Friendly advice to Rio Tinto
I remember cheering the news of Rio Tinto’s decision to acquire OT. I had hope that world-giant company would run this project in much more responsible way and show much more respect to its stakeholders. At the time hardest part of project beginning was done by Ivanhoe. May be Ivanhoe raised the expectation from this project by lobbying high and we had little too much expectation from Rio Tinto.
Unfortunately, Rio Tinto did not meet our expectation. It shows no initiative and professionalism when the whole country is divided and politicized around this project. Your company website says that Rio Tinto ‘ seek to understand the social, environmental and economic implications of our activities so we can optimise benefits and reduce negative impacts, both for local communities and for regional and national economies’ . Most importantly it says ‘wherever we operate we seek to do so with broad-based community support’. I suppose your company does conduct opinion poll time to time. I have no idea what it says to you. However, what I know from reading through social media and talking with people is that support of the project is shrinking. I think the success of this project will if not completely but in most part depend on broad public support. You could argue that shrinking support is due to populist politicians but I say that its your failure that could not prevent or at least mitigate the negative impacts from populism.
Billboard PR
OT is not Hublot brand or Airmarket company. This is a social project. We see ourself as part of this project and we also think that this project is our guarantee of bright future. Its important to see how much benefit we’ll get from the project but its way too simple to see it from bread in billboard. I’ve been living in Canada and Australia for while and have not see billboard saying Canada will get 2/3 of bread or Australia shall benefit most of the milk in cup. Instead, they organize shareholders’ meeting where shareholders discuss CEO’s report and this report is available for download on company’s website. Well, we are not direct shareholders of OT project but its we elect the government /in Mongolia usually MPs are cabinet members/. If our government has no willing to share information regarding project then you could. Anyway, its just unbelievable that you could not find better idea than funny billboards when PR has developed into science.
Confidential information
I think OT is open public project. It is not a nuclear facility or NASA project. Its just mining project and your company is responsible for its management. What I can’t understand is that how come project’s contract, report and other information became so confidential that soon only Wikileaks would publish. Everybody knows that rumors spread faster when there is no information around. I don’t like populist politicians, but only from them I found out that project’s initial investment has increased than it was planned on the contract. Why its hard to inform us on this issue ? We all know that cost and inflation is rising. It would make sense to us. Also I found out somewhere that it will take longer to project buys out its initial cost.
Community non-relation
This project is first world-class Mongolian project that is running with public consent. I understand it could begin with public support. I must say that community will stay involved in the project until project finishes. It should be obvious that Mongolian people hold great importance in the project. Unfortunately, until now only through politicians we are involved in. Mongolians are very sceptical people. Last six centuries Mongolians were living in constant anxiousness and suspicion between two giant neighbours. People carefully watch every foreign influence and involvement. Now people are suspicious when the project they were supposed to benefit is behind closed door. Offcourse, politicians are keen to play on that. People don’t really believe in politicians but we have no other source at given time. Isn’t it hard to appoint Spokesperson who can speak about projects progress, share project information and reports with public? At least this person can answer some basic questions rather than just passing official report to media. Otherwise, people think that MP Bayartsogt is your Spokesperson.
Papua New Guinea VS Mongolia
There is huge copper and gold deposit in Bougainville island of Papua New Guinea. Its actually bigger than OT. Rio Tinto was operating this mine until it was kicked-out in 1989. There is many explanations for the incident but I personally think that company could not find language of local people and could not understand their specificity. Instead, it has completely relied on government. Since this unfortunate incident, mining companies began to conduct not only Environmental but Social Impact Assessment prior to every project. The Social Impact Assessment can define who the stakeholders are, how you communicate with them and finally, what are the social risks involved.
OT did conduct this report recently. However, feedback wasn’t good. According to feedback conducted by Oyu Tolgoi Watch, Bank Information Center, CEE Bankwatch, London Mining Network, Accountability Counsel, and Urgewald in November 2012, the ESIA is inconsistent and incomplete. The ESIA included Dutch disease as social risk but not resource nationalization and political populism risks. Since they are not included in the assessment, I suppose there are no measures against it you have in mind. I hope that Rio Tinto will review its assessment and include all social risks possible in this country and prepare measures against it or mitigate their impacts. These risks are not only Rio Tinto’s but also all stakeholders’ risks.
Conclusion
I’m just one thousands of Mongolian people who support the projects and care for its implementation. We can’t afford this project to be political game. However, I don’t have answer when one asks me if the project is just a hoax. I just warn people that if project fails the all investment will go. I don’t hear from you anything else than warning. Everything else comes from rumors and political debate. I’m sorry to say that the way you are handling this project’s PR has no future. We just need open, real, understandable, and true information. After that we could work-out all the challenges. Otherwise, even thousand billboards are not enough.
Enkhtur. S
@turuu09
Unfortunately, Rio Tinto did not meet our expectation. It shows no initiative and professionalism when the whole country is divided and politicized around this project. Your company website says that Rio Tinto ‘ seek to understand the social, environmental and economic implications of our activities so we can optimise benefits and reduce negative impacts, both for local communities and for regional and national economies’ . Most importantly it says ‘wherever we operate we seek to do so with broad-based community support’. I suppose your company does conduct opinion poll time to time. I have no idea what it says to you. However, what I know from reading through social media and talking with people is that support of the project is shrinking. I think the success of this project will if not completely but in most part depend on broad public support. You could argue that shrinking support is due to populist politicians but I say that its your failure that could not prevent or at least mitigate the negative impacts from populism.
Billboard PR
OT is not Hublot brand or Airmarket company. This is a social project. We see ourself as part of this project and we also think that this project is our guarantee of bright future. Its important to see how much benefit we’ll get from the project but its way too simple to see it from bread in billboard. I’ve been living in Canada and Australia for while and have not see billboard saying Canada will get 2/3 of bread or Australia shall benefit most of the milk in cup. Instead, they organize shareholders’ meeting where shareholders discuss CEO’s report and this report is available for download on company’s website. Well, we are not direct shareholders of OT project but its we elect the government /in Mongolia usually MPs are cabinet members/. If our government has no willing to share information regarding project then you could. Anyway, its just unbelievable that you could not find better idea than funny billboards when PR has developed into science.
Confidential information
I think OT is open public project. It is not a nuclear facility or NASA project. Its just mining project and your company is responsible for its management. What I can’t understand is that how come project’s contract, report and other information became so confidential that soon only Wikileaks would publish. Everybody knows that rumors spread faster when there is no information around. I don’t like populist politicians, but only from them I found out that project’s initial investment has increased than it was planned on the contract. Why its hard to inform us on this issue ? We all know that cost and inflation is rising. It would make sense to us. Also I found out somewhere that it will take longer to project buys out its initial cost.
Community non-relation
This project is first world-class Mongolian project that is running with public consent. I understand it could begin with public support. I must say that community will stay involved in the project until project finishes. It should be obvious that Mongolian people hold great importance in the project. Unfortunately, until now only through politicians we are involved in. Mongolians are very sceptical people. Last six centuries Mongolians were living in constant anxiousness and suspicion between two giant neighbours. People carefully watch every foreign influence and involvement. Now people are suspicious when the project they were supposed to benefit is behind closed door. Offcourse, politicians are keen to play on that. People don’t really believe in politicians but we have no other source at given time. Isn’t it hard to appoint Spokesperson who can speak about projects progress, share project information and reports with public? At least this person can answer some basic questions rather than just passing official report to media. Otherwise, people think that MP Bayartsogt is your Spokesperson.
Papua New Guinea VS Mongolia
There is huge copper and gold deposit in Bougainville island of Papua New Guinea. Its actually bigger than OT. Rio Tinto was operating this mine until it was kicked-out in 1989. There is many explanations for the incident but I personally think that company could not find language of local people and could not understand their specificity. Instead, it has completely relied on government. Since this unfortunate incident, mining companies began to conduct not only Environmental but Social Impact Assessment prior to every project. The Social Impact Assessment can define who the stakeholders are, how you communicate with them and finally, what are the social risks involved.
OT did conduct this report recently. However, feedback wasn’t good. According to feedback conducted by Oyu Tolgoi Watch, Bank Information Center, CEE Bankwatch, London Mining Network, Accountability Counsel, and Urgewald in November 2012, the ESIA is inconsistent and incomplete. The ESIA included Dutch disease as social risk but not resource nationalization and political populism risks. Since they are not included in the assessment, I suppose there are no measures against it you have in mind. I hope that Rio Tinto will review its assessment and include all social risks possible in this country and prepare measures against it or mitigate their impacts. These risks are not only Rio Tinto’s but also all stakeholders’ risks.
Conclusion
I’m just one thousands of Mongolian people who support the projects and care for its implementation. We can’t afford this project to be political game. However, I don’t have answer when one asks me if the project is just a hoax. I just warn people that if project fails the all investment will go. I don’t hear from you anything else than warning. Everything else comes from rumors and political debate. I’m sorry to say that the way you are handling this project’s PR has no future. We just need open, real, understandable, and true information. After that we could work-out all the challenges. Otherwise, even thousand billboards are not enough.
Enkhtur. S
@turuu09
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