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Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and corporate community

development in Melanesi

Article  in  Community Development Journal · June 2013

DOI: 10.1093/cdj/bst025

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Conceptualizing mining impacts,

livelihoods and corporate
community development
in Melanesia
Glenn Banks*, Dora Kuir-Ayius, David Kombako

Downloaded from http://cdj.oxfordjournals.org/ by guest on September 28, 2013

and Bill Sagir

Abstract This paper provides a clearer conceptual exposition of the nature of

social transformations around large-scale mining by theoretically
delineating the place of corporate community development (CCD)
initiatives in the transformations that mining brings to adjacent
communities, and the livelihoods and developmental prospects of the
affected peoples. We illustrate this argument with reference to an
examination of CCD initiatives at four Papua New Guinea mine sites.
This highlights the diversity of contexts (geographic, institutional and
transnational), structures, activities and motivations that drive these
activities. One aspect that is particularly apparent is the conservative
nature of these CCD initiatives in the face of the often chaotic social
transformations that the presence of the mine has sparked. We
conclude with reflections on how such CCD activities can be shaped to
provide more positive, sustainable outcomes for communities and
livelihoods.

Introduction
The large-scale mining sector in Papua New Guinea has underpinned the
formal economy of the nation since independence in 1975. The sector has
also been the focus of intense high-profile conflicts over this period,
most notably the civil war on Bougainville sparked by the presence of the

* Address for correspondence: Glenn Banks, Department of Development Studies, School of People,
Environment and Planning, Massey University, Palmerston North 4442, New Zealand; email: g.a.banks@
massey.ac.nz

484 Community Development Journal Vol 48 No 3 July 2013 pp. 484 –500
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 485

CRA/Rio Tinto Panguna copper mine (see Filer, 1990; Regan, 1998), and the
international litigation over the environmental effects of the Ok Tedi
copper/gold mine (Banks and Ballard, 1997). Over its thirty-five-year
history, the relationships between the large-scale mines and their neighbour-
ing communities have been marked by shifting degrees of cooperation, con-
flict and accommodation. One potentially significant element of all of these
mining corporation – local community relationships has been variously
labelled ‘community development’ projects or programmes that have
originated from the corporations (Imbun, 1994, 2006; Gilberthorpe and
Banks, 2012). Such initiatives are potentially a critical element in shaping
the form of the ambiguous and often contentious (Bebbington et al., 2008)
relationship that develops between a large-scale mining operation and the
surrounding community.
This paper is concerned primarily with looking at the links between the
‘impacts of mining’ and these CCD initiatives. It seeks to address the under-
theorized nature of the ‘impacts’ of mining and connect the voluminous lit-
erature on the effects of mining on communities and livelihoods in Papua
New Guinea with broader development thinking. We contend that a clearer
exposition of the nature of social change around large-scale mining opera-
tions – drawing on the distinction by Cowen and Shenton (1996) between im-
manent and intentional forms of development – delineates more clearly the
conceptual place of corporate community development (CCD) in the trans-
formations that mining brings to the livelihoods and development prospects
of those living in adjacent communities.
The remainder of this paper is based on both historical (from the early
1990s) and recent NZAID-funded fieldwork at four of the current Papua
New Guinea mine sites: Porgera, Lihir, Ok Tedi and Ramu (see Table 1 and
Banks et al., 2011 for more details on each of these). The fieldwork adopted
a range of qualitative methods (semi-structured interviews, focus groups,
documentary analysis, structured observations) and sought to gain an under-
standing of the community development initiatives of the mining companies
from the perspectives of key stakeholders: local and national government,
local communities and groups, the mining company at different levels of
management, industry organizations and NGOs. The aim was to document
the range and nature of CCD activities carried out at each site, examine the
motivations and attitudes of corporations to community development,
analyse lessons from the successes and failures from the different sites and
explore the nature of interactions between the various stakeholders involved.
The paper proceeds from here by outlining the conceptual approach that
we are adopting and then briefly introduces the Papua New Guinea mining
sector, its somewhat turbulent history and the four mining operations that
were included in the research project. We then consider the ways in which
486 Glenn Banks et al.

Table 1. The four case-study mine operations

Mine Type of Start date Production Ownership

operation mine (latest year)
Ramu Nickel Nickel/ Construction NA Chinese Metallurgical
(Madang zinc completed in 2011, Group Corporation
Province) limited production (‘MCC’) 85 percent;
(2012) Highlands Pacific 8.5
percent;
local and state interest
7.5 percent
Lihir (New Gold 1996 650,000 ounces of Newcrest 100 percent
Ireland gold (2011)
Province)
Porgera (Enga Gold 1990 500,000 ounces of Barrick 95 percent;
Province) gold (2011) MRE 5 percent
Ok Tedi Copper/ 1984 450,000 ounces of PNG Sustainable
(Western gold gold, 130,000 Development Program
Province) tonnes of copper Ltd 63.4 percent;
(2011) local, provincial and
state interests 36.6
percent

these large-scale mines impact on communities through the distinction

between immanent and intentional developmental forces. As part of this,
we consider the motivation that sits behind the various CCD initiatives,
before concluding with reflections on how such CCD activities can be
shaped to provide more positive, sustainable outcomes for communities
and livelihoods.

Conceptualizing the ‘impacts of mining’

In an influential approach to development theory, Cowen and Shenton (1996)
proposed that some of the conceptual confusion around the term could be
cleared by a distinction between immanent and intentional forms of develop-
ment. Tracing the roots of the debate back to the Industrial Revolution, they
argued the former could be regarded as the spontaneous, chaotic and often
conflictual outcome of industrial capitalist development (1996, p. 4). It was
the result of the aspirational and often innovative and progressive laissez
faire engagement of people with the social and economic changes that were
occurring around them. Intentional development, on the other hand, con-
sisted of deliberate attempts by institutions (primarily the state, in Cowen
and Shenton’s historical and philosophical analysis) that sought ‘the creation
of order in a society undergoing radical transformation’ (1996, p. 19), seeking
to ‘ameliorate the social misery which arose out of the immanent process of
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 487

capitalist growth’ (1996, p. 110). In this sense, intentional development repre-

sented an inherently conservative form of development that sought to rein in
and protect existing interests and groups from the often structurally disrup-
tive ravages of rampant immanent economic growth.
This distinction provides a useful lens when considering CCD. Here the
corporation (typically a multinational corporation) is a locally embedded
capitalist enterprise that is both a driver of immanent forms of development
(through, for example, creating opportunities for people to shift from
subsistence-based livelihoods to industrial employment), and simultaneous-
ly an agent of intentional development through its CCD programmes. The
way in which these corporations thus straddle the immanent/intentional de-
velopment dichotomy provides a useful framework with which to under-
stand the ambiguous developmental tensions that accompany these
large-scale mines and their community development initiatives.
Our focus with CCD is not the same as the more widely used term CSR. CSR
in the extractives industry is highly contentious, precisely for the way it seeks
to play to a broad range of stakeholders, from shareholders to environmental
groups and affected communities. In this context ‘the exact function of CSR in
the sector remains unclear, and even less so in the case of operations based in
developing countries’ (Hilson, 2012, p. 133) precisely because of this mix of
audiences. And the links between the effects of this sector at national levels
and the CSR activities of the corporations involved are also not disconnected:
Hilson (2012) observes that much of the space for corporate self-regulation
and societal contribution by extractive multinationals (as evidenced by self-
congratulatory CSR reports) in the developing world is itself a product of
the economic and political processes that the extractives sectors drive in
these societies. The much cited ‘resource curse’ is widely documented as
undermining precisely the sorts of governance processes and capacity
needed to regulate the industry, and yet it is these governance spaces that
CSR activities seek, in part, to fill.
Much of the debate and contention around CSR arises because of the very
different meanings that underpin industry and popular understandings of it.
Dahlsrud (2008) synthesized five common dimensions from thirty-seven aca-
demic and institutional definitions of CSR (voluntariness, social, environ-
mental, economic and stakeholder). In our work, we identified a range of
corporate activities and forms of engagement with communities that did
not necessarily fit within these five dimensions, particularly in terms of
their (in) voluntary nature. At the same time, many of the activities labelled
as CSR actually had little or nothing to do with the corporation’s relationship
with the local community, but rather sought to connect to broader societal
concerns. This reflects Porter and Kramer’s (2006, p. 6, our emphasis) busi-
ness understanding that ‘the essential test that should guide CSR is not
488 Glenn Banks et al.

whether a cause is worthy but whether it creates an opportunity to create

shared value – that is, a meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable
to the business.’ Following Muthuri (2007), Kemp (2010) and Owen and
Kemp (2012), we are interested in a more community-focused critical under-
standing of the place and role of corporate initiatives, which do not always
intersect with the business perspective of CSR. In our approach, then, CCD
is a set of initiatives that overlap with, but are neither equivalent to nor a
subset of CSR.

The Papua New Guinea mining sector

Large-scale mining and oil have underpinned the post-independence
economy of Papua New Guinea. Beginning with the Bougainville Copper
Mine, the industry currently comprises three significant global gold and/or
copper producers (Lihir, Porgera, Ok Tedi), a number of medium-sized pro-
ducers (mostly gold), declining oil production from several fields, a huge
natural gas operation under construction and several large-scale deposits at
various stages of exploration or development (see Figure 1). Between 1975
and the present day, minerals have made up at least 50 percent of exports
each year (and since the late 1990s, this has been between 70 and 82
percent) and have contributed significantly to GDP and government reven-
ues over this period, albeit with significant annual variations (see Finlayson,
2002; Bank of Papua New Guinea, 2012).

Figure 1 The Papua New Guinea mining industry. Source: Papua New Guinea Chamber of Mining
and Petroleum.
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 489

The effects of these large-scale mines on the surrounding communities and

environments have been the subject of a huge amount of literature and con-
tention over the past twenty years. The association between the copper
mine on Bougainville and the resulting civil war from 1988 (Filer, 1990;
Connell, 1991; Wesley-Smith and Ogan, 1992; Regan, 1998), and the inter-
national lawsuit brought against the Ok Tedi mine for its downstream envir-
onmental impacts in the mid-1990s (see Banks and Ballard, 1997; Kirsch, 2002,
2007) have provided fertile ground for a range of analyses of the industry.
Such conflict and contention has also made the industry subject to high
levels of international mining activism (see Human Rights Watch, 2011),
which typically frame the sector as one that pits the multinational mining
Goliath against the primitive, uneducated, subsistence landowner (few of
whom are named David). In this context, such representations have tended
to muddy the waters, often uncritically applying analytical frames from
other Western contexts and discourses, which distort the processes and rela-
tionships that occur in these settings. Instead we argue for a more analytical
approach that seeks to understand the source of the different types of impacts
and relationships and seeks to build on this knowledge to contribute towards
improving the ways in which companies relate to and engage with their ad-
jacent communities.

Mining impacts as ‘immanent development’

At each of the operational sites (Ramu was at an advanced stage of construc-
tion when we visited), profound community transformations had occurred as
a result of the mining development. Communities at Porgera, Lihir and those
located within the enormous social, economic and environmental footprint of
the Ok Tedi operation (taking in the mountainous hinterland to the north as
well as the 500 km length of the Ok Tedi and Fly river systems downstream)
have been affected in a wide variety of ways, documented extensively in each
case by academics, consultants and activists [Ballard and Banks, 2003 offers
an introduction; see also (for Porgera) Filer, 1999; Jacka, 2001; Biersack,
2006; Golub, 2006; Johnson, 2011; Johnson, 2012; (Ok Tedi) Kirsch, 2002;
Jorgenson, 2006; (Lihir) Hemer, 2005; Bainton, 2010; Bentley, 2011].
To many observers (and to many individuals and communities involved),
such social and economic transformations are naturally connected to, and a
result of, the presence of the large-scale mine: the refrain that ‘if the mine
wasn’t here, these changes wouldn’t have happened’ is a common expression
in the affected communities. The changes are then conceptualized as direct
impacts of the presence of the mine. And while this is undoubtedly true in
many cases, particularly in terms of direct environmental impacts, it does cru-
cially deny the agency of the affected peoples in shaping these outcomes.
490 Glenn Banks et al.

Instead, our argument is that the mine is a ‘necessary but not sufficient’ con-
dition to account for the nature and extent of the social changes that each of the
communities have experienced. In addition, each of the diverse ‘impacted
communities’ is characterized by pre-existing and more recent sets of hier-
archies, inequalities and power-laden sets of relationships, based around
gender, age and social and geographic status. The layering of spatially and so-
cially uneven access to resources from mine operations onto these already
diverse communities produces complex patterns of inclusion and exclusion.
Importantly, many of the most discussed social changes (inward migration,
alcoholism, rising violence and general social breakdown, for example) are
driven in large part by the substantial economic flows from the mine to the
identified landowners of the mining leases (see Banks, 2005; Johnson,
2012). Livelihoods shift rapidly and dramatically from being primarily
locally based and subsistence focused, to being integrated (often to a high
degree) into the cash economy, with linkages outwards into the global
sphere. Inward migration, one of the most destructive aspects of mining
developments for local communities is, for example, a process driven by
people moving to the area in search of a share of some of the economic oppor-
tunities that the mine creates. The social ills often associated with large-scale
mining – gambling, prostitution, alcohol and violence – are, at least, not un-
connected to these same processes. Likewise, materialism and shifts to a cash
economy, vigorous entrepreneurism, opportunism and individual ambition
are all responses, culturally infused and contextualized, to the economic
flows that spill out from the mine operation.
Such effects correspond neatly with Cowen and Shenton’s (1996) concep-
tion of immanent development: internal, inherent, unruly, energetic, aspir-
ational and often conflictual processes that accompany or respond to the
intrusion of large-scale capitalism. In the context of mining in Melanesia,
they are frequently referred to as processes of ‘social disintegration’ (Filer,
1990), or the ‘pathologies of mining’ (Golub, 2006). Despite many of these
being problematic, if not downright destructive, some of these processes
can also be seen as aspirational or progressive as they represent the agency
of local people actively seeking to bring change or improvements to their
lives and livelihoods.

CCD in the Papua New Guinea mining sector as intentional

development
The other aspect of the impacts of the mining operation is what we have
labelled the ‘corporate community development’ (CCD) programmes insti-
tuted by the large-scale multinational mining companies (see also Owen
and Kemp, 2012). In Papua New Guinea (and elsewhere), the closure of the
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 491

Bougainville Copper mine in 1988 by disgruntled and divided locals drove a

refocus by the industry on the importance of their relationships with local
communities (Clark and Clark, 1999, p. 191; Filer, Banks and Burton, 2008).
Very quickly, Community Relations/Affairs/Development, Social and even
Sustainable Development sections of resource companies became established
as integral to the planning and operations of these companies. While much of
the early focus at places like Porgera was on ‘fire-fighting’ – that is reactive
and relationship/risk management focused – there has been a shift over
the past decade (driven in part by the imperatives of global CSR compliance)
to companies engaging more systematically and directly in bigger commu-
nity development programmes.
From the beginning, these often locally substantial programmes sought in
part to reduce the risk that the chaotic ‘immanent’ forms of development
sparked by the mine posed to the operation itself. This risk varies by operation
(and is regarded by the industry at being highest in the more volatile High-
land provinces, home to the Porgera and Mt Kare mines, the Kutubu oilfields
and, significantly, the huge LNG project). The ever popular ‘youth and
sports/recreation’ sections of Community Affairs, then, were clearly targeted
at providing opportunities and activities for a demographic that was
regarded as a risk to the operation.
These programmes can be seen as fitting Cowen and Shenton’s character-
istics for ‘intentional’ forms of development interventions – deliberate, exter-
nally driven, strategic and, importantly, economically, socially and culturally
conservative: a counter to the unruly forms of change that immanent develop-
ment provokes. It is one of the ironies of the mining sector in Papua New
Guinea that the social processes and transformations generated by the thor-
oughly modern ‘benefits’ of mining (including for the local community,
jobs, business contracts and particularly, the various revenue streams) can
end up creating a form of ‘social risk’ to the mine operation itself, and this
then requires the corporation to put resources into forms of community devel-
opment that seek to prop up and support traditional institutions within these
communities.
Examples of these conservative forms of ‘intentional’ CCD associated with
these Papua New Guinea mine sites include:

(i) The corporate promotion and support for ‘law and order’ initia-
tives. While such programmes have appeared from time to time
at most of the mine sites, one of the most obvious has been Barrick’s
support for the ‘Restoring Justice’ programme at the Porgera gold
mine that seeks to build and support the capacity of both formal
and informal law and order institutions in the valley and the
wider province (Barrick, 2008). This came about in large part due
492 Glenn Banks et al.

to the deteriorating law and order situation at Porgera, and particu-

larly problems generated by the illegal entry of large numbers of
people into the mine pit to access ore (Human Rights Watch, 2011).
(ii) Governance, and particularly support for the decline in district and
local-level government that is apparent at most of these mine
operations. At Lihir, and at other sites, the support does tend to
be somewhat ad hoc and responds to short-term rather than longer-
term strategic needs and directions for local government. Some-
what paradoxically, corporate support for governance initiatives
is often driven by a larger imperative not to assume all the respon-
sibilities of the state in the areas around their operations.
(iii) Health has been a particular focus of all the mine development
agreements, and direct and indirect corporate support has led to
significant improvements in the extent and quality of health infra-
structure and services available to the affected local communities
(see Bentley, 2011; Mitjá et al., 2011; Thomason and Hancock,
2011). Health is a safe, uncontroversial and potentially promotable
sector that corporations can contribute significantly to, typically le-
veraging off the facilities and resources that they provide to their
own workforce. The Lihir Medical Centre, the Tabubil (Ok Tedi)
and Porgera Hospitals are three such facilities that have provided
access to much higher quality health services for the surrounding
communities than were available prior to the mine and, indeed,
are still available in many parts of the country.
(iv) The promotion of local women’s groups or associations is a
common priority at each of these mine sites. This is in part due to
the marginalization of women at these resource development
sites (see Bonnell, 1999; Johnson, 2011) but also because of the
view that holds that women in these communities play an import-
ant function in securing social cohesion. On Lihir, for example,
despite various local contests (Macintyre, 2003), the company’s
social development office works closely with a local women’s
association.
(v) At some sites (particularly Lihir), cultural heritage is an area
that receives corporate support. Newcrest has been supportive
(although not without reservations) of the development of a Lihir
Cultural Management Plan (Bainton et al., 2011). There is some-
thing of a tension here between the support for the company for
more traditional cultural practices (as an alternative to more poten-
tially disruptive ‘modern’ community activities) and the ways in
which ‘culture’ can be deployed as a way of restricting mining
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 493

activities, in the sense of either geographic restrictions (sacred

sites) or the use of cultural practices (the placement of cultural tres-
pass markers on Lihir).

Taken together, these initiatives, along with others in business development

and education, represent a range of social technologies. We are not arguing
here that such programmes are of no benefit, or do not represent genuine
attempts by the companies to contribute to locally relevant forms of develop-
ment: many certainly do bring improvements to lives and livelihoods oppor-
tunity. The point is rather that, as Bebbington et al. (2008) and Muthuri (2007)
note from other contexts, these activities operate in a narrow developmental
space: one that is essentially conservative and seeks to try and impose more
certainty, control and order to the unruly immanent development practices
that abound in these communities. There are certainly elements of what
Cowen and Shenton describe as a paternalistic form of trusteeship to these
CCDs, and critically they remain detached from the contested and often vola-
tile local political processes within these communities.
The CCD activities are, moreover, largely detached from the predominant
processes that transform the communities that reside close to these large-scale
mines. Livelihoods become configured around the resources and revenue
flows from the mine itself (see Banks, 2005, 2009): people in these communi-
ties engage in a diverse mix of livelihood activities that connect them to either
the cash flows from the mines or back into customary practices (such as ex-
change or subsistence gardening), or both with, for most, little real substan-
tive connection or engagement with the CCD activities promoted by the
mining companies. In this sense, the CCD initiatives remain largely in the
background to the realities of livelihoods shaped by the blend of the over-
whelming immanent processes and the shifting traditional or customary
practices.

The developmental spaces of CCD

An exploration of the motivations and spaces for development within which
these activities occur is useful to dispel some of the less nuanced accounts
(corporate and academic) about CSR. This is particularly the case in terms
of the degree of ‘voluntariness’ (as noted above, a defining characteristic of
most definitions of CSR) of these CCD initiatives. The influential work of
Porter and Kramer (2006) provides a clear illustration of the difference
between the bulk of the work on CSR and our more community-focused
view of corporate activities. Writing from a business perspective, they
discern four broad arguments made to support the case for businesses
engagement in CSR activities (moral obligations, sustainability, licence to
494 Glenn Banks et al.

operate and reputation). In each of these, they identify limits to these

arguments from a practical business point of view in terms of trying to maxi-
mize the value of these activities to community and the company. They argue
that the resulting ‘tremendous lost opportunity’ can be overcome by focusing
on, amongst others, the points of intersection of the business and society
(what they label ‘inside-out linkages’) and those issues that can directly
affect the company (what they label ‘social dimensions of competitive
context’) (2006, p. 6).
In terms of CCD in the Papua New Guinea mining sector, the motivations
that sit behind the different programmes vary from operation to operation,
and even between projects or programmes for each operation (Johnson,
2012). In part, this can relate to the different ways in which activities are
funded, which can vary from negotiated commitments under mine develop-
ment agreements or contracts [at Porgera, for example, Bonnell (1999)
describes the K3million Grant Development Fund provided to the newly
established Porgera Development Authority by the mining company in
1989 to build a range of community facilities across the valley]; to operational
funding for ‘community affairs’ sections of the companies; ‘tax credit
schemes’ whereby the mine operator funds infrastructure in exchange for a
credit on their corporate tax (up to a limit of 0.75 percent of their assessed
income); dedicated ‘development foundations’; and donations to local, pro-
vincial and national groups and causes (such as after a natural disaster).
There is a limit, of course, to corporate largesse for CCD. Much of the litera-
ture on CSR (particularly from the perspective of business) seeks to examine
what value added there may be to CSR expenditures for the company – in
other words, it seeks to build a business case for CSR activities (see Porter
and Kramer, 2006). This is not our focus here, but the various motivations
behind these activities (including business advantages) do point to the differ-
ent internal sources for CCD funding. Much CSR in the Papua New Guinea
mining sector is driven from the top of the organization and relates to the
global reputation of the firm (for example, Barrick’s support for HIV/AIDS
programmes in Papua New Guinea, see Barrick 2010), and hence spending
for activities that fit this category can often be easier to access than lower
profile programmes that may be responding more closely to local needs.
Table 2 sets out a continuum of motivations for different types of CCD, and
a typical rationale given by management or CD staff for initiating these (the
statements themselves paraphrase a number of such responses). While activ-
ities will generally be described as bridging several of these categories, most
will fit primarily within one. Of note is that there are a range of motives for
different types of activities that fall outside most standard definitions of
CSR because they are not voluntary. Some of these are, as indicated above,
carried out because they form part of a development agreement, MoU or
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 495

Table 2. A typology of motivations for CCD activities

Motivation Rationale and examples

Negotiated responsibility ‘It’s in the agreement: we are required to do it’ (revenue flows, resettlement
programmes, specified infrastructure)
Risk management ‘If we don’t do it, we will get closed down’ (‘Restoring justice’)
Social licence to operate ‘If we want to maintain community support, we need to do this’ (water
tanks)
Corporate social ‘If we want to maintain business reputation and international image, we
responsibility need to do this’ (HIV/AIDS)
Public relations ‘Looks good on our flashy brochures’ (some footbridges/aid posts/schools
etc.)
‘Real development’ ‘Leaving behind a better future’ (livelihood programmes, women’s groups)
Direct business case Cost reduction (business development, local training and education)

Source: Project fieldwork.

development contract. Others are regarded by the corporate staff as primarily

a form of risk management or attempts to secure a local social licence to
operate. These, to our mind, are not voluntary undertakings: the company
is, or at least feels, compelled to do them to protect their investment. To
label such initiatives as a form of ‘voluntary’ CSR [or a form of Porter and
Kramer’s (2006, p. 6) ‘outside-in linkages’] is simply disingenuous: they are
a fundamental cost of doing business in a specific environment. Others, in-
cluding training and local business development, are certainly voluntary
and do make a contribution to the local social setting or economy (and
hence do fit more easily within a CSR definition), although this may not be
the primary reason why they are undertaken, as they also represent the oppor-
tunity to reduce the costs of the operation, what Porter and Kramer (2006, p. 6)
describe as the ‘social dimensions of competitive context’.
The connection between motives and their effects on local livelihoods and
community development is complex: almost any of the motives ascribed
above can result in initiatives with some benefits to at least some community
members. In most cases, though, local development is not the sole or even
primary driver, and in some cases, despite the best of intentions, the indirect
effects of particular initiatives on livelihoods can be detrimental (as noted
above, the significant revenue flows to the community can cause broader
negative effects).
Most significantly though, in terms of livelihoods, despite well-intentioned
motives behind many CCD activities, they tend to be dwarfed in scale and
effect by the immanent development processes driven by the presence of
the mine operation in the community. The company has little control over
many of the changes and processes that are internal to the community in re-
sponse to the mine and, particularly, the transformations wrought by the sig-
nificant revenue flows to people and livelihoods within the local community.
496 Glenn Banks et al.

In this sense, the CCD programmes tend to operate at the margins of these
livelihood and community changes.

Concluding thoughts
Large-scale mining is a fundamental part of the development future of Papua
New Guinea. Operations are typically relatively long-term and the corpora-
tions have the potential to initiate a broad range of changes to the surrounding
communities over an extended period. CCD efforts vary but in each case are
locally significant and some have provincial or national developmental
effects.
The various CCD activities carried out by mining corporations in Papua
New Guinea can be located conceptually within a broad understanding of
the nature of the development processes that mining brings to an area or a
community. The subsequent relationship between the ‘intentional’ projects
of the corporation and the broader ‘immanent’ processes occurring in the
community in response to the presence of the mine and its capitalist develop-
ment is a complex one. Many of the ‘intentional’ CCD projects of the corpor-
ation can be undermined by these immanent processes: community
infrastructure provided by the mine (aid posts or resettlement housing) can
be destroyed during episodes of tribal fighting, for example.
The well-documented insecurity and somewhat chaotic nature of liveli-
hood or community change engendered by large-scale mining produces an
‘intentional response’ from the corporations that seeks in part to reduce the
social risks and threats to the operation. They do this by initiating and sup-
porting CCD activities that aim (either directly or in part) to induce a little
more order and control over these processes. This shows how the threads of
‘responsibility’ start to become tangled: where does ‘corporate social
responsibility’ begin and end when many of the destructive immanent pro-
cesses derive from internal community processes driven by resource flows
from the corporation? To what extent can (and should) corporations
become involved in, for example, seeking to influence issues such as
kinship-based migration flows or internal, culturally inflected community
distribution processes?
Without wishing to be too prescriptive given the diversity of experiences
and motivations that lie across the various operations, a number of sugges-
tions arise for more effective CCD to positively shape local livelihoods.
First, more responsible CSR requires acknowledging the origin and depth
of ‘immanent’ processes within the surrounding communities. While cor-
porations typically adopt the politically safer public pretence that they are
an independent, apolitical presence within the community, Ferguson (1990)
has demonstrated in the world of development aid that this often translates
 Conceptualizing mining impacts, livelihoods and CCD 497

into an ‘anti-politics’ stance and an unwillingness to directly engage with

local political processes. Hence CCD will often struggle to produce meaning-
ful positive livelihood changes. One lesson here is that despite the often messy
and shifting nature of local politics and government in Papua New Guinea,
stand-alone CCD projects are less likely to succeed than those that are inte-
grated with local community and government programmes and plans.
There also needs to be a clear motivation for the various CCD initiatives
that the corporation becomes involved in. Experience from the world of aid
donors suggests that undertaking activities with a mix of motives (risk man-
agement and community development) is likely to be less effective than sin-
gular, and clearer, motivations. Corporations should also seek higher levels of
community participation in project identification, design, monitoring and
evaluation connected with their CCD. Much of the community input into
CCD was weak (and seemed particularly so for higher level CSR-type activ-
ities), and there was typically little or no monitoring or evaluation of the de-
velopment or livelihood outcomes of CCD activities. Here in particular there
was significant potential for the corporations involved to learn from other de-
velopmental actors, especially donors and governments.

Acknowledgements
We thank the various community members, government officials and
company staff who engaged with us in this project. For access to their sites
and personnel, we would particularly thank Steve Gimpel (Barrick
Porgera), Tim Grice (Newcrest, Lihir), Ian Middleton (OTDF, Ok Tedi),
Martin Paining (Ramu) and Greg Anderson of the Papua New Guinea
Chamber of Mining and Petroleum.

Funding
We acknowledge a grant from the NZAID International Development
Research Fund for this project.

Glenn Banks is Associate Professor, Development Studies, at Massey University, New Zealand.
He has a PhD in human geography from the Australian National University and has worked as a
researcher and consultant on large-scale mining in Melanesia for more than twenty years. He has
published widely on different aspects of the industry, with a particular focus on issues of conflict
and community change.

Dora Kuir-Ayius is currently a PhD candidate in development studies at Massey University,

New Zealand. Prior to this, she taught in the sociology programme at the University of Papua
498 Glenn Banks et al.

New Guinea in Port Moresby. She has a master’s degree from La Trobe University, Melbourne. Her
current work is on the resilience of health services around large-scale mines in Papua New Guinea.

David Kombako is a lecturer in sociology at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby.
He has a master’s degree in sociology from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and has interests in
a broad range of sociological issues within contemporary Papua New Guinean society.

Bill Sagir is a senior lecturer in anthropology at the University of Papua New Guinea. He has a BA
in sociology from UPNG, MA in human geography from Victoria University of Wellington and
PhD in anthropology from the Australian National University. He has a particular interest in the
differential impacts of mining, petroleum and gas projects on different groups of men and women in
resource project areas and has undertaken research on the impacts of mining, oil and gas in different
parts of the country.

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