This article examines local-level community development (CD) facilitated by the mining industry. It moves beyond polarized debates that pit CD in mining as either a front for public relations or a genuine attempt to facilitate development in order to build understanding and critical awareness of problems and possibilities of local-level CD practice. Publicly available information and prior work and research with community practitioners in mining provide a basis for the analysis. The article makes a contribution to literature about the role of business in development and the mining industry's capacity to contribute to poverty reduction and human development.