A potential participatory tool for responsible mining: Democratising environmental impact assessment

This work examines sustainable development in practice, particularly in the context of mining and environmental management in a developing country. It argues for sustainable and participatory mining in developing countries, such as Mongolia, by encouraging meaningful public participation in the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The EIA, a major tool of environmental management, addresses the negative environmental and social impacts of development projects, such as mining, and has a potential to mitigate such impacts by incorporating EIA recommendations into business practice. This is particularly important for mineral-rich developing countries experiencing growing conflicts among mining companies, local communities and government authorities, due to a lack of dialogue among mining constituents and a lack of effective public policy and public engagement in the promotion of socially and environmentally accountable mining. The research argues that the current monologic EIA needs to be transformed to a more dialogic EIA and become a participatory tool for sustainable and participatory mining, or simply responsible mining.