Driving Responsible Exploration
The History of DRE
The Driving Responsible Exploration (DRE) suite of resources has replaced PDAC's original Environmental Excellence in Exploration (e3) program, first established over twenty years ago (which was expanded into e3 Plus in 2009).
These resources include the Principles & Guidance Notes booklet – which aims to help create a solid platform on which organizations should build their CSR policies – plus comprehensive and practical guides for companies who want to move from principles to successful, real-world best practices and performance.
Principles and Guidance Notes
Driving Responsible Exploration (DRE) is built on eight key principles that underpin the entire framework of responsible exploration, which is explained in the Principles & Guidance Notes.
DRE is designed to be scalable to the size of the company, the location of the project, and the stage of exploration. Acknowledging the varying circumstances in which exploration takes place, DRE is designed to be more flexible than prescriptive. DRE encourages explorers to go beyond legal requirements and apply leading practice as it pertains to social, environmental, and health and safety issues
Adopt Responsible Governance and Management
Governance consists of management structures and processes that determine how decisions are made. Responsible governance enables an organization to:
Apply Ethical Business Practices
Honest, ethical conduct strengthens organizations by creating an environment of accountability, credibility and trust. This can lead to increased confidence of employees, shareholder, communities, indigenous peoples, and other stakeholders within the company.
Respect Human Rights
The human rights discourse has become a central component of legal, political, social, and economic policy in the global forum. Individuals and groups are increasingly using the language of human rights to articulate their concerns and interests. For this reason, it is important that explorers view their own operations through a human rights lens. This will often be critical to securing a social license to operate and engaging effectively with stakeholders and other affected and interested parties.
Commit to Project Due Diligence and Risk Assessment
It is recommended that explorers be well-informed and prepared before going to the field in order to minimize the risks of miscommunication, unnecessary costs, and conflict, and to understand the potential for creating opportunities with local communities.
Engage Host Communities and Other Affected and Interested Parties
For each exploration project, the stakeholders and other parties to be engaged with and the form and scope and of engagement will vary with local circumstances and the stage of exploration. As such, the character of engagement will be context-specific, dynamic in nature, and will require constant monitoring and adjustment as exploration advances.
In practice, engagement can range from notification and the provision of information, through to participation and an active role in aspects of project planning and decision-mak
Contribute to Community Development and Social Wellbeing
Explorers are encouraged to support, and where possible contribute to the socio- economic development of the local communities in the area of their exploration project. The level of support and/or contribution will vary according to the stage of exploration.
The employment of local people and purchase of local services and supplies is a common example.
Protect the Environment
In most countries environmental law, regulations and guidelines exist to provide direction for exploration activities. In the absence of such instruments, explorers are advised to apply good practice as described in the DRE’s Environmental Stewardship Toolkit and, in the case of more advanced exploration projects, the Performance Standards of the International Finance Corporation (2012).
Safeguard the Health and Safety of Workers and the Local Population
Health and safety are of immediate and personal concern to workers and local communities, as well as being a basic human right. As such, explorers should conduct their activities in ways that protect the health and safety of workers and local communities.
Responsible corporate governance is fundamental to the implementation of the Principles and Guidance Notes. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore
Governance consists of management structures and processes that determine how decisions are made. Responsible corporate governance is fundamental to the implementation of the Principles and Guidance Notes. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore
Environmental Stewardship
Discover how to make a positive impact on the environment with our comprehensive environmental stewardship toolkit. This toolkit promotes the advancement of environmental stewardship in the exploration stage of mineral development worldwide. Additionally, explore our range of tools to further your commitment to environmental excellence.
Health and Safety
The Health & Safety (H&S) Program is a key element in PDAC’s strategic priority of responsible exploration. The mandate of the program is to build the capacity of companies exploring in Canada to improve their health & safety performance and achieve zero harm.
The three core activities of the H&S program include the annual health and safety survey undertaken in partnership with the Association for Mineral Exploration, an annual H&S short course offered at the Convention and outreach to various industry conferences on the topic of H&S.
