Mining, Minerals and
Sustainable Development
Laying the Foundations for Positive Change
WHAT IS MMSD?
 A two year effort
 With three goals:
1 Develop new approaches to sustainability issues in the
mineral life cycle.
2 Demonstrate that those approaches can be effective by
making clear progress on a limited number of key issues.
3 Develop by consensus both an agenda for future work after
the project life and the structures which will carry it forward.
FUNDAMENTAL CHALLENGES OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
 Staying within the capacity of ecosystems to absorb
change.
 Providing an adequate standard of living for those
who do not have enough.
 Creating conditions in which individuals and groups
can develop their potential.
 Developing systems of governance which promote
and sustain these goals.
WHY HAS THE SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT AGENDA BECOME SO
URGENT?
 Globalization means that many problems are no longer simply
local or national concerns.
 Growing evidence that ecosystems are seriously out of
balance, posing new and poorly understood risks.
 The problem of poverty is inseparably linked with global
ecological problems which cannot be solved unless people
have a stake in the outcome and the resources to manage the
problems.
 Governance systems have not yet emerged for the reality of a
globalized economy.
 Increased awareness and expectations flowing from the new
world information regime.
SUSTAINABLE SOCIETIES WOULD
EMBODY
 Production consumption and living patterns consistent
with ecological balance.
 Dramatic reduction of the numbers of people living in
poverty.
 Greater opportunity to develop individual and group
potential.
 More open, cooperative, transparent and consensual
systems of governance.
THE TRANSITION TO A MORE
SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
 Will occur.
 Will affect fundamentally the way we live.
 Will change the conditions under which business is
done.
 Cannot be achieved by any one industry or sector
acting alone - it is fundamentally a joint enterprise.
 Could be orderly or chaotic.
IN A MORE SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY
 People will continue to explore for, produce, process,
consume, recycle, and dispose of mineral products.
 The way this is done will have to be considerably
different.
 The mineral industries will have to promote ecosystem
health.
 And promote greater economic and social well being,
with special attention to the problems of the poor.
 And support more open cooperative, transparent and
consensual forms of governance.
MMSD PROJECT OBJECTIVE
To identify how mining and minerals can best
contribute to the global transition to sustainable
development.
CHANGE
 Requires action by many different actors (e.g. mining
companies, buyers of minerals, indigenous
organizations, national governments, non-governmental
organizations, local government).
 Therefore requires these actors to move toward a shared
set of objectives.
 They cannot be expected to do this absent clear and
understood rules of engagement
– which reduce the risks to them of participating
– which offer them a chance to achieve some of their objectives
– which they themselves help to develop
OBSTACLES
 The problems are numerous, complex, diverse, and
sometimes poorly understood. This makes it hard to
develop a broad global agenda.
 There is a serious lack of trust among many of the key
actors which makes it hard to work together.
 Identifying broadly agreed solutions is challenging
enough but there is also a serious disagreement about
mechanisms for implementing those solutions (e.g.
ombudsman processes, codes of conduct, legislation,
best practice guides, tax incentives, etc.)
 This project will last less than two more years.
WHERE DO WE START?
 By developing, through consensus, a set of
understood rules for engagement.
 By identifying a limited number of high priority
projects and developing carefully structured
processes around them.
 By working with, rather than competing with, the
many other institutions which have something to
contribute.
WHO IS INVOLVED IN MMSD?
MMSD has four sets of key actors:
– The Sponsors Group
– The Assurance Group
– The Work Group
– Regional Partner Organisations
THE MMSD SPONSORS GROUP
 Provides project funding and resources.
 Started with nine (now 31) major mining companies but
will expand October 1 to include both industry and nonindustry members.
 Does not control project outcomes.
 Convened by World Business Council for Sustainable
Development.
 Draft charter on MMSD web site.
 Contact through Project Coordinator Richard Sandbrook.
THE MMSD ASSURANCE GROUP
 Balanced to account for great variety of interests and
stakeholder groups.
 Currently 16 but will expand to 24 members.
 Charged with assuring independence, integrity and
objectivity of process.
 Draft charter appears on MMSD web site.
ASSURANCE GROUP MEMBERS

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Roger Augustine
Patricia Caswell
Douglas Fraser
Jay Hair (interim chair)
Antonio La Vina
Daniel Meilan
Glen Miller
Duma Nkosi

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Ligia Noronha
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal
Leon Rajaobelina
Damien Roland
Charles Secrett
Osvaldo Sunkel
Helmut Weidner
Doug Yearley
THE MMSD WORK GROUP
 Headquartered at the International Institute for
Environment and Development in London.
 Charged with administering and developing the project.
 Will develop a series of specific projects in
consultation with stakeholders, each of which will be
focused on a critical emerging theme.
 Most projects will be done in cooperation with other
organizations already active in the subject matter.
THE MMSD WORK GROUP
Project Rapporteur
Project Director
Nick Robin s
Luke Danielson
Project
Administrator
Communications
Coordinato r
Assis tant Project
Manager
Res earch
Manager
Sarah Henson
Ray Doucet
Elis abeth Wood
Caroline Digby
Coordinato r
Stakeholder
Engagement
Frank McShane
Personal &
Administrative
Assis tant
Lucy Brain-Gabbott
Implementation
Res earch Fellows
Patricio Leyton
Anne-Marie Fleury; Benoit
Gervais; Silvia Kyeyune;; (others)
MMSD REGIONAL
PARTNERSHIPS
 Will be developed in five to six of the principal
mineral producing and consuming regions.
 Will be developed through consultation and discussion
with regional stakeholders.
 Regional programs will have a high degree of
autonomy under rules satisfactory to regional
stakeholders.
PROPOSED REGIONAL CENTERS
The project cannot at this stage cover the whole
world but aims to develop regional partnerships in:
 North America
 Europe
 Southern Africa
 Australasia
 Southeast Asia
 South America
REGIONAL CENTERS
 Will have their own governing structures in a form
satisfactory to principal stakeholders.
 Will receive some funding from the central project.
 Will have their own regional sponsorship groups.
 Will divide their focus between cooperating in the
development of the global project and pursuing
objectives they get at a regional level.
REGIONAL STRUCTURE
Regional
Stakeholder
Meeting
Project
Headquarters
Regional
Steering
Committee
Research
Stakeholder
Engagement
Regional
Sponsors
Group
Research
Communication
Stakeholder
Engagement
Communication
Implementation
Implementation
Regional
Partner
Institution
REGIONAL WORKSHOPS
 In some other important centres of mineral production
and consumption, the project intends to develop multistakeholder research workshops.
 We are considering such an approach in:
– the former Soviet Union/CIS
– China
– Japan

World Business
Council for
Sustainable
Development
Sponsor
Group

Project Co-ordinator
Richard Sandbrook
 Employment relationship
 Contractual relationship
 Reports to/seeks agreement with
 Services and upholds the terms of reference

Assurance
Group




 Work in partnership
International
Institute for
Environment &
Development

Project Director
Luke Danielson

Project
Team
THE PROJECT HAS FOUR CORE
ELEMENTS
Stakeholder
Engagement
Information,
Communication,
Dissemination
Implementation
Strategy
Research and
Analysis
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES
 Will incorporate each of the four elements:
– Stakeholder engagement
– Research and analysis
– Information, communication, dissemination
– Implementation and follow up
INDIVIDUAL ACTIVITIES
 Will be centered on strategic issues in mining and
minerals industries.
 Will be selected for their importance to
stakeholders.
 Will have their own timetables and outputs.
 Will have their own governance and engagement
processes.
 The following are examples.
PROPOSED ACTIVITY No. 1
Rules of Engagement
– Any attempt to engage stakeholders can be successful only if
there are understood rules about what engagement means.
– Those rules can only be developed by the affected
stakeholders themselves.
– We propose two workshops which will include a broad range
of stakeholders worldwide.
– The participants will be asked to develop a set of
understandings which will govern participation in all MMSD
activities.
– These may be supplemented as needed in individual activities.
PROPOSED ACTIVITY No. 2
Baseline Assessment of Current Corporate
Practice in Sustainability
– Corporate approaches to managing sustainability factors
vary significantly.
– Without a clear understanding of current practice, it is
difficult to identify problems or measure progress.
– We propose a detailed survey of current practice of the
sixty largest mining companies.
PROPOSED ACTIVITY No. 3
Standards for Mining Finance
– Conditions of finance have a great influence in how projects
are developed.
– Social, environmental and economic issues are an important
risk factor in assessing projects.
– There is a lack of consensus on how these risk factors should
be evaluated and reflected in the decision to finance projects.
– We propose an ongoing process of dialogue at developing
clearer and more broadly accepted standards for assessing
these risks and how this should affect financing.
PROPOSED ACTIVITY No. 4
Large Volume Wastes
– Mining worldwide generates large volumes of waste.
– Many sustainability issues revolve around how that waste is
managed.
– We propose a series of research workshops on key issues,
including:
•
•
•
•
tailings stability
acid drainage
riverine disposal
ocean disposal
– Followed by broad stakeholder dialogue on how to improve
handling of these wastes.
THESE PROPOSED ACTIVITIES
 Are in the design stage.
 Cannot be fully developed without broad consultation
and agreement.
 Need their own governance structures and processes of
engagement.
 All of which must be acceptable to potential partners.
 Must be developed with a clear concept of how they
can be put into action.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
 MMSD in broad consultation with other actors will
continue to develop other specific activities of focus
as the project moves forward.
 Priorities include:
– Specific concerns of indigenous communities.
– Management of mineral revenues.
– Environmental concerns over metals and the relationship to
trade and markets.
– Economic, social and cultural impacts on local
communities.
WHAT CAN THIS PROJECT
ACCOMPLISH?
 MMSD can do three things in its two year existence:
1 Develop new approaches for collaborative resolution of
key problems.
2 Demonstrate that those approaches are yielding progress
on some issues.
3 Develop a more broadly shared agenda for work beyond
the life of the project.
CONTACT INFORMATION
web site:
www.iied.org/mmsd
email:
[email protected]
address:
1a Doughty Street
London WC1N 2PH
United Kingdom
telephone: +44 (0)20 7269 1630
fax:
+44 (0)20 7831 6189