THE IRMA ASSESSMENT PROCESS: A TOOL THAT CAN FACILITATE ACCESS TO TRANSPARENT AND CREDIBLE INFORMATION FOR ALL STAKEHOLDERS

With at least 158 independent voluntary initiatives, the multiplicity of these initiatives creates a challenge for stakeholders to remain informed on their utility, performance, and best practices. Reviews of voluntary initiatives by organizations such as the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in 2018 and Lead the Charge in 2024, recognize the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining as the most comprehensive and credible mining standard that covers all societal indicators relevant to mining. The development of the standard consisted of over a decade of multi-stakeholder dialogue, rigorous research by teams of technical experts from a variety of stakeholder groups, and most importantly a public consultation process that included over 2,000 comments from over 100 mining impacted community members and organizations. The IRMA standard aims to guide ethical and socially responsible interactions between stakeholders through an equitable multi-sector governance model. The Board of Directors strives to make decisions by consensus but when a unanimous decision is not reached and both members in a stakeholder group fundamentally oppose a decision, the issue must go back to all stakeholders for further discussion and resolution. IRMA is governed by six stakeholder groups consisting of: Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), purchasing companies, mining affected communities, mining companies, labor unions and finance / investment companies. The IRMA standard requires participating mine sites to undergo independent, third-party performance audits that include a desktop study of the mine site and most importantly on-site visits by IRMA-trained auditors that involve interviews with community stakeholders to validate the performance of the mine site. Currently, more that 80 mining companies are engaged in IRMA, representing more than 100 mine operations. As part of the Pardee Keynote sessions, this presentation will focus on the strengths and limitations of IRMA and voluntary initiatives in general, the evolution of independent audit methodologies, and the key role engineers and geologists play in facilitating credible information that drives sustainable mining.