Increasingly, society understands that the decarbonising of the global economy, the meeting of the Paris Agreement climate targets and the realising of the UN Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) requires a sustained demand for metals and minerals over the coming decades. This has rightly led to greater scrutiny of where these materials have come from and of whether they are being produced responsibly. The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has long recognised that economic growth should never be at the expense of people or planet. In 2003, ICMM published its 10 Principles for sustainable development to set a standard of ethical performance for our members. Over time, we have worked to expand on these with eight position statements on key issues, such as water stewardship and transparency of mineral revenues. In early April 2018, ICMM launched a global public consultation on the introduction of a
comprehensive set of performance expectations on how members should be expected to manage a broad range of sustainability issues at the corporate and operational levels, to enhance these original 10 principles. Our 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. Implementation is supported by robust site-level
validation, credible assurance and transparent disclosure. Aligned with the objectives of other responsible sourcing initiatives, our assurance and validation procedure reinforces
commitments to transparency, and ensures the credibility of reported progress. The environmental, social and governance demands on industry are becoming increasingly complex and at the same time essential. We encourage all mining companies to join our members in adopting ICMM’s Mining Principles.