For centuries, mining has been an important economic activity to many people in the world. And its impacts, economic, environmental or social may leave an irreversible mark on the landscape and on the lives of the people affected by it. Due to the amount of money that circulates in this industry and the complexity of the relationships between the states, mining companies and affected communities, the formulation of policies and regulatory frameworks for the sector has always been a challenge to governments around the world. Nowadays, in the context of the Agenda 2030 and the UN sustainable development goals this challenge is even bigger.
One of the difficulties faced when trying to reshape the reality of the mining industry is the lack of tools that are able to combine in an easy and structured way the assessment of the multiple aspects that are relevant to evaluate if we are or not on the right track. But it seems that a new and valuable tool for this purpose will be available in 2018. It is the Responsible Mining Index to be published by the Responsible Mining Foundation, a non-profit organization. The RMI will assess he performance of 30 large mining companies in 150 mining operations around the world in fours areas: economic, environmental, social and governance issues. The methodology to compound the index was finished in 2017 and measures the commitment, the action and the effectiveness of these companies in six key areas that are important in the context of the sustainable development. These areas encompass the economic impact of the activity, the working conditions and the communities’ wellbeing, the lifecycle management and environmental responsibility, and finally the business conduct as a whole. As stated in the methodology report, the RMI promises to be a valuable input for all stakeholders of the industry.
In the case of policy makers, the RMI has the potential to be a very useful resource at least in two fronts. At first, a close look on the methodology to compound the index can help understanding the key aspects that should be taken into account in terms of legislation when we aim at a responsible mining and ultimately at a sustained development. In addition, as the RMI will look not only to the largest companies, which operate worldwide, but also to different operations of them around the world, it is expected that it will be possible to compare countries where a same company has operations in order to place them on the spectrum of all mining countries. It is intuitive to expect that in countries with strong institutions and effective legal frameworks – which can contemplate or not a sustainable development view – the mining companies work in a stricter environment. What is interesting about the RMI is that it might be a good compass to point to what matters most, and this has a high value whenever modifications of the status quo are being discussed. Discussions and negotiation of new legislation in parliaments have always the potential to bring surprises, either good or bad, and it is not uncommon that large amounts of time can be wasted on arguing about irrelevant issues. Any policy maker committed to a sustainable future for his or her country cannot take for granted the possibility of having in hand something that can give the proper weight to each aspect that is important for a responsible mining.
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