Global commodities markets expect African producers to deliver “ethically” produced, traded and transformed material, says responsible sourcing, auditing and advisory company RCS Global CEO Dr Nicholas Garrett.

Responsible sourcing practices are resulting in higher standards at African mining operations with regard to safety and working environments, as well as the living conditions of surrounding communities; however, it is a continuous improvement process and, in some cases, the starting point is rudimental.

While there is pushback linked to the initial cost and time involved in implementing responsible sourcing improvements upstream, the potential business gains outweigh any downside. Technology advancement, including in digital monitoring and blockchain-based traceability, will further help to reduce costs.

If production standards can be continuously improved, operations supplying responsibly produced commodities will also benefit from access to a wider global market and can look to achieve a premium with the right product differentiation strategy. This applies both to the industrial and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sectors.

Many African governments are playing a constructive role in enabling responsible mining by upholding good regulatory frameworks and embracing sector formalisation objectives, states Garrett.

“This can span from funding improvement projects to simply being an enabling partner to the private sector, donor or multistakeholder efforts aimed at mainstreaming responsible mining. The governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Uganda, for example, have partnered with several initiatives, including our Better Mining project, to support the mainstreaming of responsible mining.”

Governments can further assist by collaborating with global initiatives and aligning their actions with global best practice, but the international community should also ensure that the concerns of African stakeholders can be voiced and acted upon internationally.

This means ensuring that respective African governments, industry leaders and credible nonprofit organisations have strong representation at all relevant global policy forums, Garrett comments.

Challenges to Implementation

“Ideally, central and local government are key partners in ensuring improvements in the industrial and ASM sectors. Where weak governance and capacity deficiencies pervade, the implementation, monitoring and enforcing of responsible mining practices are challenging, but not impossible,” he says.

Many African countries are still economically fragile. Therefore, the artisanal mining sector remains a livelihood provider of last resort, perpetuating risks such as those associated with child labour and occupational health and safety (OHS), explains Garrett.

RCS Global’s Better Mining platform affords ASM supply chain members the means to participate in responsible global supply chains. It also offers all downstream participants robust information and risk-management opportunities enabling them to source ASM material with confidence.

The platform is implemented at 15 ASM sites in the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda, with RCS Global on track to cover more than 20 sites by year-end.

“While OHS is the most serious concern, the artisanal sector remains vulnerable to predation and we have seen the resurgence of insecurity, particularly in Africa’s Sahel region, where terrorist groups are increasingly embedded in the gold sector,” adds Garrett.

Further challenges include logistics and geography. While modern mobile communications and technology allow for even the most remote mine sites to be assessed, and monitored, Garrett says remote locations require boots on the ground to ensure that bad practices do not go unchecked.

Under the Microscope

Cobalt remains the commodity under the most scrutiny, as Amnesty International’s investigation in 2016 made child labour in the DRC’s artisanal cobalt sector a global issue.

Continued focus is expected from the media and other global nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in light of the DRC supplying about 60% of cobalt globally and the long-term demand from the growing lithium-ion battery market, says Garrett.

“However, over the past 18 months, RCS Global has seen attention diversify beyond cobalt to other key battery and tech-metal supply chains as NGOs, the media and companies apply the same level of scrutiny to other supply chains.”

Tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TG) have been under scrutiny for a long time, whereas lithium, nickel, graphite and, recently, mica and copper, have fallen under the responsible sourcing microscope.

Business of Blockchain

Garrett will explain during his Mining Indaba speaking debut how RCS Global is “moving the dial on responsible sourcing” and how its interlinked endeavours – from assurance and mine-site monitoring to blockchain technology – provide “effective practical pathways” for companies to conduct better business.

“At the core of our business is a responsible sourcing audit practice, delivering audits across every major global responsible sourcing standard.

“Our advisory practice works with several of the world’s biggest miners, as well as global automotive and technology brands, to help drive the continued improvement of their responsible production and sourcing programmes respectively,” Garrett says.

This year, RCS Global is moving into the production phase of its collaboration with IBM on the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network (RSBN). Last year, companies representing a significant amount of global cobalt demand and supply joined the RSBN, including Volkswagen, Volvo Cars, Ford and major mining companies, such as Glencore, along with key refining companies, such as Huayou Cobalt.

“The ambition is to scale the solution to 3TG and other battery metals this year.”

RCS Global values the Mining Indaba as a forum through which to discuss emerging themes in the sector, as well as a networking platform, concludes Garrett.