Mining Contracts: How to Read and Understand Them

(2013).

In December 2013, a diverse group of 14 experts from Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe worked together for five days to produce a user-friendly guide in English and in French on “Mining Contracts: How to Read and Understand Them,” to help policy makers, civil society, citizens, and the media understand the often complex and opaque terms of mining contracts. With increasing calls for contract transparency- and the growing recognition of the importance of the terms of contracts for resource-rich countries- this book explains in layman’s terms the principal features of a contract, compares different approaches to key issues, and supplies the context and background necessary for non-specialists to understand how contracts are negotiated and what they say. Senior CCSI Researchers Lise Johnson and Perrine Toledano were among the authors.

This book was written from start to finish in 5 days using the “booksprint” crash production technique. Despite the authors’ best efforts, gaps, errors and typos will certainly remain.

This booksprint was organized by CCSI, OpenOil, the Natural Resource Governance Institute and the International Senior Lawyers Project, with support from Australian Aid, the World Bank Institute, the World Bank Sustainable Energy, Oil, Gas and Mining unit, and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation (GMZ) through GIZ.