Including Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in mine rehabilitation through FPIC

Project overview

Indigenous Peoples and Local Community members are often agricultural smallholders and/or forest-dependent communities displaced for mining activity. They are culturally and spiritually connected to their traditional lands, with deeply held responsibilities and long-established practices for caring for these lands and their natural resources. It is critical to ensure the voices and traditional knowledge of these stakeholders are included in mine closure planning and land rehabilitation processes. Especially given the increased demand for key minerals required to support the global energy transition, including bauxite for aluminium production.

In this project, Aluminium Stewardship Council (ASI) aimed to empower and build the capacity of Indigenous People and Local Communities (IPLC) to contribute effectively to mine closure practices and outcomes. Training and collaborative initiatives were trialled, framed around Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) principles, with potential for application in other sectors that may impact on the livelihoods of Indigenous peoples and their cultural and or sacred sites that require access to and management of land and the inherent natural resources.

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Insights into the Indigenous Peoples Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation Project

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The first phase of the Indigenous Peoples Mine Closure and Rehabilitation Project took place from 26 January to 14 February 2025 at Gulkula, Nhulunbuy, in the Northern Territory of Australia. The training combined hands-on, in-field activities within Gulkula’s operations with workshop sessions to reflect on the learnings and how they relate to mine closure requirements. Participants had the unique opportunity to learn from Gulkula — the only Indigenous-owned mine in the world — and to exchange effective approaches with one another that, while shaped by different contexts, are grounded in shared principles for achieving positive outcomes in Indigenous communities.

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Advancing mine rehabilitation knowledge and capacity in Guinea’s bauxite communities

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This video captures the second phase of ASI and IPAF’s mine rehabilitation and closure project in Kindia and Sangaredi, Guinea. Over ten days, local communities engaged in practical and theoretical training on land rehabilitation, planning methods, data collection, and post-mining restoration options. Participants also explored seed and species selection and learned from on-site rehabilitation examples. The project supports meaningful community participation and helps build long-term capacity for sustainable land management in mining regions.

Key learnings

A main output of the project was the creation of an app allowing Indigenous communities to monitor, evaluate and record data on rehabilitation metrics, such as plant survival, establishment and growth rates as well a range of other site characteristic metrics. This proved valuable for increasing the objectivity and long-term sustainability of on-the-ground field assessment by demonstrating methods for increased collaboration between mining companies and Indigenous communities. The project benefitted from taking a bespoke approach in each of the countries based on the diversity of cultures and other local factors.

The project has successfully enabled hundreds of Indigenous peoples to have a greater understanding of and learn more about the opportunities presented by participating in mine rehabilitation training and mine closure practices. The project has provided training outputs including a cohort of trainers in multiple countries with some experience in mine rehabilitation and exposure to mine closure requirements supported by a training/technical manual as a reference so that training may continue beyond the duration of the project.

Impact

The project has resulted in increased knowledge and awareness of IPLC through delivery of bespoke training, distributing culturally appropriate project materials, and rolling out country-specific versions of the app in each project location.

Engagement between mining companies and Indigenous communities will be ongoing through continued efforts of ASI and IPAF. In Guinea, an ASI Certified Entity mining company hosted an open tour of its mine rehabilitation operations, and efforts will continue to ensure this focus is supported by real, long-term behavioural change demonstrated through collaborative on ground activities.

Looking to the future, ASI are committed to maintaining and iterating the new app, and are looking to roll it out to new contexts across the five project countries. They are also collaborating with other ISEAL members including ASC to share relevant learning and consider the replicability of the approach for non-mining sectors.

Project outputs

Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation and Mine Closure: Training Manual

This training manual provides a high-level overview of the important steps to consider for mine closure. It has been developed to support clear, informed and balanced discussions about bauxite mine closure. Its purpose is to help communities understand the key steps and considerations for mine closure, how to achieve them, discuss some of the language used and therefore better understand what is being discussed, what rights exist, and what questions may be important to ask.

This training manual was produced as part of the ASI IPAF Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation Project supported by the ISEAL Innovations Fund.

Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation and Mine Closure: Training Manual - ENG

This training manual provides a high-level overview of the important steps to consider for mine closure. It has been developed to support clear, informed and balanced discussions about bauxite mine

PDF

563.79 KB

Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation and Mine Closure: Training Manual - FR

This training manual provides a high-level overview of the important steps to consider for mine closure. It has been developed to support clear, informed and balanced discussions about bauxite mine

PDF

11.53 MB

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Including Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in mine rehabilitation through FPIC

Including Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in mine rehabilitation through FPIC

Bauxite Mine Rehabilitation and Mine Closure: Training Manual

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