ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a proposed sustainable development framework for the minerals sector and considers how it applies to nine areas of concern faced by all actors in the sector – government, industry, labour, and civil society. The sustainable development concept has grown out of concern about several trends. One is the growing imbalance in development between different countries, often simplified into the categories North and South. Sustainable development is one of a range of ideas about how humans should best interact with each other and the biosphere. Institutions at different levels have taken on elements of the sustainable development challenge. The overall framework of what sustainable development means and how to put it into practice still has some murky areas but is becoming increasingly coherent.
