The Johnny Mercer lyrics You've got to accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative ' would best sum up the traditional approach to community relations in the mining industry. This '90s Public Relations spin' approach, usually backed up by scientific data, technical reports and graphs outlining risk probability and the impact potential on people and communities, is being challenged. Challenged by communities who have greater access to information, demand greater levels of transparency and corporate responsibility of large corporate operations and possess greater awareness of the communities they live in._x000D_
The growth of the environmental movement, of anti-globalisation, anti corporatism, apprehension of a large corporate's ability to deal with community issues, and a lack of faith in the abilities of regulators to regulate corporate activities, means our industry faces challenges on multiple fronts. It must now be able to address these from a personal/community perspective if it is to remain relevant within communities._x000D_
One of the keys to this is linking the internal activities and responsibilities to the externals concerns and demands for higher levels of operation and care._x000D_
This presentation draws on Corporate Public Affairs trends, functions and approaches and the application to External Affairs activities within Newmont Waihi Gold's operations in Waihi and regional exploration activities throughout the Hauraki Goldfields._x000D_
The approach presented works on the philosophy that communities don't necessarily have to like what we do, but should be able to identify and recognise the way in which we involve them in decision making, communicate our intentions and respond to issues._x000D_
FORMAL CITATION:Eglinton, K, 2010. Linking the internal and external players of the mining game - corporate public affairs, in Proceedings Sustainable Mining 2010, pp 190-196 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).