Mining's Role in Supporting a Nature-Positive Future, Key Challenges and Solutions
Session Description
The team at ICMM introduced ICMM as a membership body of 26 mining companies and around 40 commodity and regional associations, representing roughly a third of the global mining and metals industry. Jessica Nichols and Will Wardle covered ICMM's Nature Position Statement, current no net loss and net gain targets for new or expanded mining sites, and the upcoming Consolidated Mining Standards Initiative, a single global benchmark merging four existing mining standards at facility level, pending council approval. They introduced a new set of Nature Risk Tools for Mining's Value Chain, due to launch publicly in July, and shared examples of nature-based solutions and technology in practice, including autonomous drilling, a real-time monitoring platform in Greece, and a mine rehabilitation site in Ghana. The session closed with open Q&A on mine closure, divestment risk, and ICMM's engagement with non-member mining companies.
Speakers
Jessica Nicholls, Senior Manager, Environment, ICMM
Will Wardle, Senior Programme Officer, ICMM
Watch the Session Recording
Key Takeaways
ICMM's core nature commitment is a no net loss or net gain target by closure for new and expanded mining sites, measured against a 2020 baseline, alongside a long-standing no-go commitment on World Heritage Sites dating back to 2003.
The Consolidated Mining Standards Initiative will bring together four existing mining standards into one global benchmark applied at the individual facility level, covering 24 performance areas across four pillars: ethical business practices, worker and social safeguards, social performance, and environmental stewardship. It's still pending council approval.
Three persistent challenges were named across the session: applying and measuring no net loss credibly at site level, managing nature-related risk across value chains without duplicating supplier questionnaires, and aligning on standardised metrics across the growing set of disclosure frameworks (TNFD, CSRD, and others).
The new Nature Risk Tools for Mining's Value Chain (introduction, business case, impact assessment, supplier prioritisation by risk and influence, and action planning) are built on work with the Melbourne Biodiversity Institute and are set to launch publicly in July. ICMM's stated priority now is generating real case studies from members using the tools, rather than adding more frameworks.
Nature-based solutions, such as wetland restoration and agroforestry, were positioned as lower-cost and lower-maintenance alternatives to engineered closure responses. The example given was a gold mine rehabilitation site in Ghana, now producing cocoa and maize with fish and wildlife returning to the area.
Technology examples raised included electric trucks and autonomous drilling and hauling to reduce environmental disturbance, plus a real-time environmental monitoring platform in Greece that gives stakeholders direct access to lab results as they become available.
In Q&A, divestment was raised as an underexamined mine closure risk, i.e. what happens to nature commitments when a mine changes ownership before reaching closure. ICMM has studied this internally with its closure working group but hasn't published findings given the sensitivity of the topic.
A final audience question on landscape approaches and relationships with indigenous peoples in Canada was in progress when the recording ends, so that discussion isn't captured here.
