Indaba

On February 6th of 2025, IRMA had the privilege of hosting an interactive workshop on “Advancing Stakeholder Engagement and Remedy in the Mining Sector” as a side session of Investing in African Mining Indaba and Alternative Mining Indaba. The workshop reunited stakeholders in mining and responsible sourcing, as well as representatives of NGOs, workers, and local communities for an engaging discussion on the future of responsible mining.

The keynote

The workshop was opened with a keynote by Estelle Levin-Nally, a human rights expert and Founder of Levin Sources, who shared her experience with remedy and its significance. She highlighted that remediation is one of the three core pillars of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and as these principles are increasingly being incorporated into national and international law, companies must demonstrate compliance, not only to meet legal requirements but also to align with business partner expectations.

She emphasized that unremediated past harms can leave individuals aggrieved, which undermines trust, discourages participation in company or regulatory initiatives, increases the likelihood of resistance and conflict, and hinders cooperative efforts that could maximize positive impacts for both business and society. Therefore, remedy serves as a pathway to healing for victims and their families, as the consequences of unremediated harms often persist across generations.

Estelle also shared insights into the challenges of implementing effective remedy in the mining sector. These include weak rule of law in many jurisdictions, which limits access to justice; autocratic regimes, which can lead to deregulation; the exclusion of remedy as a sixth step in due diligence under the OECD Minerals Guidance; and the complexity of different remedy pathways, which can create confusion for rightsholders regarding their entitlements and the mechanisms available to them. She concluded by stressing that business partners and civil society can do more to support affected rightsholders in understanding and accessing remedy when harms occur. While companies must be prepared for remediation, they should always prioritize prevention.

The workshop

Cecilia Mattea, IRMA’s Europe Regional Lead, continued the discussion by introducing the draft IRMA Remedy Framework and its purpose to respond to communities and workers who have been harmed by mineral exploration, development, and processing. Because the absence of remediation often leads to conflict and mistrust, the remedy framework could provide meaningful solutions for past and ongoing harms and a pathway for mining companies to regain trust. 

She also outlined and explained IRMA’s accountability mechanisms that support remediation efforts, including IRMA-Standard requirements for operational-level grievance mechanism; IRMA Membership Principles and Policy of Association and its policy of disassociation; the IRMA Feedback and Complaints Mechanism; and, finally, the IRMA Remedy Framework, which is currently under development.

Participants were then invited to reflect on and engage with key questions regarding the Remedy Framework. For example:

• What should the IRMA Remedy Framework include? What would you like to see?
• How far past should remediation go? How to ensure that communities are aware of their rights, and whose role is that?
• Should the IRMA remedy framework be limited to assessed sites? 

Cecilia shared some of the suggestions IRMA received from previous engagements with stakeholders, NGOs, and remediation experts. These recommendations include ensuring that the framework is inclusive in its design, reflects the complexities on the ground, aligns with regulatory requirements such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, and does not impose an additional burden on Indigenous Peoples but rather complements existing tools.

As participants engaged in the discussion, interesting points were raised regarding how governments can engage in this process and how to ensure it doesn’t restrict access to remedy through the judicial system but rather establishes a positive link to it; which other institutions could play a role in the remediation process; how traditional leaderships structures could contribute to the process; and whether it would be better for IRMA to support access to remedy rather than create a new framework.

At the end of the session, Johannes Danz, sustainability expert at Mercedes Benz, shared the business perspective on supporting the project and standards, highlighting their benefits in fostering interaction across the supply chain, resolving conflicts, building trust, strengthening relationships, and improving access to remedy.

The workshop provided an invaluable learning experience across sectors through dialogue and engagement, fostering a deeper understanding of the role of the IRMA Remedy Framework and stakeholders’ expectations.

IRMA thanks all the participants for their contributions in the workshop.