There has always been a disparity between active mining and tourism mainly due to the socio-economic and environmental impacts of mines on both the adjacent resident communities and the areas taken up by the mining operation. Although heritage mining tourism has been actively and successfully pursued and developed in the UK, largely Wales, and Scandinavian countries, the debate whether active mining and tourism can have a mutually beneficial relationship remains imminent and will be explored in this paper.

The study aims to explore the relationship between the ‘to be developed’ future Nokeng Mine and its adjacent community, the rural community of Moloto, in terms of the role of corporate social responsibility of the Mine in embracing economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability in providing maximum development benefit through sustainable tourism and livelihood activities with the support of the Mine.  Within the above context and considering the expectations of both the mine and the community concepts such as corporate social responsibility, sustainable (tourism) development and triple bottom lineare discussed. The Nokeng Mine and Moloto community are investigated as a case study with a qualitative research approach followed using interviews and focus group discussions of mine representatives, tribal council members and local community members.