A prescient article on Mining Australia by Vicky Validakis has affirmed much of what we’ve been pontificating on for the past year. If the title doesn’t give it away, then some of the opening lines make it clear: ‘the problem for the mining industry is that it is the activists who have the loudest voice’.

This much is agreed; but I’d argue that the problem is more that the industry has no voice. Average standards of communicating social credentials in the extractive industries generally consist of mealy essays and opaque sustainability reports that amount to little more than a social reworking of their financial reports.

Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the article was the account of NSW Minerals Council boss Stephen Galilee’s reaction to the ongoing protests at the Maules Creek mine, Australia. His credulity at the anger expressed by protesters suggests a radical misunderstanding of the sector's global audience, who are increasingly plugged into the activities of the extractive industries and increasingly disillusioned with it in the context of perceived environmental degradation. Demonstrating the rigour with which activism carries its message, we read:

“They are online all day, every day tweeting to Environment Minister Greg Hunt, writing blogs, and posting photos…They are also using sites like Flickr, various blogs and Instagram to spread their message. Protesters of this mine continue to gain momentum online and the more they talk the more one-sided the message will be.”

Validakis believes that the industry was caught napping, but is there anything to suggest it has or will woken up? She seems to suggest not: "the mine has all the required approvals, is hiring locals, and will spend in the millions on wages and services during its life. But how will the public know this if the industry doesn’t get out there and educate people online.”

In other words, if an industry is not allaying environmental concerns, nor visibly demonstrating any socio-economic benefits, then what can such luddism expect from the skeptical public? Apparently Stephen Galilee labelled the Maules Creek protestor a ‘dinosaur of hate journalism’, an oddly ironic statement considering that the only dinosaurs in the truest sense of the word – as an archaic creature – is the extractive industry itself.

(image courtesy of wandee007 at freedigitalphotos.net)