Two standards, one goal: How IRMA and EITI strengthen resource governance
Together, EITI and IRMA connect mine-site performance and national governance to drive more transparent, accountable and responsible mining.
[this blog was coauthored with Sandra Milena Rojas, EITI Senior Policy Officer]
For more than two decades, the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA) and the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) have played important roles in advancing responsible mining and improving resource governance. While the organisations and their standards address different layers of the governance puzzle, their roles are connected and complementary: the EITI sets a shared national framework for good governance and multi-stakeholder dialogue, while IRMA establishes a co-created global standard and assessment framework for operational performance at individual mine sites.
As IRMA prepares to publish version 2.0 of the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining, we examine its complementarity with the EITI Standard. The comparison of both standards presented below aims to help mining companies, regulators and other stakeholders understand when and how to leverage both frameworks without duplicating efforts. Understanding this relationship can help ensure that improvements in on-the-ground mining practices reinforce better resource governance in a country’s mining sector overall.
The EITI and IRMA Standards emerged from a shared recognition that responsible mineral development requires transparency, accountability and meaningful stakeholder participation. Established in 2003, the EITI was created out of the belief that transparency and multi-stakeholder dialogue are critical for ensuring natural resource wealth translates into sustainable development. IRMA, launched in 2006, complements this by focusing on independent audits of business integrity alongside comprehensive range of social, environmental, labour and human rights performance requirements at the mine-site level.
Sectors covered
EITI
Oil, gas and mining; some countries also include forestry and renewables.
IRMA
Mining and metals
Mission
EITI
To promote understanding of natural resource management, strengthen public and corporate governance and accountability, and provide data to inform policymaking and multi-stakeholder dialogue in the extractive sector.
IRMA
IRMA envisions a world where the mining industry respects the human rights and aspirations of affected communities, provides safe, healthy and supportive workplaces, minimizes harm to the environment, and leaves positive legacies.
Governance
EITI
EITI is governed by a multi-stakeholder Board organised by three constituencies: countries (implementing and supporting countries), companies (extractive sector companies, institutional investors, and commodity traders), and civil society organisations (non-governmental organisations, global action networks or coalitions).
Decisions are made by consensus.
IRMA
IRMA is equally governed by six sectors: mining companies, downstream purchasers, investors and finance, affected communities and Indigenous rightsholders, organised labour, and NGOs. Each sector has two representatives on the board. The Board may also have up to three non-voting at-large members.
Each sector has equal voting and veto power; two “no” votes by any sector blocks a decision from moving forward, ensuring that no sector is left behind.
Implemented by
EITI
Governments, companies and civil society in EITI implementing countries through national multi-stakeholder groups (MSGs).
IRMA
Mining companies commit individual sites to be independently evaluated against the IRMA standard.
Scope
EITI
Covers the entire upstream value chain, including:
- Legal and institutional frameworks
- Contracts, licenses and company ownership
- Exploration and production
- Revenue collection
- Revenue management and distribution
- Social and environmental impacts and spending
Also includes Expectations for EITI supporting companies, which outline nine areas for corporate accountability.
IRMA
Covers mining and on-site processing across areas such as:
- Business integrity, including legal compliance, revenue and payments transparency, and anti-corruption
- Stakeholder engagement and community relations with requirements for inclusivity across genders, ages, and groups disproportionately at risk
- Human rights and Indigenous Peoples’ rights
- Labour rights, working conditions and health and safety
- Environmental responsibility, including water, waste, biodiversity, emissions and closure
- Community health, safety and security
- Cultural heritage protection
- Planning, management systems and risk assessment
- Grievance mechanisms and access to remedy
IRMA 2.0 (2026) proposes to expand coverage to mineral exploration and development.
Quality assurance
EITI
Validated by the EITI International Secretariat and international multi-stakeholder Board.
EITI implementing countries are revalidated every 2 to 5 years, depending on their score.
IRMA
Independent IRMA audits are conducted by IRMA-approved audit bodies that must complete trainings and meet IRMA qualifications.
Independent IRMA audits are part of a three-year audit cycle, with an independent surveillance audit conducted between 12 to 18 months after an audit report is finalised.
Reports
EITI
EITI implementing countries produce an annual EITI country report that is made freely available to the public. These reports can be accessed through each country’s national EITI website as well as through the relevant country pages on the international EITI Secretariat’s website.
EITI Validation Reports are published on the EITI website where they are freely accessible to the public.
IRMA
IRMA audit reports are published in full transparency on the IRMA website where they are freely accessible to the public.
Bolstering transparency through complementary disclosures
EITI is widely regarded as the global standard for good governance, business integrity and anti-corruption in the extractive sector. Both EITI and IRMA require or encourage disclosures on project-level payments to governments, audited financial statements, contracts and beneficial ownership.
IRMA complements EITI’s governance and financial disclosures by requiring granular, gender-disaggregated information on environmental, social, labour and human rights performance, aligning with EITI’s encouragement for companies to disclose information on their social, environmental and gender impacts and management.
IRMA further reinforces the transparency agenda by requiring companies to support the EITI, including through public endorsement by companies operating in non-EITI implementing countries and requiring companies to constructively engage in and report under the EITI Standard in implementing countries. These IRMA requirements reference EITI in efforts to complement, not duplicate, EITI’s ongoing work to strengthen transparency and accountability in the governance of mineral resources.
Connecting mine site performance with national governance
EITI and IRMA are not interchangeable – and that is their strength. The EITI provides a shared national framework for good governance, transparency and dialogue that all material companies in a country’s mining sector are expected to follow, ensuring information is publicly available and aligned with national priorities. IRMA, with its site-level standard, focuses on raising the bar at individual mining operations.
While the IRMA standard is applied at the mine-site level, its good practice requirements across social, environmental, labour, human rights and governance issues can also inform the assessment and improvement of legal and policy frameworks. EITI can provide the link between site-level findings and national reform priorities, with EITI multi-stakeholder groups using IRMA audit results to inform dialogue, oversight and policy discussions.
Together, the two standards can help ensure that stronger site-level performance contributes to better governance across the mining sector, while robust national frameworks create the conditions for improved practice at the mine-site level. Leveraging these complementarities can also reduce reporting burdens and help translate operational improvements into national-level impact.
Building on country experience
Senegal offers a practical example of how this can work. As an EITI implementing country, Senegal has a national EITI multi-stakeholder platform for transparency, dialogue and reform. At the site level, Eramet Grande Côte (EGC), a mineral sands extraction company and subsidiary of Eramet, which is an EITI supporting company, achieved the IRMA 50 performance level following its first IRMA audit. Thialy Faye, President of Senegal’s EITI National Committee, noted in a public interview that IRMA provides a rigorous framework that complements the EITI by offering an operational assessment of extractive projects’ environmental and social performance, grounded in independent audits, measurable criteria and close attention to working conditions and the environment. The example points to how IRMA audit findings can feed into national conversations on responsible mining, while EITI multi-stakeholder dialogue can help connect site-level performance with broader governance priorities.
Deepening cooperation from the mine site to global levels
Together, the EIT and IRMA show how distinct but mutually reinforcing organisations and their frameworks can strengthen responsible mining. The EITI provides a strong foundation for public disclosure, shared reporting expectations and national multi-stakeholder governance, while IRMA deepens this transparency through performance-oriented assessments that raise the bar at individual mine sites. Used together, they can support a more joined-up transparency ecosystem, connecting national-level reporting and dialogue with site-level evidence of responsible practice. By deepening cooperation from the mine site to both national and global levels, the EITI and IRMA can maximise their collective impact in advancing responsible mining and strengthening resource governance.
