Assessment tools, prevailing issues and policy implications of mining community sustainability in China

Abstract

Mining and mineral extraction play a prominent part in the historical development of communities around the world. However, mineral development has inevitable adverse impacts on local development, environment and urban ecology. Consequently, the process of mining-led development is often associated with conflicts between corporate mining objectives, recipient community needs and governmental policy goals for regional development. Given these environmental, economic and socio-political problems associated with mineral development, the critical research question is not only whether mining is a sustainable operation for urban development but also what is the possible process and extent to achieve local sustainable development in mining communities. Based on a previous quantitative investigation on the development of sustainability within mining communities, the current article aims at presenting a multi-faceted approach to mineral development, outlining a hierarchical indicator system for providing tools to assess the sustainability of mining communities, discussing the prevailing issues affecting mining community sustainability, and analysing policy implications for achieving better sustainability with mining communities in China. It has been found that the weakness of sustainability development in Chinese mining communities is due to five major issues: mineral exhaustion, environmental degradation, mine safety and health noncompliance, bureaucratic impediments, and lack of social responsibility. For possible responses to these issues, the analysis of policy implications of the weakness of sustainability has revealed that research and development must be enhanced, economic instruments must be improved, and institutional reforms must be promoted.