A new strategy for a new dawn

By Rohitesh Dhawan, President & CEO, ICMM.

Our new 5-year strategy tries to hold these two contradictory truths: of extraordinary progress, and of unfinished work. In terms of progress, ICMM’s Strategy from 2022-2024 saw members demonstrating genuine leadership in responsible mining through a series of landmark commitments and actions, including towards:

1. Achieving Net Zero Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2050 or sooner
2. Contributing to nature positive outcomes, including no net loss of biodiversity at all sites
3. Transparently disclosing all contracts with governments entered or amended since 1 January 2021
4. Disclosing our social and economic contributions consistently, including the tax we pay on a country-by-country basis, and disaggregated by key equity metrics
5. Creating diverse and equitable workplaces, including through site-based performance expectations, and individual and collective targets
6. Establishing the Global Tailings Management Institute to drive continued uptake and implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management
7. Co-creating a draft Consolidated Mining Standard to promote and support responsible practices at-scale across the mining industry
8. Upholding and respecting the rights of indigenous peoples, and ensuring respect for human rights including the work of human rights defenders
9. Supporting safe and equitable closure of mine sites, including managing the risks of Acid Rock Drainage
10. Establishing a clear pathway to mining with less waste and with greater circularity built into both the process and the products of mining

With these and other actions, the world has never had so complete a blueprint for responsible mining. And the delivery against these commitments by ICMM members has driven significant change on the ground, showing that it is indeed possible to supply the world with the minerals essential to all progress and the energy transition in a responsible way. And so, we can’t justify despair.

Yet, there’s much work to do, and so we can’t justify complacency. With an estimated 25,000 mining companies globally operating 30,000 mine sites, the vision of a safe, just and sustainable world enabled by responsibly produced metals and minerals will not be realised without thousands of companies embracing responsible practices.

Even among companies committed to responsible practices – including all ICMM members – there is work to do to match the realities on the ground with the stated ambitions. Preventing fatalities and injuries, the safe management of tailings facilities, embedding human rights due diligence into operational practices, and responsible mine closure are just some of the areas where we can’t afford complacency.

Now, whether complacency or despair is the bigger risk depends on one’s perspective – and the place, power and position we occupy (or don’t). In the mining industry as in the wider world, those perspectives seem to be drifting further apart and getting more polarised, which is a significant risk to further progress.

1. Performance: Support ever-better sustainability performance of ICMM members, so that our commitments continue to deliver real change on the ground. We will do so using ICMM’s unique toolbox of peer-to-peer learning, collaboration with partner organisations, and the development of technical guidance and tools where appropriate. We will be focussing on 5 priority areas: safety, decarbonisation, nature, tailings and social performance.
2. Standards: Drive and support the development of a Consolidated Mining Standard, so that every mine in the world has an easily accessible blueprint for responsible mining practices. We will do so by incorporating feedback from Public Consultations to finalise the Standard, Assurance process and governance (based on an independent Board drawn from a diversity of stakeholders with equitable power sharing between groups), and establish the entity to own and manage it.
3. Dialogue and Engagement: Create opportunities for open, safe and respectful dialogue and engagement between different stakeholders in the mining industry, so we can unite around a common vision and the actions to achieve it. We will do so by working with others to fill gaps in data and understanding on mining’s impact and contributions, participating in international and multi-lateral policy processes and forums, and by organising and supporting convenings.

Success across these three pillars will mean a mining industry that is:

• Safer, with a lighter environmental footprint and stronger social outcomes;
• Guided by a consolidated mining standard so responsible practices become the norm, and stakeholders can hold companies accountable; and
• United with stakeholders around a common vision, with a shared understanding of the opportunities and challenges, and platforms to effectively work together.

As we enter 23rd year of existence, we have never been more committed to the ideal of a safe, just and sustainable world enabled by responsibly produced metals and minerals. And never been more hopeful that is possible.