ABSTRACT
This chapter considers basic information needs in the sector and the challenges faced by those involved with or affected by mining. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen has pointed out that famine has rarely taken place in a country with a democratic government and a free press. Information is also an important tool for education and empowerment. Communities have particularly acute information needs relative to other stakeholders at all stages of the minerals cycle because of the power imbalances between communities and other actors. The ability to block access to information is also a powerful political and economic tool. Governments and companies are being held to ever-higher standards of accountability, transparency, and openness by citizens and shareholders. Stakeholders in the minerals and metals sectors need information throughout the discovery, construction, exploitation, refining, processing, use, and disposal or recycling stages of operations. The requirement for information at all scales is immense.
