6 March 2006, Paul Mitchell / International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM)
In general terms the ICMM’s mandate is twofold: to develop good practices in sustainable development and then to help its members adopt and implement them. The expectation of members is that by adopting these superior business practices they will benefit by gaining preferential access to resources, capital and markets, as well as being able to attract talented employees.
The range of sustainable development issues facing the mining and metals industry is substantial and thus ICMM’s work program is correspondingly large. It covers: company performance and reporting; environment; health and safety; socio-economic development; and materials stewardship.
The relationship between mineral resources and socio-economic development is fundamentally important because it is one of the two parts of industry’s case for access to land and countries’ non-renewable resources, namely that these resources are essential for society and their exploitation provides economic development in the host country. It follows that if either of these arguments is weak or untrue, then the case for access to land is weakened significantly.
