Mining is in a bad way. There can be little contention that it is plagued by numerous structural crises – including access to investment and funding, maintaining a social license-to-operate, resource nationalism, as well as the perennial spectre of environmental impacts. Digging deeper into these issues requires a more detailed understanding of the various dimensions which define the context of mining in Africa.

A while ago I had to do some coursework, culminating in an assignment where we had to explore ways to "measure social performance" in the spaces we were involved with.

I had a lot of fun with this topic, one very left field for what I am strictly qualified for. The way the brief was set up also resulted in me halfway losing my mind trying to connect two parts of the essay. I ended up dissolving this contradiction by facing it head on but some elements of my confusion are still in there. I think they make it somewhat more entertaining to read...

At any rate I thought hubski might be interested in some of the thinking here, although I offer it with the caveat that I very much do not claim intellectual authority on this kind of topic. In that sense I'm very keen to hear what other perspectives people might have and which I hadn't taken account of.