Consolidated Mining Standard Initiative (CMSI)

Increasingly, society expects those mining, recycling or converting metals into products to follow responsible standards backed by independent assurance and transparent disclosure. Equally, responsible companies want to produce and recycle the metals and minerals that the world wants and needs, in a way that respects human rights, supports local development, and improves environmental performance.

Our Objective

The Consolidated Mining Standards Initiative (CMSI) addresses society’s growing demand for responsible mining by bringing together the best aspects of four well-established voluntary mining standards – The Copper Mark’s Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA), Mining Association of Canada’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM), World Gold Council’s Responsible Gold Mining Principles and ICMM’s Mining Principles – into one global standard. This will reduce complexity and clarify responsible mining and metals practices for companies of all sizes, across all locations and commodities.

The Consolidated Standard brings together the best aspects of the four individual standards while eliminating duplication, filling gaps and making improvements where appropriate. It comprises 24 Performance Areas that cover a wide range of topics related to responsible mining under the four pillars of:

Each of the performance areas has requirements grouped into three distinct levels:

• Towards Good Practice: A starting position of conformance with minimum industry standards on which a facility can build on to improve performance. It is an ‘entry point’ for companies who are committed to transparency and responsible mining practices and will need additional time or resources to reach Good Practice. 

• Good Practice: A level of practice in line with industry standards and international norms, frameworks and guidelines. Good Practice Level reflects performance that all mining companies should eventually achieve. 

• Leading Practice: A level of performance which goes above and beyond responsible industry good practice and demonstrates leadership or best practice. As such, it is expected that only a minority of implementing companies would reach this level. 

Once finalised, the Standard is expected to be adopted by members of ICMM, World Gold Council, Mining Association of Canada, and participants of The Copper Mark. This broad adoption would make it the most widely implemented voluntary mining standard, covering nearly 100 mining companies and approximately 600 facilities across 60 countries.

Governance Model

The CMSI Governance Model comprises  a 17-person Board of Directors, led by an Independent Chair, who will  oversee further development, promotion and maintenance of the Consolidated Standard. 
The Board will implement the related assurance process, grievance mechanism and claims policy and provide a platform for public disclosure of information such as outcomes of assurance. 

The Governance Model reflects multistakeholder participation, with equal representation of companies and stakeholders and rights holders across the mining industry and wider value chain. Dedicated committee structures will be established within which mining and value chain, as well as commercial and non-commercial, interests can be advanced. This model will emphasise consensus-based decision-making. 

The Governance Model will be adopted by The Copper Mark as it evolves to become the Secretariat for the Standard. The Copper Mark’s own Governance Model, including its current independent Board and Advisory Council, will evolve to the 17-member Board of Directors.

Our Approach

CMSI represents a new kind of industry leadership - one that prioritises collaboration, consensus, and shared power. Development has been guided by two Advisory Groups, working with the Partners:

• Industry Advisory Group (IAG): Comprising mining sector representatives.  
• Stakeholder Advisory Group (SAG): Bringing together diverse voices from NGOs, investors, Indigenous Peoples, customers and multilateral organisations, amongst others.

Both the SAG and IAG have been engaged throughout the process, virtually and in-person. While these two groups are structurally separate, functionally they are integrated and meet together.

Our Partners