In October 2009...the Mining Law Committee of the International Bar Association launched a project to develop a Model Mining Development Agreement...conceived to provide a different starting point for the negotiation of mining contracts between host governments and mining companies, one based...on promoting sustainable social, economic and environmental development through more equitable and transparent mining agreements...[It] is a web-based tool that is able to address different circumstances...much of the value is...in the table of contents which contains links to the sample clauses, and which serves as a menu for parties to a negotiation and potentially impacted communities...[P. Leon, Mining Law Committee:] "We envision producing, by the time of the IBA’s annual conference in Vancouver in October 2010, a non-prescriptive, web-based, widely available resource..." MMDA will be open for on-line public consultations after the Vancouver meeting, following which a further round of consultations will be held, leading to a final document in December 2010.