Indigenous partnerships

The Argyle Participation Agreement formally recognises Argyle's commitment to helping improve the welfare of Aboriginal communities in the East Kimberley. As well as acknowledging that Traditional Owners are the landlords of the mining lease area. The agreement establishes a number of mechanisms for ensuring that the mining operations taking place on this traditional land will provide benefits to indigenous people well beyond the life of the mine. This includes supporting community development initiatives that will fundamentally improve social and economic prospects for indigenous communities, and working in partnership with indigenous people to manage the environmental and cultural impact of mining activities.

Creating pathways to employment

Argyle recognises that providing local employment and training opportunities is one of the most profound and enduring ways that it can help strengthen the East Kimberley. There are a number of impediments to indigenous people gaining employment including low retention rates at school, low self-esteem amongst young indigenous people and a lack of academic support. Argyle is trying to address these impediments through its involvement in a number of education support programmes, some of these include:

• Graham ‘Polly’ Farmer Follow the Dream program: The project at Kununurra District High School offers students with strong academic potential greater opportunity to succeed in their school years, by providing them with quiet places in which to study, access to computers, tutoring, leadership development camps and career planning. The programme is a partnership between the Kununurra District High School, the Graham (Polly) Farmer foundation, the Western Australian Department of Education and Training, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training, Rio Tinto WA Future Fund and Argyle.
• Leadership camps: The Garnduwa young women's leadership program, in partnership with Argyle and the Garnduwa Amboorny Wirnan aboriginal corporation, draws on the successes of Argyle's female employees to inspire young women to take control of their lives and become strong leaders in their communities. It targets secondary students aged between 13 and 17 years from across the Kimberley region. Participants get involved in a range of activities on and around the Argyle mine site, exposing them to life in a work environment and building their understanding of their future options.
• Halls Creek Horse Mastery program
  Argyle has committed to supporting the Halls Creek District High School Horse Mastery Program. This programme aims to improve student attendance rates by rewarding them with enjoyable, yet educational horse riding activities. Conducted on a lease holding five kilometres north of Halls Creek, students are taught how to ride, groom, and feed the horses, learn the theoretical aspects of equine anatomy and prepare for a gymkhana event. A significant increase in student attendance has resulted from the implementation of this programme. This programme instils confidence and ownership in children. Students learn skills which a classroom can not always teach and offers an incentive for school attendance.

Building Argyle's indigenous workforce

Argyle is committed to increasing the representation of indigenous people in its workforce, to help build their skills base, expand their career options and increase their economic participation. It is therefore employing a number of innovative staff recruitment strategies - less intimidating than standard recruitment procedures - to ensure that they are able to capitalise on employment opportunities at the mine site. These include:

• Pre-employment training: Argyle runs one-and-a-half-day assessment programmes, on site, that provide job applicants with feedback on their current skill levels and the training they need to undertake to maximise future employment opportunities. Argyle then works with the attendees to guide them through vocational training or other pre-employment training they need to become work-ready.
• Accelerated training: In 2004 Argyle introduced a short-term traineeship programme providing accelerated training opportunities for particularly keen and committed indigenous job applicants who don't yet possess all the requisite skills to work at the mine. The nine-month traineeships initially involve daily work within the maintenance workshop, which is followed after three months by enrolment in the Certificate 1 in engineering course. Argyle then works with successful graduates to develop their skills so that they will be ready for a traineeship or full-time employment.
• Flexible traineeships & apprenticeships: In 2003, Argyle entered into an agreement with the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) to employ 150 trainees and apprentices over five years, across a span of trades and professions, from plumbing through to environmental science. This resulted in 31 apprenticeships and traineeships being offered to local Aboriginal people in 2004. The traineeships under this partnership now extend to off-site traineeships, in towns such as Kununurra, Wyndham, Doon Doon and Halls Creek, which enable participants to train and be assessed in their own communities, with only short-term work experience required at the mine site.
• New entry points into Argyle: While many members of the local indigenous community are keen to work at the mine, they may not possess the necessary literacy, numeracy, teamwork and safety skills to be employed full-time. Subsequently, Argyle has created a number of new entry points into the organisation, beyond its traditional apprenticeships and traineeships, which will ensure, indigenous people are able to compete successfully for permanent jobs at the mine. New positions have been created with the garden crew and the Construction and Maintenance Services (CAMS) team which allow indigenous employees to develop a range of skills, away from production pressures, and participate in tailored training to place them in a better position to compete for operator or trades positions.
• Career planning and indigenous leadership development: Argyle is developing career paths for already experienced indigenous employees within the organisation that will move them beyond operator and trades roles, and into other areas of the business where they are currently under-represented, including leadership roles.
• 'Alternative' employment at Argyle: Argyle recognises the value that indigenous people deliver to its business beyond their involvement in operations-related employment. Indigenous people who otherwise would find it difficult entering the mainstream labour market now provide remunerated services to Argyle for ceremonial services, land management, site protection, provision of cross-cultural training to Argyle staff and monitoring and implementation of the recently signed Participation Agreement.

Developing indigenous businesses

As well as increasing the representation of indigenous people in its workforce, Argyle is helping indigenous people establish their own businesses that can exist independently of the mine. The role of business development facilitator was established under the Argyle Participation Agreement to assist in the development of Traditional Owner businesses, and to ensure that these businesses are able to compete for site-based contracts. Further to this, Argyle has developed an 'inside-out' approach to business development and contracting within its site operations, helping indigenous staff to develop commercial opportunities from existing roles (for example, assisting grader operators to become earthmoving contractors and waste management staff to set up waste management businesses). This approach allows local indigenous people with good skills and a passion to establish a private business to develop business skills over a reasonable period of time, maximising their chances for successful transition into a viable business.

Supporting health programs

Argyle supports a number of regional health organisations and initiatives designed to address significant indigenous health problems. An example of this is the antenatal program run through the Ord Valley Aboriginal Health Service. Argyle’s support enabled them to purchase a new ALOKA probe which allowed for a more precise estimate of delivery date of newborns. Obtaining correct delivery dates ensures a safe delivery for the baby and mother.

Managing assets

The Argyle Participation Agreement, in recognising Traditional Owners as the landlords of the mining lease area, establishes a number of mechanisms for ensuring Traditional Owners are actively involved in managing the lease's assets - environmental, cultural and financial. Argyle must seek the consent of Traditional Owners before carrying out any new work at the mine site, before making any major land or water management changes, when developing rehabilitation and decommissioning proposals, and when seeking to disturb any cultural sites. The Agreement also creates a Traditional Owner-controlled trust (the Gelganyem trust) that manages a long-term capital fund and a number of other funds to generate community and economic development opportunities for Aboriginal people in the East Kimberley.