”SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA FOR THE
NORDIC EXTRACTIVE INDUSTRY”
Geography of global mining.
Main metal ● precious metals ● base metals (incl Ni) ● ferrous metals ● diamonds ● coal ● other
Productive Nordic metal mines (circle size reflects ore
tonnage in 2012) Source: IntierraRMG Data, Stockholm, March 2014.
Main metal ● precious metals ● base metals (incl Ni) ● coal ● ferrous metals ● diamonds ● other
Nordic exploration expenditure
■ Sweden ■ Norway ■ Greenland ■ Finland
The project in short:
– Review of existing mining industry sustainability criteria/indicators, including scientific literature, as well as various frameworks/guidelines such as ISO26000, Global reporting Initiative (GRI).
– Examine to what extent sustainability indicators/criteria are implemented in the Nordic mining industry, by conducting interviews and reviewing sustainability reports.
– Collecting input from mining industry stakeholders through an online survey
– Assess the scope for developing and implementing sustainability criteria specifically for the Nordic mining industry, by;
• Examining industry interest in participating, and collecting thier input by interviews.
Current status
• If the initiative is viable, the next step will focus on criteria development, presentation and implementation
– Proposed sustainability criteria tentatively planned to be presented at Euro Mine Expo 2016
– Completed tasks
• ”Inventory” of Nordic mining (companies and mines) focus on metals. 19 active companies in 2014, 15 in 2015 (due to
bankruptcies).
• Review of Nordic mining companies sustainability reporting (reports published by Boliden, LKAB, Lundin Mining, Agnico-Eagle, FQM, Outokumpu and Talvivaara)
• Review of international sustainability frameworks/guidelines etc
• Review of scientific literature on sustainability criteria and indicators
Review of sustainability frameworks etc.
• 25 international sustainability frameworks identified, comprising more than 90 different indicators
• 21 different sustainability frameworks/initiatives referenced by Nordic mining companies in sustainability reports or on website
• 23 scientific articles on sustainability indicators/criteria reviewed
• The review - reflects a comprehensive set of sustainable development frameworks, referenced by the Nordic mining industry to varying extents.
About 90 different sustainability indicators have been identified, covering themes such as corporate governance, economic aspects, human rights, labor practices, product responsibility, society, environmental aspects, and fair operating practices.
• Based on input from review, we
– Developed a questionnaire (web-based survey) which we have distributed to different stakeholder groups
– Developed an interview guide – scoping study among Nordic mining companies to;
• Assess their interest in Nordic mining industry sustainability criteria
• Collect their input in criteria development
So far:
• Survey responses are staring to drop in, but so far the number of responses are to few to interpret as meaningful results.
• A few ”protests” against discussing any form of ”sustainable mining” have been received as a response to the survey. Interestingly, all of them from Norwegian respondents.
