April 2022 is an auspicious month here at DPI! It marks the 10 year anniversary of the original KIN Catalyst in Brazil – the genesis of the Development Partner Framework for Mining and its vision!

In this short piece, the DPI reflects on a proud partnership with Anglo American, which has pioneered new approaches to sustainable mining and responsible sourcing as a true development partner. We interviewed some of the original participants of the KIN Catalyst, including Mark Cutifani, to ask them for their reflections on the last 10 years - and what may lie ahead.

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CATALYZING AN EXTRAORDINARY GATHERING IN BRAZIL

Even 10 years later, the original participants of the KIN Catalyst still become visibly animated when they talk about this extraordinary gathering.

Their eyes widen and hand gestures speed up as they recall the chemistry in the room when different stakeholders in the mining value chain came together in Brazil - often for the very first time.

“When you bring people together there is just this flow of ideas,” DPI Board Chair and Co-Founder Peter Bryant explains.

The 2012 catalyst to explore the “Mining Company of the Future” was a joint program of the Kellogg Innovation Network (KIN) and Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC), the prestigious Business School in Brazil. KIN has since evolved into The World Innovation Network (TWIN).

At the time, Peter Bryant was a Senior Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management, and through KIN they were tackling intractable problems faced by society or an industry using catalysts – neutral platforms bringing together multiple stakeholders to try to resolve these problems.

Upon hearing about the methodology, Mark Cutifani, then with gold miner AngloGold Ashanti, immediately said to Peter: “Let’s do that with mining, because I think mining is facing an intractable set of problems for its future.”

Over four days, the catalyst convened mining leaders and stakeholders for robust and sometimes provocative dialogue that culminated in four priority initiatives to transform the mining industry.

Over the past 100 years, mining has earned a reputation as a proud industry, but one that can be suspicious of outsiders and historically impatient to serve up ‘solutions’ to those it impacts - sometimes without broader consultation on how those solutions are arrived at.

So for many, the invitation of open dialogue in Brazil in 2012 was a novel experience.

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Continue reading the reflections and outcomes from those conversations in this short piece:

A Celebration of 10 years of Partnership with DPI and Anglo American