The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has today launched its enhanced membership requirements, which have been expanded to include requirements for site-level validation and transparent disclosure. ICMM’s Mining Principles – the requirements for membership – “seek to maximise the industry’s benefits to host communities and minimise negative impacts to effectively manage issues of concern to society” according to a statement from ICMM.
The new principles build on ICMM’s initial 10 principles for sustainable development launched in 2003. The enhanced Mining Principles strengthen social and environmental requirements on issues including labour rights, resettlement and access to grievance mechanisms, and sustainability issues arising from pollution and waste.
The principles define environmental, social and governance good practice requirements for the mining metals industry through a comprehensive set of performance expectations. ICMM’s Mining Principles are in place to support progress towards the global targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals as well as the Paris Agreement on climate change.
ICMM brings together 27 mining and metals companies including AngloGold Ashanti, Barrick and Rio Tinto, as well as 36 regional and commodity associations. As a condition of membership, ICMM’s Mining Principles will apply to roughly 650 assets across more than 50 countries.
ICMM chief operating officer Aidan Davy said: “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.
“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.
“ICMM’s Mining Principles will support our members to supply the increasing demand for metals and minerals while giving confidence to customers and other stakeholders that they have been produced responsibly. We encourage all mining companies to embrace good practice environmental, social and governance requirements.”
The UK left the European Union on 31 January. Do you think this will be a positive or a negative for the UK mining industry?
