The expansion of mining for critical minerals has intensified debates over community participation in extractive governance, particularly in resource-rich but historically marginalised regions. While participatory mechanisms are widely promoted within corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business and human rights (BHR) frameworks, their implementation often produces unintended consequences, including grievances over legitimate representation, transparency, and power distribution. Despite this, little is known about how corporate actors make decisions about participation and how their rationales shape outcomes. Drawing on five months of fieldwork in platinum-producing territories in South Africa’s Limpopo Province, this paper investigates how mining companies operationalise participation in practice, and how these processes are experienced by those who are intended to benefit. In this way, it provides an ‘inside-out / outside-in’ view of the issue, combining perspectives from mine employees as implementers, and community members as beneficiaries of participatory initiatives. It shows that corporate rationales of efficiency and legitimacy creates participatory spaces that are hard to access yet emboldened with considerable decision-making power. These forums create information asymmetries and transfers the burden of engagement onto community representatives. Where representatives fail to disseminate information, mistrust deepens, reinforcing the perception that participation not only empowers elites but actively produces them. The study highlights the need for clearer institutional guidance on participation, to ensure that participatory mechanisms are transparent, accountable, and responsive to conflict. As South Africa pursues a ‘just’ energy transition, these insights are crucial for refining policy and corporate practices that govern critical mineral extraction.
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