Comparison of Mining Projects

Running head: COMPARISION OF MINING PROJECTS
Comparison of Mining Projects
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1COMPARISION OF MINING PROJECTS
Introduction
In ensuring better comparison of mining projects, it is necessary to explore the ways in
which mining organizations differ or have similarities in their mining initiatives regarding
community relations (Aguilar-Støen & Hirsch, 2015). This is deemed to encompass analyzing
internal management structures of the selected Australian mining organizations. The objective of
this paper is to analyze the selected mining projects of Australia from the companies such as
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto along with evaluating their project investment and market
capitalization. The paper is also intended to analyze the major issues between the selected
companies and their host communities in order to evaluate the ways in which these companies
structure their community relations effort.
Discussion
Mining Projects Description
The mining project developed by BHP Billiton is “London mining network” that focused
on carrying out mining operations in Escondida copper mines in the Atacama Desert of Northern
Chile and make considerable developments in the community. The company has also planned to
expand its desalination operations within the coast along with piping water within these mines.
The size or market capitalization of BHP Billiton is observed to be 44.1 billion U.S. dollars for
the year 2018 (Bhp Annual Reporting., 2018). The company is positioned as the largest
Australian mining company listed in Australian Stock Exchange and its market capitalization is
high in comparison to its competitors. Such strong position of the company is deemed to be

2COMPARISION OF MINING PROJECTS
suitable to support the mining project of the company along with its community development
activities.
The mining project implemented by Rio Tinto is “Oyu Tolgoi Gold and Copper Mining”
and the investment within the project is observed to be US $4.4 billion that has supported
construction of more than 200 kms tunnels (Rio Tinto., 2017). Moreover, market capitalization
or the size of Rio Tinto is 83.94B in the year 2018 attaining 32.2% of its size that is observed to
support the investment within this mining project. The mining project of this company has
contributed towards increased Mongolian development through carrying out ore mining from
surface employing open pit mining. Moreover, this mining project was selected by Rio Tinto for
the reason that Oyu Tolgoi serves among the most exciting developments in gold and copper
mining over several years. This encompasses reserves along with resources which makes it
among the world’s renowned copper and gold deposits (Conde, 2017). Moreover the
shareholders of Oyu Tolgoi including Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill Resources and the Mongolian
government developed a plan for carrying out underground development of the community.
Description of Host Communities
The host community that is being served by BHP Billiton through its mining project is
local community around the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile. This community served by the
mining company is observed to survive within a region that faces a threat of survival settlements
due to scarcity of water in the region (Conde & Le Billon, 2017). The community residing within
this region is observed to be indigenous people from Atacama Desert and they remain in
underdeveloped villages with lack of modern facilities and protect their villages with strong
stone walls. To maintain their livelihood they rely on their developed ceramic crafts, copper

3COMPARISION OF MINING PROJECTS
work and gold work. They are also observed to be skilled at making best use of scarce water
along with sparse terrain through employing their livestock and depend their lives mostly on
agriculture (Fordham & Robinson, 2018).
Local community around Southern Gobi desert of Mongolia is the host community for
Rio Tinto that is considered within the mining project of the company. The community of South
Gobi is observed to be huge and sparsely populated region in which for more than several years
residents have relied their lives on animal husbandry and nomadic herding (Keenan, Kemp &
Ramsay, 2016). The mining developments are greatly needed in this region that can bring this
community with an opportunity to support sustainable development, offering new growth
opportunities along with offering strategies to diversify local economy. The region is observed to
be one of the most water efficient mines that use 0.44 cubic meters of water per tone of
processed ore and for this reason the biodiversity in these areas is observed to be very rich.
Despite the harsh climate conditions in these areas, it is observed to support and sustain animals
and people residing within the community (Lin, Li & Bu, 2015). The region has long history of
human habituation focused on which it can be said that the community residing within the region
needs increased development.
Relationship between Company and Host Communities
The analysis of relationship between BHP Billion and the community served by the
company revealed that there have been certain issues faced by the community residing in Chile
region. This is because of the reason that the mining project of the company decided to draw
huge amount of groundwater from regions near the mine (Moffat & Zhang, 2014). This proposal
was opposed and turned down by the local community as they felt endangered regarding their