The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) has published an ambitious new strategy for the next three years, which doubles down on the organisation’s spirit of partnership and collaboration.

The ‘Strategy and Action Plan 2022 – 2024’ aims to make breakthrough progress on four key areas: environmental resilience, social performance, governance and transparency, and innovation – in pursuit of a safe and sustainable world, enabled by responsibly produced metals and minerals.

The strategy involves 12 major initiatives across the four key areas, including improving water management, strengthening approaches to upholding human rights, ensuring diverse, equitable and inclusive workplaces, supporting the resilience of communities, enhancing practices for responsible mine closure, supporting development of a circular economy and accelerating innovation in tailings to reduce waste.

“For the world at large, the next three years will shape the outlook for the next 30. To achieve a net-zero economy by 2050, decarbonisation technologies must be deployed at an unprecedented scale and in the near term.

“Metals and minerals, as the backbone of these solutions, are in short supply in many cases, but ‘how’ these materials are produced remains equally if not more important than ‘how much’ is produced,” says CEO Rohitesh Dhawan.

ICMM has turned its focus to issues where the mining industry can make the biggest contributions related to society’s greatest challenges.

These are also areas where the collective leadership of the organisation’s 26 member companies, which represent a third of the global mining industry, will be critical to push the boundaries of responsible and sustainable mining.

Meanwhile, the ICMM has also strengthened its membership commitments on diversity, equity and inclusion as an important step in addressing discrimination of all forms in workplaces. The updates have been made to the Mining Principles which all member companies are urged to comply to.

“The ICMM will continue to work together [with members] and with external stakeholders to eliminate all forms of bullying, harassment and unfair discrimination from our workplaces and societies,” Dhawan concludes.