Working with Traditional Owners

We recognise our activities may influence Traditional Owners and Aboriginal communities where we operate. We take the following approach to minimise our impact and maintain positive relationships.

• Conducting business in a transparent manner complying with applicable laws, respecting human rights and building trust and credibility with communities and stakeholders.
• Engaging with Aboriginal stakeholders to ensure that mining is planned and carried out in a manner that maintains or enhances social values while also avoiding or minising impacts to communities.
• Delivering positive economic, social and environmental legacies for Aboriginal communities, Native Title groups and Traditional Owners by providing opportunities, including employment, business contracts and supporting community development initiatives through our community grants and social investment program.
• Promoting a culturally respectful and inclusive workplace to attract and retain local Aboriginal talent.
• Ensuring strong Aboriginal engagement, Native Title and cultural heritage governance, through native title and heritage agreements.

We acknowledge our operations, both existing and planned, may intersect with areas of Aboriginal cultural heritage significance. MinRes employs a dedicated and experienced Heritage team focused on protecting cultural heritage. They apply a risk-based approach, informed by industry best practice and standards, with the primary objective of avoiding or minimising direct and indirect impacts to cultural heritage.

MinRes ensures any works undertaken on Country area in line with our commitments made with Traditional Owners and compliant with all regulatory and legislative requirements.

Identification of cultural heritage

We collaborate with Aboriginal People across the regions in which MinRes operates to identify, document, manage and appropriately protect cultural heritage. This is crucial to ensuring cultural heritage is recognised, celebrated and preserved.

Our Heritage team engages with Aboriginal People to carry out cultural heritage surveys – both ethnographic and archaeological - prior to the commencement of any ground disturbing activities across our operations.

We avoid impacts to cultural heritage places to the greatest extent practicable by continuously developing and maintaining relationships and working with Aboriginal People on Country.

Heritage monitoring and compliance

When working on Country, MinRes collaborates with Aboriginal People to prevent any disturbance to cultural heritage. We invite Aboriginal People to monitor ground-disturbing activities within proximity to heritage places, ensuring the protection of heritage values and maintaining consistent community engagement.

Any places of significance to Aboriginal People identified through surveys are demarcated with industry standard flagging, including an appropriate buffer area. This ensures no unauthorised activities occur within the area.

We maintain a comprehensive cultural management system designed to manage heritage risks and minimise the impacts of our activities on cultural heritage values in a manner consistent with legal and regulatory requirements and pursuant to our agreements.

Management controls and actions

We implement a range of comprehensive management controls and actions.

• Conducting heritage surveys and assessments in consultation with Traditional Owners.
• Maintaining and reguarly reviewing our heritage policy and procedural framework to define heritage management controls.
• Ensuring the Land Access Permit (LAP) process assess cultural heritage values and implements appropriate exclusions and management controls to safeguard cultural heritage values
• Developing agreements with Traditional Owners.
• Holding regular meetings and engagements with Traditional Owners and/or heritage advisory committees.
• Undertaking field audits and demarcation of heritage places.
• Regularly meeting with the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage on requirements under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) and relevant Government policies.
• Auditing and reviewing heritage information to ensure spatial data accurately reflects on-the-ground heritage values for better planning.
• Development and implementing the Culturally Sensitive Blast Management Procedure, Heritage Incident Management Procedure and Newly Identified Aboriginal Heritage Procedure.
• Delivering heritage and compliance presentations at each site.

Our Indigenous Procurement Strategy commits MinRes and its contracting business partners to promote, support and employ local Aboriginal People.

MinRes has worked with Traditional Owners to identify Aboriginal businesses that would benefit from an Aboriginal Small Business Grant. The funding supports the set-up costs associated with a new business, including registration, business advice, legal structure and basic training.