NGOs

, Thialy Faye, called upon mining companies to adopt the IRMA Standard at a Dakar press conference announcing the IRMA audit of Eramet’s Grand Côte minerals sands operation. He said (quoted in Sud Quotidien),

“[EITI Senegal cmte] are calling on all other companies to commit to [IRMA] standards. IRMA is a voluntary process. It is the company that decides whether to adhere to a certain set of standards and participate in the process.”

dans l’original français:
« Nous lançons un appel à toutes les autres entreprises à se soumettre à ces standards. IRMA, c’est un processus volontaire. C’est l’entreprise qui décide de vouloir respecter un certain nombre de standards et venir se soumettre au processus »

, Emily Iona Stewart declared in the Mining Beacon’s Resourcing Tomorrow 2025 in Review: Mining at the crossroads that

“The proliferation of standards isn’t helpful to anybody. As civil society we often point to the IRMA standard as the gold standard because it’s a standard that has been developed alongside civil society, alongside communities and has existed in the operations for a while.”

(ISEAL) defines the characteristics of credible sustainability systems. They featured IRMA in the case study Equitable governance in mining standards. ISEAL describes the case study as

“[S]howcasing a successful approach to advancing understanding of equity, and informing and inspiring the work of ISEAL members and their partners.”

released a Mineral Rights Brief titled Critical Mineral Security and the Social License to Operate that recommends:

“To ensure a sustained, predictable flow of critical minerals, the US government should […] encourage mining companies to join the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA).” 

a network of advocacy groups working for an equitable, sustainable, and fossil-free auto supply chain, released its 2025 Leaderboard report: Accelerating automotive action on clean and equitable supply chains.

Their report uses IRMA as one indicator when measuring automotive manufacturer leadership for human rights and responsible sourcing.

authored an op-ed in Newsweek titled Global Demand for Minerals Requires New Mining Protections.

They recognize IRMA as “a voluntary initiative that has synthesized international human rights law and environmental standards into a single document defining responsible mining practices. The strength of [which] is its governance system which gives community representatives, labor unions, and civil society groups equal power, alongside mining companies and the private sector, to craft its standards.“

published a brief Biodiversity and Deforestation in Mining Standards.

In comparing the limitations of  IRMA, CopperMark/RMI and TSM to avoid deforestation and minimize impacts on critical ecosystems, they conclude “the IRMA Standard consistently rises above other mining standards for evaluating biodiversity impacts, due to its stronger requirements, multistakeholder governance and transparency, among other criteria. As global mining operations increase, third party auditing will be necessary for ensuring that mining across the world is conducted in a responsible way that upholds human rights and minimizes adverse environmental impacts.”

and other organizations sent a letter to the ICMM, CopperMark, the Mining Association of Canada, and the World Gold Council expressing concerns over their Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative.

In doing so they “recognize that strong voluntary standards can help drive improved mining industry human rights and environmental performance if they have the level of transparency and rigor necessary to provide credible information,” and provides criteria that such a standard must meet.

As an example, the letter recognizes only IRMA by name: “There are existing standards, notably IRMA, that meet many of these criteria.”