International diversified miner Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) has released its inaugural performance report for the Metalkol Roan Tailings Reclamation (RTR) project, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The report was compiled as part of ERG’s commitment to the Clean Cobalt Framework – an initiative Metalkol signed up to last year.

The framework aims to implement the globally recognised supply chain guidance of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and strengthen companies’ efforts to ensure sustainable cobalt production.

The framework sets out seven goals, including compliance with the OECD’s due diligence guidance for responsible supply chains of minerals, that the cobalt is traceable and not produced by child labour and that the cobalt does not come from artisanal and small-scale mining operations.

In the spirit of responsible cobalt production, transparency and impact, Metalkol RTR has pledged to report on its performance every year and to obtain third-party validation for its yearly reports, which is the milestone that has been reached for this year.

Consultancy firm PwC has validated its inaugural performance report and says the operation is performing according to the highest international standards.

“It is critical to us and our supply chain that we can assure the responsible production of cobalt for battery technologies and, at the same time, work with partners to create sustainable impacts locally.

“This is reflected through our clean cobalt goals and partnerships that are especially important to us, from customers and end-users to organisations, including the Good Shepherd Sisters and Pact. Through a range of initiatives, we support the transition of children out of mining and champion sustainability and responsibility in the cobalt value chain,” ERG CEO Benedikt Sobotka comments.

As part of the strategies implemented to meet the sustainable cobalt production and supply goals, it has established a chain of custody procedure and is developing related systems to ensure the cobalt it produces is traceable.

“The procedure enables our material to be traced back to the date, shift and point of extraction and allows for verification of the flow and handling of cobalt, including all stages of transformation, physical transfer and storage” ERG states in the report.

A pilot project is also under way, in partnership between Metalkol RTR and IBM, to explore way to enhance the traceability of its products.

Further, to help restore the environment around its operations, Metalkol RTR last year started extracting and reprocessing historical tailings, that were not produced by the company but that were contaminating the natural environment of the Kingamyambo tailings dam.

“As of March 1, we removed 3 118 t of contaminated material from the Musonoi river and 1.42-million tonnes from the Kingamyambo tailings dam.

“We are constructing a new permitted tailings storage facility to consolidate our own residual waste.

“The water used on our site is in a closed-loop system and no process water is discharged from our site. A monitoring programme and stations have been set up for surface water, ground water, noise, greenhouse-gas emissions and air quality as per statutory requirements and the approved environmental- and social-impact assessment plan,” ERG points out.

ERG, which has copper and cobalt operations in Africa, operates in 15 countries across four continents. It is the only producer of high-grade aluminium in Kazakhstan, is the world’s largest high-carbon ferrochrome producer by chrome content and one of the largest producers of alumina and iron-ore products in Eurasia.