Newcrest Mining Ltd has doubled-down on its commitment to communities by sending staff to a week-long social performance workshop hosted by The University of Queensland.
Community relations and social responsibility advisors from Newcrest operations travelled to UQ’s St Lucia campus to take part in the hands-on Social Performance Leadership Program, which is facilitated by social scientists from UQ’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI).
The Program, which includes two weeks of face-to-fact workshopping and four months of applied work, has been running annually since 2017.
Senior Community Relations Specialist at Newcrest’s Cadia Valley operations, Melissa O’Brien, said the workshop would help empower Newcrest to lead the charge in the social performance space.
“It’s an exciting time for Newcrest. We continue to push forward in making social performance front of mind in all areas of our operation,” Melissa said.
“Because of this course, we are now equipped to lead the charge in this, with the full support of Newcrest management and our partners at SMI.
“The best take home from this carefully designed course is the practical examination of social performance issues globally.
“The opportunity to pull apart these scenarios provides the valuable ‘outside in’ perspective, without exposing the company to the real life risk.”
“The benefits of such a strong relationship between SMI and Newcrest are clear and by fostering this relationship it will continue to bring social performance to the front of priority for the mining industry globally.”
Sarah Mackenzie, a Research Partner at SMI’s Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining (CSRM), said working with Newcrest on social performance was a mutually beneficial exercise.
“CSRM, as the world’s largest research centre focusing on social responsibility in the mining sector, has the experience to help the employees working with communities better understand social performance as an applied concept and practice area,” Sarah said.
“At the same time, working with community relations specialists from across Newcrest’s mining operations provides us with more case studies on the application of social performance strategies.
