Stakeholder Newsletter: November, 2019

One of the core values of ICMM is care. Sitting alongside respect, integrity, accountability and collaboration, care refers not only to the safety, health and wellbeing of industry workers and their families, but also host communities and wider society. No one should fear being injured at work, or because of an industry operation outside of it. Our members do all that they can to make sure this doesn't happen.

To become a member of ICMM, companies must sign up to our ICMM 10 Principles, which includes a commitment to pursue continual improvements in health and safety performance, with an ultimate goal of zero harm. Sadly, we – let alone the industry as a whole – have never succeeded in having a fatality free year. The industry must improve.

With the guidance of health and safety experts from across ICMM's membership we have developed a series of lessons learned to catalyse meaningful conversations on the culture of safety. These lessons offer frank insights that I encourage everyone to consider and act on.

Last week I wrote to you to share the draft Global Tailings Standard, which has been published for public consultation. Alongside our co-convening partners UNEP and PRI, ICMM’s membership is committed to engaging in an open and transparent discussion, through the consultation, to ensure that the final Standard is as robust as possible. I hope you will join me in adding your voice to the consultation.

I am also delighted to welcome Alcoa as our 27^th company member. Alcoa was named to the 2019 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as an Aluminium Industry leader. I look forward to learning from their significant sustainability experience, particularly in the area of biodiversity.

Tom Butler
CEO, ICMM.

News

Global Tailings Review Launches Public Consultation

Dr Bruno Oberle, Chair of the Global Tailings Review, has launched a public consultation on the draft Global Tailings Standard. The consultation will collect feedback from all interested stakeholders to develop a robust, fit-for-purpose international standard for the safer management of tailings. The consultation ends on 31 December 2019.

The public consultation has two components that will run in parallel. Firstly, online via a survey. Secondly, through in-country consultations in a range of mining jurisdictions in the northern and southern hemispheres.

The Review is committed to transparency and once the final Standard is published, the Global Tailings Review will provide a consultation report that reflects feedback, key themes, topics and sentiments from different stakeholder groups, as well as how that feedback was processed and addressed in the final version of the Standard.

It is expected that the final Standard and accompanying recommendations report, which will outline broader proposals to support the uptake and implementation of the Standard, will be published in 2020. Visit GlobalTailingsReview.org for more information.

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Protecting lives at work

Health and safety needs to be central to all operations and processes – with every practical and reasonable measure adopted to eliminate workplace fatalities, injuries and disease from mining and metals activities. Our members are committed to pursuing continual improvements in health and safety performance with the ultimate goal of achieving zero fatalities – no single fatality is acceptable.

Building on the experiences of health and safety experts from across the ICMM membership, ICMM has produced and published Fatality Prevention: Eight Lessons Learned. This paper provides an overview of the key lessons learned by the membership to date on eliminating fatalities.  We encourage all in the industry to consider these lessons and consider 'what else can we be doing to truly get to zero fatalities?' To learn more read Fatality Prevention: Eight Lessons Learned.

“All the companies I work with are determined to improve their health and safety performance. They understand it's their responsibility to ensure that their employees get home safely.” If you would like to find out how the eight lessons were developed, read Mark Holmes' (Manager for Health and Safety at ICMM) article in Mining Magazine.

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The Road Ahead

According to UN Environment's 2019 Global Resources Outlook, natural resource extraction and processing are behind half of the world's carbon emissions. This, combined with the finding of our latest safety data report that mobile mining equipment was the single highest cause of fatalities at member operation in 2018 are some of the reason why ICMM set up the Innovation for Cleaner Safer Vehicles (ICSV) programme in October last year.

Led by an advisory group of CEOs from ICMM members Anglo American, BHP and Gold Fields, as well as the equipment manufacturers of Komatsu, Caterpillar and Sandvik the three key goals of the programme are to minimise the operational impact of diesel exhaust and to make collision-avoidance technology readily available to mining companies by 2025, and to introduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emission-free surface mining vehicles by 2040. For an update on progress, read an interview with ICMM's Director for Health and Safety, Sarah Bell, in the September issue of Mining Review Africa.

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Alcoa joins ICMM as 27th company member

We're pleased to announce that Alcoa has become ICMM's 27th company member. Alcoa  is a global industry leader in bauxite, alumina and aluminium products.

Issue in Focus

Mining and metals companies recognise that the long-term success of their operations depends on building and maintaining positive relationships with communities. ‘Community support’ is therefore a key factor in developing and maintaining ‘social license to operate’, and yet a focus on the community has not always led to tangible improvements in company-community relationships. ICMM’s Director for Social and Economic Development, Nicky Black's presented at Future of Mining on 'Overcoming a Lack of Trust: Securing Social License to Operate'. Read more here.

Connect with ICMM

In the coming months, ICMM will be participating at a range of forums alongside government, civil society, business, academia, the investor community and the wider mining industry. For a full list of our activities visit our website for details.

Mines and Technology –
London, UK: 25–27 November

ICMM Director for Health and Safety, Sarah Bell will share how ICMM's Innovation for Cleaner, Safer Vehicles programme is helping in the drive towards zero fatalities and decarbonisation.'

Mines and Money –
London, UK: 25–27 November

Tom Butler will be joining other speakers on a panel to debate: ‘Is the mining industry doing enough to implement ESG at the ground level?’, where he will provide update on the Global Tailings Review.

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UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights –
Switzerland, Geneva: 25–27 November

Manager for Communities and Human Rights, Hannah Clayton will be participating in a panel discussion on how to move toward a preventative approach to protecting human rights defenders, working on business-related human rights issues, taking into account the most promising current developments in terms of state protection of defenders on national and international levels.

And Finally...

Metals and minerals are essential to almost every aspect of life and will become more important by helping to deliver pathways to a greener, safer and more sustainable future. Check out our website exploring how metals and minerals are helping to tackle the UN Sustainable Development Goals to find out more.