Public Citizen
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.”