Newsletter: January 2025

Folks,

At a time when the world seems to be drifting further apart and tearing institutions down, I wanted to share reasons to remain hopeful that people can still come together for a common cause.

Last week, we marked six years since the catastrophic tailings dam failure in Brumadinho and announced the establishment of the Global Tailings Management Institute (GTMI). Headquartered in South Africa and co-convened by ICMM, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the GTMI has a simple but bold mission: to make tailings dams safer the world over, towards our goal of zero harm.

It will do this by driving the implementation and uptake of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) and overseeing the framework for assurance against it.

The creation of GTMI goes against the grain of the current socio-political mood, where building anything—let alone a multi-stakeholder effort—seems harder than ever. At ICMM, we see this as a reason not to step back, but to lean further in to build, grow, and nurture together with our stakeholders.

It’s the reason why our commitment to establishing the Consolidated Mining Standard, with its independent multi-stakeholder board, deepens each day. We’re currently processing the extensive feedback from the public consultation, which closed last month, and preparing for the second public consultation later this year.

The tougher the issues, the deeper our resolve. That’s why we’ve doubled down on our efforts to manage acid rock drainage and metal leaching—naturally occurring but potentially devastating phenomena when they result in the pollution of waterways. To drive change at scale, we’ve collaborated with the International Network of Acid Prevention (INAP) to develop a new Tool to help our industry tackle this critical challenge.

These are just some of the reasons why the ICMM team starts 2025 filled with hope. I’ll tell you about others soon when announcing ICMM’s new Strategy in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’m so proud to share this video, which captures the immense progress we collectively achieved in our Strategy from 2022–2024.

I challenge you to come away from it not feeling hopeful.

Warmly and with hope,

Ro

Features

New Institute Launched to Enhance Tailings Facility Safety Worldwide

As a non-profit, multi-stakeholder governed initiative, we believe it will provide communities, investors and the mining industry with confidence that effective measures are being put in place to prevent future failures.

Announced on 21 January 2025, the Global Tailings Management Institute (GTMI) has been established to oversee the implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). Co-convened by ICMM, UNEP, and PRI, the GTMI marks a transformative step toward safer tailings facilities, with a primary goal of zero harm to people and the environment, and zero tolerance for human fatalities.

Based in South Africa, the GTMI will manage an assurance framework to independently audit and certify tailings facilities through qualified third-party assessors. The institute will also promote awareness, share best practices, and disclose audit outcomes to ensure transparency and accountability.

The GTMI is seeking applications for a multi-stakeholder board to represent the communities, industries, and experts affected by tailings facilities. ICMM urges all mining companies globally to sign up to demonstrate their commitment to responsible tailings management, fostering trust with communities, investors, and regulators. For more information, visit the GTMI website.

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New Tool to Strengthen Water Pollution Prevention in Mining

The linkage between corporate and operational management is a key strategy for achieving more effective management of acid rock drainage and metal leaching over the long-term.

On 29 January 2025, ICMM and the International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP) launched a new resource. The Tool for Acid Rock Drainage and Metal Leaching Prevention and Management help mining companies prevent and manage water pollution caused by these natural processes, and aims to safeguard water quality, reduce long-term remediation costs, and support more sustainable mining practices.

If unmanaged, acid rock drainage and metal leaching can cause significant environmental impacts. The new Tool provides a practical framework for managing materials across the mining lifecycle, from exploration through post-closure, and was designed to complement INAP’s highly regarded Global Acid Rock Drainage (GARD) Guide. A key feature is its user-friendly, Excel-based function, which simplifies technical content for non-specialist audiences and provides tailored guidance for different lifecycle stages.

This initiative builds on ICMM’s commitment to water stewardship and complements already publicly available resources like the Water Reporting Good Practice Guide (2021) and Water Stewardship Maturity Framework (2023). For more information, visit our website.

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ICMM @ Davos 2025

The future of mining has to be a future with zero waste. It seems like a dream, but it is important to our future to show to society that we can leave a positive legacy. Circularity is a key part of this.

Last week, Ro Dhawan moderated an Accredited Session panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, exploring the role of mining and metals in advancing circular economies. The panel featured a diverse group of value chain and industry leaders, including Andrea Fuder, EVP & Chief Purchasing Officer at Volvo Group; Gustavo Pimenta, President & CEO of Vale; Hanne Simensen, EVP of Hydro Aluminium Metal; and Marc de Wit, Managing Director of Circle Economy Consulting.

Some key takeaways include:

Enhancing circularity across the value chain can help meet the growing demand for metals and minerals responsibly.
Circularity in manufacturing means designing for longevity - keeping durable metals and their ultimate products in use as long as possible.
Collaboration is key – to achieve these goals, we need to rethink systems designed for a linear world, sharing struggles as well as successes to accelerate progress.

You can watch the session in full here.

Connect With Us

Mining Indaba 2025
Cape Town, South Africa • 3 February-6 February 2025

ICMM will participate in Mining Indaba 2025, contributing to insightful discussions on the conference theme, “Future-proofing African Mining, Today!” ICMM’s CEO Ro Dhawan and Co-COO Aidan Davy will be discussing tailings and the recent launch of the Global Tailings Management Institute (GTMI) as well as permitting processes. You can find out more information on our website, here.

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Innovation Forum webinar
Online • 18 February 2025

ICMM Senior Manager, Marcus Addy, will be speaking on the topic of: Regulation and reputation: what are the human rights risks in critical mineral supply chains in 2025? alongside representatives from Anglo American and Fairphone. More information on the webinar will be shared on our website nearer the date.

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BMO Metals and Mining Conference
Miami, USA• 23 February-26 February 2025

ICMM will be at BMO Metals and Mining Conference, sharing key insights on the challenges of addressing sustainability in the upstream value chain, while also exploring how the industry is responding to the growing sustainability demands of downstream users. Ro Dhawan the critical role of collaboration in building more responsible and resilient supply chains across the mining and metals sector. As more information becomes available, we will provide updates on our activities here.