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peripheral and dependent. The intention of ‘Maximization of development opportunities and
mitigation of negative impacts’, as stated in the guidelines, seem to be reduced to mere rhetoric as
the organization of the mining operations, their timeline, and use of workforce as well as the
localization policies are not opened for analysis and questions.
Following the framework of professionalized SIAs as the main tool to handle public participation in
Greenland when planning for large-scale projects places great expectations on the formulation of
Impact Benefit Agreements (IBA). In such IBAs the company together with the local community
can define the responsibility of the company, its rights and duties and its interaction with local
society. Legally, these are framed as local agreements and seem to operate more with compensations
and procedural