ISD AcademyInstitute for Social Dialogue
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What this course is about

This is the entry course of the Mining School. It gives community members, mine employees, contractors and officials the same balanced picture of how a mine works across its life, who owns and regulates minerals, who the stakeholders are, and why their interests sometimes clash. It ends by showing why trust between mines and communities is built over many rounds, not one.

Who it is for

Everyone: host and labour-sending community members, youth, traditional and civic leaders, local entrepreneurs, new mine employees and contractors, union representatives, and municipal and government officials new to mining. It can also run inside a mine's induction programme.

What you will be able to do

  1. Describe the stages in the life of a mine and a typical social issue at each stage.
  2. Explain who owns South Africa's mineral resources and which bodies regulate mining.
  3. Identify the main stakeholders around a mine and one right or responsibility of each.
  4. Distinguish shared from conflicting interests and explain why repeated dealings reward cooperation.

Preview: the first two minutes

Module 1 · Introduction · 2 min

Late afternoon in a rural village of round thatched homes below brown hills, with a flat-topped acacia tree, aloes and two goats. An elderly man wrapped in a striped blanket, leaning on a walking stick, stands beside a young man in a white shirt as a white pickup truck drives in along a dusty track.

Animated scene (fictional, labelled): Pula village, 1998 to 2045, shown in five quick frames. A geologist's vehicle arrives; a road is built; a shaft opens; a busy town grows; the shaft closes. A young woman narrates: "I was born when the mine was a rumour. My children may see it close."

Modules

  1. Module 1 · 18 min

    The life of a mine

    Describe the stages in the life of a mine and a typical social issue at each stage.

  2. Module 2 · 18 min

    Who owns the minerals, and who regulates

    Explain who owns South Africa's mineral resources and which bodies regulate mining.

  3. Module 3 · 18 min

    Who is who: company, workforce, community

    Identify the main stakeholders around a mine and one right or responsibility of each.

  4. Module 4 · 18 min

    Where interests meet and clash

    Distinguish shared from conflicting interests and explain why repeated dealings reward cooperation.

Go deeper

Optional, outside the 72 minutes.

Sources

Mining Explained: Roles, Rights and Responsibilities | ISD Academy