The best of both worlds

Emily Brett looks at how unlikely bedfellows work to keep industry and the environment in harmony.

Where she be, there she be. So goes an old Cornish saying, pointing to the fact that a mine’s location is determined by where, in the case of Cornwall, the tin lies. Unlike an office or a factory, you can’t choose where you put a mine. Mineral deposits dictate their own locations.

Rio Tinto’s exploration department has found that on average only one in 350 mineral prospects that are drill tested result in a mine. And because minerals are located across such a broad range of often remote and inaccessible habitats, some of which are, inevitably, conservation hotspots, a mine would appear to spell trouble for the environment.

So you wouldn’t think miners and botanists would have much in common. But in fact miners and environmentalists are working together in a win-win situation for mine project outcomes and conservation efforts.

Says Stuart Anstee, the Group’s principal adviser Land Stewardship/Closure, “Rio Tinto is working with a unique team of people from NGOs, putting us all at the very forefront of environmental management. In terms of biodiversity conservation as a business priority, we have the opportunity now to change the way business operates in the world.”

Biological diversity, or biodiversity, refers to the variety of life on earth: the different animals, plants and micro-organisms, their genes and the ecosystems of which they are a part. Humans, with their cultural diversity, are an integral component of these ecosystems.

But beautiful landscapes and creatures are not just the scenery of human life. Fauna and flora may have cultural, sacred or ceremonial value, and may be important for the livelihood of local communities.