Purpose To analyze capital budgeting practice in a group of small cotton ginning firms in Brazil. The study aims at describing how investment decision-making in the agribusiness context may be influenced by heuristics and by the business setting. Design/methodology/approach This research adopted an exploratory and qualitative approach in gauging the practice of capital budgeting in Brazilian cotton ginning firms and discussing actual managerial decision-making. Data collection involved interviews with managers of ten different firms and a further content analysis was performed. Findings Results reveal a practical managerial approach aimed at ensuring satisfactory net operating results in the short run. Sophistication in capital budgeting is not considered as essential, as institutional and strategic environment influences directly affect impose high risks. Investment decision-making is highly influenced by managerial experience. Research limitations/implications Because of the chosen research approach, results may lack generalizability. However, in addressing a specific sector in a specific location, one can identify and craft strategies in response to managerial needs more effectively. Practical implications The paper clarifies how heuristics, managerial experience and the institutional context may influence investment decision-making in cotton ginning operations. It also suggests how actions aimed at evaluating risk and improving the screening of investment perspectives could contribute to improve investment decisions. Originality/value The paper provides an in-depth perspective in addressing the practice of capital budgeting in the context of a specific activity and describing key issues related to it.

This paper introduces and assesses the Socio-Economic Mine Closure Framework. The Framework assessment included an online survey distributed to 151 experts, and a field investigation, conducted in Mongolia, in which the local community was invited to participate. A key objective of the case-study was to identify and assess the community investment initiatives implemented by a mining company. The fieldwork also aimed to assess the perceptions of local residents about the success of these initiatives. The study indicates that it would be relevant, timely and appropriate for the mining industry to adopt the proposed Framework. The case-study analysis found that several initiatives were implemented and supported by the company, but that the company's relationship to local governments was deemed to be too close and as such, was found to overshadow many of its initiatives. This situation resulted in a lack of awareness on the part of local residents regarding the community investments made by the company. Some of the programs available to the community, such as the microcredit program, would need to be reviewed because of a lack of transparency and limited accessibility. Furthermore, local residents expect a greater focus on the development of small businesses and job creation. The engagement and participation of local residents is limited, andlocal residents want to have a say in the decisions that affect the community.

Water issues are a major concern for the mining sector and for communities living near mining operations. Water-related conflicts can damage a firm's social license to operate while violent conflicts pose devastating impacts on community well-being. Collaborative approaches to water management are gaining attention as a proactive solution to prevent conflict. One manifestation of these efforts is participatory water monitoring (PWM). PWM programs have the potential to generate new scientific information on water quantity and quality, improve scientific literacy, generate trust among stakeholders, improve water resource management and ultimately mitigate conflict. The emergence of PWM programs signals a shift toward greater stakeholder collaboration and more inclusive water governance within mining regions. In this article, we propose a new framework to evaluate the degree and extent of community involvement in PWM programs. This framework builds on citizen science literature. When applied to 20 cases in Latin America, notable differences in the degree of community and company participation between PWM programs are found. These differences suggest that companies and communities approach these programs from very different points of view. It is concluded that more attentive collaboration between firms and communities in the design of the program, the collection of data and interpretation of the results is needed to effectively build trust through PWM.

193 United Nations members are signatories of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Even though it does not make it legally binding to the country members, the SDGs establishment incites national and managerial frameworks to achieve the SDGs. The mining industry inserts itself in this context by its global presence and frequent location within ecologically sensitive and less developed areas. This paper aims to consolidate the state of academic research on mining, sustainability and sustainable development, by organizing the results of previous studies within a systematic review on the SDGs set. To do so, the ISI Web of Science TM Core Collection database was chosen as a database of record, as it is one of the most widespread databases of academic journals. We have used all years available in the ISI database, from 1945 to 2016 (for complete years). The systematic review process comprised of five steps: (i) to search terms [("sustainability" or "sustainable development") and mining] on the database and to apply filters of criteria; (ii) organizing papers; (iii) metrics and relations between papers and authors; (iv) classification of the results through content analysis techniques; and (v) synthesis. The results were divided in two groups: the highly cited and the most recent papers, to include papers that have academic impact and those which show the newest contributions to the field. The results showed that, in spite of a growing amount of publications in the past years that relates to mining and sustainability, the main focus of these publications are still on the environmental dimensions of the UN goals. This suggests that more practical and academic work in the mining sector are required to fill in the blank spaces regarding the other set of goals that compose the SDGs framework.