Matt Wood and Brian McMaster have been around the world and seen a thing or two, over the course of the last decade or so.

Between them, as the principals of an umbrella vehicle called Garrison Capital, they’ve been involved in some of the most successful mining stories to come out of Australia in recent years.

Among their successes are including Hunnu Coal, which won IPO of the year when it listed, Highfield Resources, which has now grown into a A$400 million company operating potash projects in Spain, and Avanco Resources, which will shortly go into production in Brazil and plans eventually to deliver 28,000 tonnes of copper per year into the market.

All along the way though, these two entrepreneurs have recognised that projects like these don’t happen in isolation. For a project really to work, the local community has to embrace it and sometimes this requires significant investment from the company concerned, both in terms of financial capital and social capital.

Matt Wood makes no bones about it. “We go into a country and establish relationships over a period of time”, he says. And in due course those relationships bear fruit. Hunnu Coal is a classic example. Although it has now been acquired, back in the days when it was still blazing a trail in Mongolia as an Australian company, the social programmes really began to get rolling.

“In Mongolia we established a children’s charity called Bright Future”, says Matt. “It keeps kids under the age of 15 off the street and gets them back into a protective environment and in school.”

Indeed, helping schools is a common theme in the work that companies associated with Garrison undertake.

“We ran a gold mine in Armenia and did a similar thing there, assisting schools”, continues Matt.

The new focus for Garrison is Brazil. “We like Mongolia”, says Matt, “but we love Brazil”.

What is it about Brazil? For a start, there’s the incredible diversity. It’s resource-rich, and on the whole mining friendly. It has a global champion in the shape of Vale, and on a more local level the states are in varying degrees pretty well disposed to miners coming in.

But there has to be a quid pro quo. And in Brazil, the form that that takes is very dependent on the precise area in which a given company operates.

Between them, Matt and Brian are principally focussing on diamonds in Goias state and fertilisers further east in Minas Gerais and on the coast. “In Brazil”, says Matt, “there is a marked differential in standards of living. Where our potash project is is relatively poor. The expectation there is to create employment and to provide buses and food. But in other jurisdictions, the standard of living is higher.”

Here, it’s important to consult. “You want to work with the locals and don’t ram things down their throats.”

In Brazil, that process is helped along by the company’s association with Brazil’s most successful mining law firm. The partner here acts as a trusted sounding board for all of Matt and Brian’s initiatives and helps to establish what is and isn’t feasible.  

And the pace is only likely to hot up, as both companies proceed towards production. First will come new capital, much of it likely to be sourced out of London. But then, as development work ramps up in earnest, expect the social programmes to kick into gear too.

“As we develop we’re certainly going to need to do more things”, says Matt. Expect schools to play a central role in whatever it is that Matt and Brian end up implementing.