Mercedes-Benz

Panelists at IRMA Breakfast Side Event. Photo: IndustriALL Global UnionPanelists at IRMA Breakfast Side Event. Photo: IndustriALL Global UnionAfrica

IRMA at Mining Indaba and Alternative Mining Indaba 2024

28 February 2024By

This February three members of the IRMA Secretariat participated in events in Cape Town at and around the Investing in African Mining Indaba and Alternative Mining Indaba. This was IRMA’s largest delegation to Indaba to date, an indication of the growing importance of these gatherings and the wide range of associated side events to IRMA’s mission and accountability across stakeholder sectors.

IRMA led a breakfast side event that incorporated opportunities for cross-sector sharing and featured a panel of Syrah Resources’ Agnaldo Laice, IRMA’s Kristi Disney Bruckner and Scott Sellwood, IRMA Board Member and IndustriALL Global Union’s Glen Mpufane, Anglo American’s Mahlogonolo Rangata, Mercedes Benz’s Johannes Danz, and Earthworks’ Vuyisile Ncube.

IndustriaLL Global Union members at IRMA breakfast. Credit: IndustriALL
IndustriaLL Global Union members at IRMA Mining Indaba breakfast.
Credit: IndustriALL

IRMA also partnered with IRMA-member Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) to host an interactive discussion at Alternative Mining Indaba on the role of standards and third-party assurance in promoting environmental and social governance. The discussion focused on how affected communities, NGOs, and organized labor have used the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining and IRMA audit reports, with small group discussions on the types of tools and strategies that would help participants make use of IRMA to protect their rights.

Davidzo Muchawaya, IRMA Regional Lead, Africa, introducing IRMA at IRMA/ZELA Alternative Mining Indaba Session
Davidzo Muchawaya, IRMA Regional Lead, Africa, introducing IRMA at IRMA/ZELA Alternative Mining Indaba Session

This year, joining long-standing participation from mining companies, the presence of purchasing companies was more prominent at Indaba, including multiple members of the IRMA Buyer’s Group calling for more responsible mineral supply chains and engagement in IRMA.

IRMA attended a wide range of events and held meetings with government, company, investor, purchasing company, civil society, and labor representatives. Indaba and Alternative Mining Indaba continue to be important forums for sharing IRMA’s value and deepening our accountability across sectors. We look forward to engaging in these important forums again in 2025!

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Listening to CommunitiesListening to CommunitiesAudits

Audit Community Engagement Learnings

22 November 2023By

For companies that depend on mined materials to make their products, any assessment of supply chain impacts must include a focus on the point where minerals are extracted from the earth.

There are various tools companies can use to better understand impacts at the point of extraction, including assessment of a specific mine’s performance against an established standard for responsible mining. The value of such an assessment depends on the quality of the standard and on the rigor and independence of the actual audit process. Among the diverse ways auditors assess a mine’s environmental and social impacts, one of the most crucial is direct engagement of communities and Indigenous rights holders.

Community members should have the opportunity to ask questions, to express concerns or outright opposition, and to learn firsthand how a mining company intends to address their needs and share the long-term benefits. People everywhere want a say in decisions that will shape their lives and they rightly expect their voices to be heard.

Over the past several years, as we’ve overseen an increasing number of independent audits, we’ve been exploring various approaches to better include communities living near mines in the process. We’re doing a great deal of testing and learning along the way, making small refinements and a few major course corrections, guided by insights from the six diverse constituencies who govern our initiative.

Supporting us in this effort is Mercedes-Benz Group AG, an IRMA member since 2020.

In 2022, Mercedes-Benz provided funding for IRMA to enhance and further explore how best to engage with mining communities. By implementing new practices and experimenting with alternative approaches to the auditing process, we’ve found ways to improve the community engagement already built into IRMA’s audit process.

The result of our collaboration is this report. It will guide our own practices as we continue to improve and, we hope, illustrate to all purchasers of mined materials — as well as mining companies, investors, regulators, other standards systems, NGOs and, of course, affected communities — how assessments in the industry might be strengthened, ultimately accelerating our common aim: to protect human rights and make mining more responsible.

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