A new GRI sustainability standard for the mining sector is now available.

The GRI 14: Mining Sector 2024 is a global standard that addresses the sustainability impacts of the sector. 

The standard addresses stakeholder concerns and increased emphasis on responsible mineral supply, assisting mining companies in fulfilling disclosure and due diligence requirements, and enabling informed sourcing and investment decisions.

The standard reflects stakeholder demands for transparency and enables companies to report their impacts using a common set of metrics. It aims to balance the role of mining with accountability for environmental, community, and worker harm.

The standard includes exploration and extraction, primary processing, and related support services (except coal, oil, and gas, for which GRI Sector Standards are already available).

The standards address the following needs of the mining sector:

1. Sets expectations for site-level transparency that reflect local impacts, to help stakeholders assess impacts and risks by location and specific minerals.
2. Covers critical themes like emissions to waste, human rights to land and resource rights, climate change to biodiversity, and anti-corruption to community engagement.
3. Introduces three topics not previously addressed by GRI yet are of specific relevance to tailings management, artisanal and small-scale mining, and operating in conflict zones.

Quotes:

Carol Adams, Chair of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), GRI, said, “From a sustainability standpoint, the mining position is complex. It is both part of the solution and the problem. The low-carbon transition cannot be realized without the sector’s key minerals. Yet mining operations can have deep and damaging impacts on nature and people. The new standard will help organizations to improve how they communicate with key stakeholders on the issues that matter most to build trust with communities.”

The industry faces opportunities and risks due to energy transition, and the EITI welcomes the revised Mining Sector Standard, encouraging stakeholders to use company disclosures for faster reporting and data utilization, said Mark Robinson, Executive Director, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).

The expert panel: 

The GRI Standard for the mining sector includes expert inputs from EITI, IRMA, the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), and the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM).

An independent multi-stakeholder working group appointed by the GSSB and had representatives from:

• Business: Anglo American, Coeur Mining, ICMM, Newmont, South32, World Gold Council
• Civil society: AIDIS Argentina, Natural Resource Governance  Institute 
• Southern Africa Resource Watch 
• WWF-India Investors: Hyperion Metals, Mercy Investment Services
• IndustriALL Global Union 
• IF Metall Union Sweden
• Mediating Institutions: Copper Mark, Engineers Without Borders Canada, Intelligence Nature International, IRMA, PwC, World Bank