Economic challenges, coupled with the downturn in commodity prices, have recently resulted in many job losses in the mining sector, economic development services company EDS executive director Ugeshree Thakurpersad tells Mining Weekly.

Another consequence of the downturn is that mining companies are reducing the services of specialised consultants for the purposes of community engagement and the facilitation of their social and labour plans (SLP’s) and are rather opting to use in-house com- pany resources to facilitate dialogue among role-players , she adds.

“This creates challenges because inexperienced people engage with communities when they don’t have that very specialised skills set, which can often damage relationships between mining houses and communities.”

Thakurpersad adds that EDS not only offers consulting services to the mining industry but also acts as economic development consultants for the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme.

“We work with different projects by assisting them in complying with economic development requirements, which include job creation and enterprise development. We apply the same principles when we work with mines.”

EDS first assesses the sustainability of a project and tries to work with a government body to ensure the sustainability of each project we work with, Thakurpersad notes.

She adds that EDS offers a number of services to the mining sector in addition to strategy consulting, noting that the company’s main focus areas are SLP programmes and projects, which entail SLP and socioeconomic development. Socioeconomic development projects range from infrastructure projects, including water or building infrastructure that mainly focus on community needs to educational projects such as bursaries and internships.

“We interact with the Department of Mineral Resources and stake- holders, and facilitate communication between the municipalities and mines so that they adhere to SLP requirements.”

Thakurpersad says communities have high and sometimes unrealistic SLP expectations because there is often a lack of transparency and communication between mines and communities.