements; and to monitor outcomes rather than activities. Free, prior and informed consent, gender, vulnerable groups, and contractor conduct complete the scope. Throughout, participants practice linking social data to operational decisions, so that community concerns reach the managers who control haul routes, water use, land clearing, and hiring. The course is delivered through mining case studies, stakeholder mapping exercises, grievance scenario simulations, agreement negotiation role plays, and a final social performance workshop. Participants leave with a stakeholder engagement plan template, a social risk register, a grievance mechanism outline, a framework for community development agreements, and a social performance plan they can adapt to their own operation or institution.