Mining Focus Educational Foundation

Bringing Facts and Experience to the Discussion

Who We Are

We are a British Columbia, Canada registered not for profit society.  Mining Focus Educational Foundation was founded by geoscientists, mining experts and social scientists.

The Mission of Mining Focus

Our goal is to build the premier educational resource for all parties to understand metal mining. Mining Focus is dedicated to the protection of communities from the impacts of a lack of knowledge, misinformation and sensationalism where metal mining is concerned. We stand for healthy, informed communities with the autonomy to make their own decisions about development. We work for solutions that increase human well-being while protecting property, health and the natural world. Our goal is to be a knowledge centre by building a fact-based platform allowing all interested parties, including the media, to acquire a balanced understanding of mining and mineral exploration.

Why We Are Here

Mining Focus is concerned with the increasing lack of awareness in our society of the true nature, risks, impacts and importance  of metal mining. Metal mining has been an essential building block for positive change on the individual, community and global levels since the Stone Age. Nevertheless few members of society and the media have ever visited a metal mine. Nearly 50% of the world now lives in growing urban centres which are more dependent than ever on new metal mines and recycling of existing metal. The urbanisation of humanity means that less people live in remote and rural areas where mining takes place, and fewer people have any hands on knowledge or experience with metal mining. To Mining Focus this represents a dangerous knowledge gap in our society. It is exploited by those who very often present misleading and sometimes erroneous information concerning the real and perceived risks of metal mining to the environment and human society. To bridge this gap Mining Focus aims to create, cultivate and communicate a new understanding and appreciation of metal mining’s integral role in society and its impacts on human welfare and the natural world, today and through the ages.

Our Philosophy

We believe that humans are not intrinsically in conflict with the natural world. We are the sentient beings that have resulted from the natural process of evolution. By implication humans and their activities, including mining, are natural. Nevertheless, higher human consciousness dictates that human activities ought to be conducted with integrity, awareness and consideration. When humans claim the right to wield force over one another such consideration is not possible. Interactions within a society based on force generally have poor results with respect to the environment and human well being. Mining in the Soviet Union, for example, resulted in both human and environmental costs that were borne of the vagaries of distant commands and controls. While Mining Focus is devoted to exposing some of the myths propagated concerning metal mining, we are also cognizant that over history all human endeavours are directed by the overarching political system of the time and place. An ancillary goal is to point out the affects of political regimes on the outcomes of mining. Ultimately, our simple goal is to provide factual information to educate the world about metal mining, an industry that has been with us since the birth of humanity.

How We Work

Mines today are explored for and found in remote and rural areas. While Mining Focus is a resource for all interested parties, we are particularly focused on informing, educating and providing informative resources for people living in these areas. We aim to reduce rural poverty relating to, and resulting from, the impacts of ignorance and misinformation concerning mineral exploration, mine development and mining. Our goal is to communicate the reliance of the physical, cultural, social and emotional health of humans and human communities on mining by:

• Undertaking research and creating information databases relating to the impacts of mining and mineral exploration on human communities and the environment;

• Publishing, promoting and distributing the results of research in the form of web based educational materials, editorials, articles and media;

• Providing seminars and workshops for rural and remote communities dealing with the risks, benefits and impacts of mining;

• Bringing rural communities and their leaders to active mining operations allowing for a hands on experience with the true realities of mining ; and

• The Curriculum Project: development of educational modules for use in schools about the effects of mineral extraction on the environment and society.