Community relations

Each of our operations is part of a local community, including both Aboriginal and non Aboriginal populations.  Our communities include employees and contractors, local businesses who provide goods and services to our operations, as well as near neighbours who live close to our operations and are most likely to be impacted by them.

Approach

We set out to build enduring relationships with all of our communities that are characterised by mutual respect, active partnership and long term commitment.  In practice this means:

• Having robust relationships with our communities of interest - this requires understanding the issues and needs of different stakeholders as well as active engagement
• Effectively contributing to communities' - this requires understanding the socio economic environment and communities' vision for the future and providing contributions that are sustainable and build long term community capacity.

This also includes Aboriginal communities, where our objective is to obtain and maintain cost effective legal access to land through building constructive relationships.

Results

The Rio Tinto Communities Standard sets out a framework for implementing the communities policy.  A 2007 target was to have plans in place at each operation to fill any gaps identified against the Standard.  Plans were completed at each site and will be reviewed and updated annually.

Another target is to carry out audits against the Standard at each operation before the end of 2009.  In 2007 we carried out audits for the Mount Pleasant Project in NSW and at Clermont in Queensland, the location of Blair Athol Mine and the Clermont Coal Project.  The community is best placed to provide input as to how well we are implementing our standards, and the Clermont audit involved input from the community consultative committee.  We will aim to seek local community input in the remaining audits which will be carried out in 2008 and 2009.

Effectively contributing to communities' requires a good understanding of the socio economic environment in which we operate, as well as the communities' vision for the future.  For example in 2007:

• Our target to develop a socio economic baseline of the Hunter Valley, with particular focus on better understanding Coal & Allied's contribution to the region, was achieved.  The work was carried out by the Hunter Valley Research Foundation and involved a random telephone survey of 1,000 residents, development of a population profile using census data and an assessment of the contribution of the Coal & Allied operations to the Hunter Region economy.  Findings of the work will be used to inform future community relations programmes.
• We participated in a project led by Belyando Shire Council to develop a preferred future for the town of Clermont in central Queensland.
• A socio economic baseline study of Clermont, which included a resident survey, was prepared and this was passed onto the Belyando Shire Council to help inform the Preferred Future project discussed above.