ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

PUBLIC REPORTING

In May 2008, the ICMM Council committed member companies to publicly report on their sustainable development performance on an annual basis, in line with the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI’s) Sustainability Reporting Framework.  This strengthened earlier commitments by ICMM members to public reporting. It was also a practical demonstration of how members would address ICMM Principle 10, whereby members have committed to “implement effective and transparent engagement, communication and independently verified reporting arrangements with our stakeholders” .

The cornerstone of the GRI Reporting Framework isthe Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (“the Guidelines”), which are in their third generation (“G3”) and were released in October 2006 following a three year, innovative development process that engaged more than three thousand individuals from diverse sectors, worldwide. The G3 Guidelines are applicable to organizations of any size or type, and from any sector or geographic region, and has been used by thousands of organizations worldwide as the basis for their sustainability reporting. It facilitates transparency and accountability by organizations and provides stakeholders a universally-applicable, comparable framework from which to understand reported information.

The GRI Reporting Framework also includes the Protocols, which guides reporting companies on how to report against the indicators in the G3 Guidelines,and Sector Supplements. ICMM members are committed to reporting against the Mining and Metals Sector Supplement. 

A common approach for reporting performance against the 10 Principles

Mining and Metals Sector Supplement

The Mining and Metals Sector Supplement (MMSS) complements the G3 Guidelines and includes supplementary guidance for reporting on aspects of sustainable development that characterize the mining and metals sector, which may not have been fully addressed in the main G3 Sustainability reporting Guidelines. Mining and metals companies and the users of their reports are particularly interested in these aspects.

The MMSS is intended to cover all the main activities of the mining and metals sector that may be of interest to stakeholders (mining and primary metal processing -including metal fabrication and recycling) and the complete mining and metals project life cycle (from exploration, through project development, operation, to closure and post-closure). The supplement is comprehensive in that it comprises sector-specific sustainability reporting guidance integrated into the G3 Guidelines.

The Mining & Metals Sector Supplement was developed in two phases through a GRI-led process with the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) as co-convener.

A pilot version phase ran from October 2003 through February 2005. During this phase the multi-stakeholder Working Group developed a pilot Supplement for the sector, which contained a draft set of indicators.

In July 2008, a second multi-stakeholder Working Group was convened to finalize the Supplement. The Working Group reviewed the reporting experience with the pilot version and brought it up to date with the G3 Guidelines (2006), and developed indicator protocols.

Both phases included public consultations, where all interested sector experts were invited to submit their suggestions and comments on the drafts.

The final version of the Supplement was released in March 2010 and launched at the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) convention.

ICMM members are committed to reporting in line with the GRI Reporting Framework and to self-declare an application Level A. Members may either use the pilot or final MMSS until the end of 2010, but all reports published after 31 December 2011 will need to be based on the final version of the MMSS.

For further information on the process that led to the development of the MMSS visit the GRI website.

Mining and Metals Sector Supplement (English version, 2.27MB)

Pilot - Mining and Metals Sector Supplement (English version, 334KB)
Pilot - Mining and Metals Sector Supplement (Spanish version, 575KB)
Pilot - Mining and Metals Sector Supplement (Japanese version, 452KB)