The diverse priorities, drivers and concerns of multiple stakeholders in the minerals industry complicate the integration of sustainable development considerations into mine design, as well as operational and strategic decisions._x000D_
The ability of the industry to address all role-players' needs, or indeed, to achieve consensus among all role players on the plethora of sustainable development issues seems a noble yet unattainable goal._x000D_
One of the difficulties in assessing the relative importance of sustainable development issues across many stakeholders is the inevitable lack of impartiality in valuing these issues. Starting from a premise that transparency and fairness of the process are absolute prerequisites for progress, but that consensus is not, an approach has been developed in which all stakeholders are asked to assess the importance of all other stakeholders' priorities, excluding their own. The approach recognises that stakeholders have different levels of contribution, understanding, vested interests, and perceptions of legitimacy and entitlement, across the diversity of sustainable development issues and decision criteria._x000D_
Using Triangular Value Analysis, the relative weightings of each of the stakeholder's priorities are determined through a regression-like technique. The uniqueness of this approach is the manner in which self-assessment bias and overemphasis of stakeholders' own priorities are avoided._x000D_
The methodology can be used for both internal and external stakeholders, and in conjunction with other group decision making techniques, such as the nominal group or Delphi techniques. This paper will illustrate how Triangular Value Analysis may be applied in the minerals industry to determine priorities in various decisions relating to potentially conflicting sustainable development priorities within the industry._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Stacey, A G and Stacey, J L, 2009. Impartiality and fairness in stakeholder engagement through triangular value analysis, in Proceedings SDIMI 2009 - Sustainable Development Indicators in the Minerals Industry, pp 85-92 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).