The vehicle for this process is the Global Mining Initiative (GMI), set up in 1998 by 10 mining companies: Anglo American , BHP , Billiton , Newmont , Noranda, Phelps Dodge , Placer Dome , Rio Tinto and WMC , Kerr said.

The initiative's aim is to reach a clearer definition and understanding of the positive part the mining and minerals industry can play in making the transition to sustainable patterns of economic development.

The Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project, which is sponsored by 28 mining companies and 15 other bodies, should provide some fresh ideas, Kerr said.

MMSD is currently preparing a study on how the mining industry can continue to supply the world's demand for minerals while addressing the social, environmental and community impact of mineral extraction.

"The current thinking is that there are three broad measures of corporate effectiveness with respect to sustainable development. These measures are economic, environmental and social," Kerr said.

The economic requirement for sustainability is that a business should remain profitable, while on the environmental front the mining industry has made significant progress, he said.

FOCUS ON SOCIAL ISSUES

"When it comes to the social measures, however, our record is more checkered.... It is only recently that issues such as poverty and human rights have begun to bite," Kerr said.

He cited the company's Antamina copper-zinc joint venture in Peru as an example of potential social issues facing mining development.

"Although we have brought industrial development, we are now being told by some in the community that we have not created adequate wealth and jobs," Kerr said.

"We have contributed to schools and health centres, constructed roads and gone beyond what was necessary to meet our environmental responsibilities," he added.

"Yet, we are being portrayed by some as an environmental threat and as having failed to take account of some of their most basic needs."

BROAD-BASED INITIATIVE

Projects such as Antamina, where governmental and societal support for the community is lacking, underline the need for a more broad-based initiative, Kerr said.

"If there is a lesson to be learned from the Antamina experience, it is that our company, on its own, cannot deliver social stability," Kerr said.

"We need government, NGOs (non-governmental organisations) and our own industry working together to address the challenges we face."

The Global Mining Initiative Conference in Toronto next May would mark a let step in this process, he said.