Highlights:
- ICMM comprises 27 mining and metals companies and 36 associations
- They have enhanced its membership requirements at the site level for all members’ assets
The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has enhanced its ‘Mining Principles’ which define environmental, social and governance (ESG) best practice and will require site-level validation of all assets and transparent disclosure of outcomes.
Validation of these performance expectations will involve a mix of self-assessments and reviews by independent third parties.
ICMM estimated that the mining principles would apply to roughly 650 assets in over 50 countries.
ICMM COO, Aidan Davy said:
“Societal expectations of the mining industry encompass a broad range of environmental, social and governance challenges. Our aim has been to develop a holistic set of requirements that establish a benchmark for responsible mining practices.”
The requirements seek to maximise the industry’s benefits to host communities and minimise negative impacts.
“Mining and metals are critically important to society – as a catalyst for sustainable social and economic progress and as essential materials for the technologies needed to address climate change – but they must be produced responsibly,” ICMM chief operating officer Aidan Davy said.
“Our aim has been to develop a holistic set of requirements that establish a benchmark for responsible mining practices.”
ICMM originally published its 10 principles for sustainable development in 2003. Building on this, in early April 2018, ICMM launched a global public consultation on the introduction of a set of performance expectations for how members should be expected to manage a broad range of sustainability issues. The resulting Mining Principles strengthen social and environmental requirements on issues such as labour rights, resettlement, gender, access to grievance mechanisms, mine closure, pollution and waste.
ICMM is currently also involved in the Global Tailings Review, which is creating a global standard for safer tailings management. Brazilian iron ore miner Vale, which suffered a catastrophic tailings dam failure last year, is still among the organisation’s members.
ICMM comprises 27 mining and metals companies and 36 associations.
Originally published by Australian Mining.
Hear from industry experts about the next round of Church of England questions, upcoming global standards, and available monitoring and reporting tools
FAQ:
What is the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative?
Following the recent tailings dam failures, The Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative was established by a group of institutional investors active in the extractive industries representing more than $13.1 trillion in assets under management. Governed through a Steering Committee chaired by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Swedish Council of Ethics of the AP Funds, the group has called upon 727 extractive mining companies to disclose information in relation to their tailings storage facilities to form an online database.
How many companies have disclosed information about their TSFs?
As of the 20th of December 2019, 46 per cent of companies contacted responded to the request. 40 of the top 50 mining companies have made disclosures which has resulted in information about thousands of individual tailings dams being made public on company websites. All 23 of 23 publicly owned companies that are members of the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) responded and fully disclosed information about their TSFs.
How can I prepare for the next round of Church of England - Tailings reports?
The call for disclosures of tailings data presented mining companies with a massive challenge of assembling data-sets that were often large, complex and stored in several locations. One company estimated that it took one person (per site), six weeks to collect and prepare the data. K2fly's Dams & Tailing solution allows you to easily collect and collect the required tailings data and disclose this to the tailings portal with complete governance.
Useful links:
- National consortium on mine closure passes first hurdle
- What are the different types of mine rehab?
- See how our solutions help manage environmental, standard and approval requirements for mine rehabilitation here
