Goldcorp's Online Community Engagement in Timmins

At Goldcorp, we recognize that our operations will have impacts on the areas around our mine sites, bringing both opportunities and issues of concern for residents. We strive to partner with local stakeholders to understand their needs and address their questions, and to conduct our business in a way that supports strong, vibrant and sustainable communities.    The closer a mining operation is to a residential area, the greater the impact felt by local residents – and the greater the need to build and maintain trust through transparency and dialogue.   Consider the Hollinger project: one of the Porcupine mine operations, Hollinger is an open pit gold mine under development, in the centre of the city of Timmins, Ontario. This kind of proximity makes every one of the city’s 43,000 citizens a stakeholder. Understandably, people want to know about noise, dust, air quality, and how day-to-day operations may affect their routines and quality of life.   The majority of Timmins’ population is informed, urban and technology-savvy, which made it possible to experiment with new channels of communication. Like any Goldcorp operation, Porcupine maintains dedicated telephone and fax numbers and an email address for community inquiries. It runs a series of public communication initiatives and a Community Information Centre staffed by a full-time Community Liaison Coordinator. What’s unique is that anyone with an Internet-connected computer can visit the mine’s website and view a full-colour map, the “Hollinger Live Monitoring” map, and view up-to-the-second dust and noise readings from a battery of sensors located around the mine. With a few more clicks, visitors access current and historical reports on blasting, noise and dust, and examine many of the mine’s engineering studies. This level of ongoing environmental transparency is unprecedented in Goldcorp’s history.   Also on the home page are two large buttons asking for community feedback – one in French and one in English. Visitors are invited to ask a question, report a problem or register a complaint. People can choose to keep their identity secret if they wish. Porcupine’s standard procedures ensure that everyone who wishes to be contacted will receive a personal reply within 24 hours. For urgent issues, the appropriate department is required to respond and take action to address the problem. After the situation has been assessed and either resolved or mitigated, the complainant is contacted again and informed of the action that was taken.   The objective of stakeholder communications is always to build and maintain trusted, two-way relationships with communities, government agencies, NGOs and other stakeholders. At Porcupine – with the Hollinger operation located in the midst of a bustling urban centre – the need was more pressing, and the experiment in communication has proven to be equally rewarding. Following robust community consultation and information exchange, permits were received and the first blast took place on February 11, 2014 with the support from community residents.   Learn more about Goldcorp's community relations approach in the 2013 Sustainability Report: http://csr.goldcorp.com/2013/5_index.php