CAMARA Massaman, DBA

Massaman Camara, who holds a Master’s degree in Audit and Management Control, began his career in a chartered accountancy firm before joining the mining industry with the multinational Anglogold Ashanti in 2008 and then Iamgold Corporation in 2020.

In September 2023, he will be defending his Executive Doctorate of Business Administration on the subject of “how mining companies approach their responsibilities in terms of local development: the case of the Sabodala (Senegal) and Sadiola (Mali) gold mines”, under the supervision of Professor Nicolas Poussing, Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER). His research on the two mines aims to study the relevance of the local development strategies deployed, the relevance of stakeholder management strategies and the relevance of the sustainability of local development actions.

Pr Nicolas Poussing

How the mining industries are addressing their local development responsibilities: the case of the Sabodala (Senegal) and Sadiola (Mali) gold mines

Mining projects in Africa, like everywhere else, present a multidimensional opportunity that stimulate many interests. Between the desire of the States to maximize their benefit from these major projects, the investors objectives to maximize their profits & a rapid return on investment and communities’ high wishes to initiate their local development over the long term, there are therefore competing interests and goals. However, these mining projects, which have the particularity of having a considerable impact on the immediate ecosystem, are destined to end sooner or later with a heavy legacy accumulated throughout their life. Most of the stakeholders seem to be doing better than the local communities who are the most impacted and who will nevertheless bear a large portion of the consequences of after the operations. Elsewhere, from the beginning of these projects at exploration phase followed by investment one, then operation, until up to the closure phase, these communities are not always placed at the center of attention and actions.
On the one hand, the decentralization legislative texts in Mali and Senegal clearly indicate that the responsibility for economic, social and cultural development lies with local authorities, hence the establishment of communal development plans drawn up according to participatory processes under conduct of the elected people. On the other hand, mining projects have as well a large portion of responsibility for local development not only because of their huge impacts on environment but also because of the quest for their legitimization.
It is in this context that we conducted research on the subject “how do mining industry’s companies approach their responsibilities in terms of local development”. To achieve this goal, we conducted qualitative methodology research implying 25 semi-structured interviews with local development stakeholders in the areas of Sadiola (Mali) and Sabodala (Senegal). In the light of national and sub-regional mining legislations; directives of the VMA (African Union) and international standards (ISO 26000, ICMM, EITI, etc.), we approached the field and analyzed the data collected from the relevance view of the development strategies deployed; the relevance of stakeholder management strategies and the relevance of project sustainability. The outcome results have been summarized and subject to managerial recommendations.