The emperors new clothes: Sustainable mining?

Over the last few years, the idea of ‘sustainable mining’ has, thanks to industry sponsorship, been working its way into the agenda of many international processes. There is now a push in many countries to invite in multinational mining companies with the idea that there is a “new, sustainable mining” which is different from the old, bad practices of the past. Yet, what has actually changed in the industry to match this shift in rhetoric? From the perspective of mine-affected communities nothing seems to have changed. Their land is still being taken from them without giving their free, prior and informed consent, and they are suffering the same ill effects on their ways of life, health and environment. This paper will illustrate how under this rhetoric, the mining industry ‘emperor’ has the same old naked ambitions.