On 11 April 2018, the Responsible Mining Foundation organised an event to mark the launch of the Responsible Mining Index (RMI). This Index is designed to assess the policies and practices of 30 large-scale mining companies, revealing how well they are performing on economic development, environmental, social and governance issues.

In his opening speech Prof. Gilles Carbonnier, the main applicant for this r4d.ch research project on improving natural resource governance noted “Mining is strategic for a whole range of resource-rich developing countries. It’s a sector that can greatly contribute to the emergence of a green economy and to sustainable development, but it can also contribute to environmental degradation, social conflicts and human rights violations. The Responsible Mining Index provides an incentive for continuous improvement, highlighting where progress is needed and what best practice looks like.”

The CEO of Responsible Mining Foundation, Hélène Piaget said the Index revealed that while many companies have introduced responsible mining policies on issues such as corruption and CO2 emissions, much progress remains in areas including monitoring how mining affects children and protecting female workers from harassment and sexual exploitation.

RMI covers a broad range of economic, environmental, social and governance (EESG) issues related to responsible mining. The Index assesses companies from the perspective of what society can reasonably expect of large-scale mining companies, and examines the extent to which companies are addressing these issues in a systematic manner across all their mining activities and throughout the project lifecycle.

The scope of the Index centres on six thematic areas:

• Economic Development: how companies contribute to national-level socio-economic development in producing countries;
• Business Conduct: how companies demonstrate their commitment to ethical behaviour and good corporate governance;
• Lifecycle Management: how companies manage their impacts throughout all phases of their operations and plan for post-closure viability from the earliest stages;
• Community Wellbeing: how companies engage with affected communities and manage their socio-economic impacts at a local level;
• Working Conditions: how companies provide safe and healthy workplaces, respect the rights of their workers and prevent unethical labour practices;
• Environmental Responsibility: how companies assess and manage their environmental impacts in a systematic, collaborative and transparent manner.

The RMI assessment includes 73 indicators applied at the company-wide level across these thematic areas.

The key findings of RMI 2018 can be viewed here.

You can also watch the launch event below: