The general public has always seemed to have a keen interest in the social responsibilities of Mining companies and also the environmental impact of mining on local communities.

What is interesting to note is that in order to secure mining licenses the majority of the time new train and road links (infrastructure) and power stations sometimes need to be built inorder to move extracted ores from mine sites to ports for export. Further to this mining companies are more than willing to invest into developing schools and other community based projects that help the local communities to evolve, including employment opportunties.

For sure their motivation is company profit, but if there is a positive local social outcome, then is there really a problem? Who does not benefit?

The link below takes you to a very interesting piece that was filmed in Peru on the impact of mining, it will to some extent contradict what I have written above, and to a certain extent I want it to. It's actually quite necessary for some messages to be put across through as many different media as possible.

http://solddowntheriver.tumblr.com/