The Arlit Mines: Developing sustainable development indicators for mining

Developing sustainable development indicators for mining – Application to the Arlit uranium mines (Niger)

A thesis work by Aurélie Chamaret (REEDS)

This work started with the observation that minerals extraction is related to complex sustainable development issues.  Thus, debates and decisions related to mining need to be based on objective and comparative elements. 

The objective of this investigation was to define strong indicators for assessing impacts and performances of mining sites. This tasks appears necessary to inform and support the decision-making process for stakeholders.  In recent years, however, many indicator sets have been developed on an international level based on top-down approaches.  But they commonly lack legitimacy for stakeholders and adequacy to specific site issues.  They thus need to be complemented by the consultation of local actors concerned by such mining activity, in order to define indicators that are closer to the needs and contexts of the specific sites.

The author's objective was to define indicators that are understood and accepted by all actors, as a basis for robust and transparent assessment of the impacts and performances of mining sites across the four sustainable development dimensions, and at local, regional and national scales.  “

The specific task was to build adequate indicators to measure the impacts and contributions of mining in different locations, at different scales (region and country).

To structure her reflection, she followed the Integraal framework developed by REEDS, enriching it through valuable observations linked to: participation, stakeholder engagement, definition of indicators, scales of application, etc.