Mining executives are learning the distinctive call of the eastern whip-poor-will. 

The hard-to-spot bird is one of a number of species, like the yellow-throated Blanding’s turtle, whose presence Indigenous community members have flagged to Canada Nickel. Amid a growing interest in scoping out EV battery metals like nickel, the company has incorporated community-member site visits into its strategy. Alexandra Armstrong, community-relations and communications coordinator for Canada Nickel, said it benefitted from Indigenous community members’ knowledge of the area.

“The information that you can get from the communities is better than anything you’ll get from a consultant,” she said in a panel at the annual Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada convention in Toronto. 

“They’ve helped us to identify species that weren’t identified in our early assessments, and helped us to identify methods for conducting our assessments that are more suited to this area. … Something that we did last year, and that we keep a sort of an ongoing process, is the opportunity for First Nations communities to accompany our consultants.” 

It’s one of a number of cases where mining executives and Indigenous negotiators of exploration agreements said they’ve seen mutual benefit from joining forces—not just as good ethics, but as good business. 

The relationship between Indigenous communities and the mining industry was front and centre this week. Some policies that are gaining momentum:  

• Standardized exploration agreements between companies and Indigenous communities, like the Wabun Tribal Council’s Wabun Model, are being adopted across the country. 
• More and more Indigenous communities are following in the footsteps of the Southern Ute tribe in Colorado, said Christian Sinclair, a First Nations economic strategic planner, creating investment funds similar to the sovereign wealth funds used by countries like Norway and Singapore.  
• Following a historic court decision and provincial agreement for the Blueberry River First Nation, Sinclair said best practices are emerging for estimating how all the different resource industries combine to have an impact on Indigenous communities’ way of life even after the mines close. In the long term, the loss of moose hunting that could result from development might outweigh the economic benefits from a mine, for example.
• Some investors increasingly support stronger Indigenous consultation policies. “We acquired a property in an area where the community met with us, and they said they did not want to engage,” Exiro Minerals CEO Shastri Ramnath said on a panel at the conference. Exiro’s investors backed the company’s decision to walk away from the property. “There’s other times where we view it as we just need to be patient,” she said. “And we need to understand the community and it takes longer to build the relationship in those circumstances.” 

To be sure, there was an overarching tension at the conference. On kick-off day, festivities were briefly punctuated by protests from water-protection advocates. 

The Ontario government’s marquee announcements the past week—approving a plan by two First Nations for a road in the Ring of Fire critical-minerals hub, and plans to amend the province’s Mining Act to build more mines—were divisive. Marten Falls First Nation Chief Bruce Achneepineskum and Webequie First Nation Chief Cornelius Wabasse said the plan was a step toward economic reconciliation. 

But Neskantaga First Nation Chief Wayne Moonias said the announcement was made without his community’s free, prior and informed consent, and that investors will need to do more than just get permission from the Ontario government to cross its river systems. 

“You’re going to have to kill us,” he said in a YouTube response video filmed at the conference. “We are determined to protect our way of life and our rights. This is a message to all the investors. … No government, no other nation can tell you that you can access our traditional homelands.” 

It’s a reminder that even as the government and industry promise to ramp up mining to fuel EVs and other clean technologies, many still oppose the mining industry’s status quo. 

Read Shift—The Logic’s authoritative weekly newsletter on automotive technology industry news—for more; and if you know someone who should be reading it, they can sign up here.