On 24-25 April, 2010, the Mining Law Committee of the International Bar Association convened a consultation in Toronto with select civil society organizations to obtain their views on the proposal for a Model Mineral Development Agreement. The consultation meeting was organized by the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Strategies Group.

The civil society consultation marks a critical stage of the project, and seeks expert legal input from different stakeholders and experiences. The experts will be asked to contribute to the basic design of the project by commenting on a draft outline, and the beginnings of the substantive work fleshing out the draft outline, which will then take place in earnest from May-July. This drafting period will then be accompanied by further consultations with the civil society group, additional academic and other advisors, and members of the Mining Committee. The consultation is taking place at a time when basic research has been done, but before the substantive work is developed. It is timely, significant, and critical to the success of the MMDA project.

This consultation follows the initial stage whereby the Mining Law Committee and its project associates have been collecting sample agreements from lawyers, governments and interested parties around the world. These agreements have since been compiled and catalogued in order to produce a final product in electronic format that will have links to actual alternative clauses covering all matters that investors, governments, and local communities may wish to see in a basic agreement. The goal is to identify best practice from the existing samples, and then be able to continue to build on this in the future.

Ultimately, the goal is to prepare a final product that has utility for a broad range of circumstances. It will therefore allow for easy deletion or substitution of what may be contentious or undesired clauses, such as dispute resolution. It is anticipated that it will allow the MMDA to remain a living process, with new best practices uploaded as they are developed and shared.