Amplats' Unki mine, in Zimbabwe
Platinum group metals (PGMs) miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has passed the audit for Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA’s) comprehensive mining standard for two of its mines in South Africa and one in Zimbabwe.
The Unki mine, in Zimbabwe, was the first in the world to publicly commit to be independently audited against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining in 2019.
The mine has maintained its IRMA 75 level of performance, reflecting Amplats’ integrated approach to sustainability and transparency, in striving for the highest levels of responsible PGMs production.
The Mototolo and Amandelbult mines, in South Africa, are the first PGM mines in the country to complete an IRMA audit and achieve IRMA 75 and IRMA 50 levels of performance, respectively.
Amplats CEO Craig Miller says the IRMA assurance process has provided the company with a valuable opportunity to measure performance at the Amandelbult and Mototolo mines against international best sustainability practices. It also provides guidance for next steps of improvement.
Amplats, as well as its parent company Anglo American, strive to be leaders in environmental, social and governance and adding value to the products that it mines.
Consumers are also increasingly demanding assurance that raw materials in their products are responsibly sourced, which Anglo American regional director for Africa and Australia Themba Mkhwanazi says speaks well to the IRMA standard, as it promotes transparency and adds value for customers in their value chains.
Anglo aims to have all its operations recognised against this responsible mining standard by 2025.
Earlier in February the group attained IRMA 75 levels of performance for the Minas-Rio iron-ore and Barro Alto nickel mines in Brazil.
SCORING BACKGROUND
The IRMA scoring system recognises four levels of performance: IRMA Transparency, in which a mine is third-party-assessed and publicly shares its scores; IRMA 50, 75 or 100, signifying that a mine meets a core set of critical requirements together with at least 50%, 75% or 100% of the requirements in each of the four sections of the Standard for Responsible Mining being met respectively.
IRMA's Standard for Responsible Mining has been developed over a decade through a public consultation process with more than 100 different individuals and organisations, including mining companies, customers and the ultimate downstream users of mined products, non-profit organisations, labour unions, and communities. It is considered to be one of the most rigorous certification processes.
The standard includes requirements on protection of human rights, water resources, worker health and safety, biodiversity and indigenous consent.
IRMA executive director Aimee Boulanger comments that, through detailed IRMA audit reports, mining companies, communities and others that buy mined materials can gain the information they need to decide what is going well or what may need attention at specific mines.
She lauds Amplats and the Anglo group for having been among the first companies to volunteer to be audited, particularly as this may encourage more companies to submit mines for auditing.
The IRMA standard is being updated this year, with the organisation having invited stakeholders to provide recommendations on how it can be improved.
IRMA is hosting a webinar on February 27 to provide interested stakeholders with more information. Participants can register at https://responsiblemining.us8.list-manage.com/track/click?u=a160ab2296fd33da378e4235c&id=a332121a78&e=0b5617a5a3.