ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

ASSURANCE

Since 2008, ICMM members have been required to obtain independent third party assurance of their sustainability performance. This means an independent auditor must review and assess the quality of their reports, systems and processes in line with ICMM’s Assurance Procedure.

ICMM’s Assurance Procedure, addresses the following five aspects which ICMM members are committed to gaining assurance against:

1) the alignment of the member company’s sustainability policies to ICMM’s 10 Sustainable Development (SD) Principles and any mandatory requirements set out in ICMM Position Statements

2) the company’s material SD risks and opportunities based on its own review of the business and the views and expectations of its stakeholders

3) the existence and status of implementation of systems and approaches that the company is using to manage the identified material SD risks and opportunities

4) the company’s reported performance during the given period for a selection of identified material SD risks and opportunities

5) the company’s self-declared application level of the Global Reporting Initiative’s G3 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

The Assurance Procedure was designed to be compatible with member companies’ assurance of their own sustainability reports: in practice, most members are likely to assure their sustainability reports and any ICMM-specific assurance requirements in an integrated manner.

In 2011, ICMM released an interpretive guide to help members implement the Assurance Procedure. Both documents should be read together.