The business case for sustainable development
This paper takes an economic approach to sustainable development and puts some hard numbers to a "soft" issue. issues discussed include access to investment fund managers, risk and risk aversion, the dilemma of juniors in the market, the problem of unrealized expectations, the new "partners" in you projects (governments, media, NGOs), the problem of first contact in a new area, the dollar impact of social and environmental problems, the dollar impact of delays, the value of management time and an assessment of whether, or not, sustainable development is worth the effort. If the industry is ever to truly embrace sustainable development (as opposed to extensive and expensive lip service) it will have to be shown that there are real dollar reasons for doing so. This paper addresses these real dollar reasons.
Mots Clés:
Evaluation, business case, Mineral economics, Country risk, Sustainable development
