This website has been set up to tell the other side of the mining story.
Our focus will not be on high wages, mining booms and takeovers, but on the people and places that bear the impact of mining. The idea is to capture the impact of mining with images, supplemented by text where available.
This website is a shared resource, if you have some images for information for any of the sites please contact us.
Charles Roche, Jessie Boylan & Gavin Mudd in Queensland, Legacy Mines Project Tour – Photo by Phoebe Barton
All photos and multimedia on this site are copyrighted to the Mineral Policy Institute and credits are specified to each photographer or organisation. If you wish to use them for any publication or presentation please contact MPI.
To contact the Mineral Policy Institute about any content, or to ask permission to use any images or video presented on this site you can:
Charles Roche
Executive Director
T: +61 [0]8 9343 0151
M: +61 [0]450 901 714
E: charles.roche[at]mpi.org.au E: mininglegacies[at]mpi.org.au
PO Box 6043
Girrawheen WA 6064
AUSTRALIA
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Introduction to the Mineral Policy Institute
The Mineral Policy Institute [MPI] started in 1995 in response to a recognised lack of capacity and expertise to engage in mining issues, particularly where Australian mining companies were working overseas without adequate legislation, regulation and monitoring. Since that time MPI has worked on issues in Europe, Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and New Caledonia.
MPI has been effective in reducing negative mining impacts but much remains to be done.
As mining rebounds from the global financial crisis, the impacts from mining on people and place will continue to expand. Unfortunately, much of the enormous wealth from mining continues to be concentrated in the hands of a few people in developed countries while the negative impacts from mining are disproportionately felt by indigenous peoples in developing countries.
With the help of its members, funders and supporters, MPI will continue its to work to protect the environment and assist those impacted by mining.
MPI in Brief
The Mineral Policy Institute [MPI] is an international civil society organisation with a volunteer board representing members from across the world. Operating from Australia we focus on assisting communities affected by specific mining projects and on achieving industry reform through improvements to policy, law and practice.
With a strong emphasis on free prior and informed consent, MPI undertakes a supportive and background role to assist mining affected communities protect their rights and reduce negative impacts from mining. While mining disproportionately impacts the developing world, however, the decisions that govern these projects are made and need to be influenced in the developed world. MPI has the expertise, the experience and the networks to assist communities and to access the many mining companies based in Australia [also US, UK, South Africa and Canada] and their investors from around world.
We are guided by a vision of a just and sustainable mineral cycle where human rights are protected, impacts dramatically reduced and mineral/fuel efficiency and reuse is paramount. While we believe that minerals/fuel are central to the quality of human life today, the benefits of the current minerals systems are greatly skewed to a relatively small global elite. MPI plays a key role in addressing this paradox… to increase the equitable distribution of the benefits while decreasing the social injustices and environmental impacts of the mineral/fuel system.
As an industry watchdog, we rely on community funding to ensure our independence from industry. Seeking to improve and influence an industry that plans in decades, we require funding to progress and achieve long-term strategic goals and to assist communities who are impacted by mining today, tomorrow and in the future.