The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has launched its enhanced membership requirements – ICMM’s Mining Principles – which now include site-level validation and transparent disclosure.

These requirements seek to maximise the industry’s benefits to host communities and minimise negative impacts to effectively manage issues of concern to society, it said.

ICMM’s Mining Principles define good practice environmental, social and governance requirements for the mining and metals industry through a comprehensive set of performance expectations, the ICMM said. Validation of the implementation of the performance expectations takes place at the site-level for all members’ assets. Validation involves a mix of self-assessments and independent, third-party assessments, coupled with transparent disclosure of the outcomes.

The council said: “ICMM’s Mining Principles are aligned with the objectives of other responsible sourcing initiatives. They establish a high bar for sustainability practices that many of our member companies currently apply to manage a broad range of sustainability issues at the operational level.”

As a condition of membership for ICMM company members, ICMM’s Mining Principles will apply to roughly 650 assets in over 50 countries.

Aidan Davy, COO of ICMM, 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.”

Davy explained that ICMM’s Mining Principles would support its 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,” he said.

In 2003, ICMM published its 10 Principles for sustainable development to set a standard of ethical performance for its members. Building on this, in early April 2018, ICMM launched a global public consultation on the introduction of a comprehensive set of performance expectations for how members should be expected to manage a broad range of sustainability issues.

The resulting enhanced Mining Principles strengthen social and environmental requirements on issues such as labour rights, resettlement, gender, access to grievance mechanisms, mine closure, pollution and waste.

To read more about the principles, click here.