Multinational mining companies compete at the global level for clients, for labour, for investment and other resources. As such, their primary impulse is to keep information confidential from each other. However, when they operate in the same geographic area, there may be a need for them to share information on, say, projected employment levels, power consumption, water consumption, airport usage, etc. This information would be very useful for municipal governments, the Provincial Government and others in order to plan the allocation of resources and time.
In order to maintain trade secrets, it may be helpful to have some type of trusted intermediary between mining companies and the communities to share information on development plans, with the information being aggregated in a way to protect proprietary information for companies. The Synergy Group model in Alberta — industry-stakeholder groups — may be a useful model in this regard.
