The relationships between Aboriginal Traditional Owners and mining companies have often been mired in dispute, particularly since the High Court Mabo decision and the Native Title Act of 1993. In the Pilbara region, Rio Tinto Iron Ore (RTIO) impacts the traditional country of 12 Aboriginal Traditional Owner/language groups. Over the past 12 years the company and the Traditional Owners have negotiated and settled several significant land use agreements including the Yandi Land Use Agreement over the Yandicoogina mine in 1997, between Hamersley Iron (now Rio Tinto Iron Ore) and three language groups - the Bunjima, Nyapaili and Innawonga people and the Eastern Guruma Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) of 2006. These substantive agreements are now being followed by a new generation of region wide ILUAs which are close to conclusion._x000D_
Arising from these regional agreements is a new framework for engagement which has been informed by the implementation of the previous agreements in the Pilbara and across the Rio Tinto group of companies. They are driven by both a company desire to have a consistent approach to engaging with Traditional Owners and the Traditional Owners wanting to have a similarly transparent and consistent standard of performance by the company in implementing the agreements which can deliver improved employment, cultural heritage engagement and direct and indirect benefits for the life of mining by the company._x000D_
During the past three years the growth in the Pilbara, Western Australia brought new opportunities with people flocking to the region for employment flowing from the mining boom. Housing was at a premium and FIFO (fly-in, fly-out employment arrangements) was developed as a method to manage the general growth and demand for skills. Despite the recent down turn in the world economy since September 2008, which has reduced demand for minerals, the Pilbara continues to enjoy high levels of employment and as a result there is still significant pressure on housing and services provision. Although there has been vast economic growth in the Pilbara not only by mining companies but also oil and gas companies, the 2006 census data indicated that the direct benefits of improved employment, business development and engagement in the mainstream economy continued to exclude Aboriginal people._x000D_
Indigenous people constitute a significant proportion of the population in the Pilbara region, some 6000 people - currently 14 per cent of the population rising to 18 per cent by 2015 - yet they remain at the bottom of the socioeconomic scale. More than 40 years of mining has returned relatively little to this group of people who are the permanent residents of the region and are connected through their traditional culture to this country (Taylor and Scambary, 2005)._x000D_
Ensuring local Aboriginal participation in the mainstream economy has been a challenge for resource companies, Traditional Owners and local residents in the Pilbara. The case study explores the relationship between a mining company - Rio Tinto Iron Ore and the Traditional Owners of the Pilbara. It examines two projects that have been developed to engage Indigenous people in the development of their region and through regional representation and business development to build a sustainable future for themselves and their future generations and at the same time ensure social cohesion to support social licence to operate._x000D_
The case study also examines the process that was followed by Rio Tinto Iron Ore and its operations in undertaking a regional agreement for land access, participation and the integration of local Indigenous people into their business and the local economy._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Gawler, J, 2009. Building partnerships with indigenous people to improve their economic circumstances to achieve social cohesion and social licence to operate - a case study of the West Pilbara, Australia, in Proceedings SDIMI 2009 - Sustainable Development Indicators in the Minerals Industry, pp 51-54 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).