"Investor group turns up heat on mining tailings dam laggards", 23 January 2024

"A group of investors managing more than $25 trillion said they plan to challenge mining companies that have not yet committed to a tailings dam best-practice standard and may vote against management at upcoming annual meetings.

The Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative was launched in August 2020 in response to the Brumadinho disaster in Brazil where 270 people were killed when a tailings dam collapsed.

So far 77 listed mining companies, including the world's largest BHP (BHP.AX), and Rio Tinto (RIO.L), have signed up to a tougher code of conduct...

But 126 companies, many of them smaller, have yet to commit to the standard, leaving their shareholders, insurers, and banks facing greater risk, the investor group's chair Adam Matthews told Reuters.

The initiative names China's Zijin Mining Group Co Ltd which has also mining interests overseas and has previously run into trouble with tailings dams, Saudi Arabia's state-owned miner Ma'aden, Grupo Mexico and its subsidiary Southern Copper Corporation, among those companies not conforming with the standard.

In a statement to Reuters, Grupo Mexico said the company, including Southern Copper and other subsidiaries, is committed to "zero damage to health and safety of our employees, communities and the environment throughout the life cycle of our tailings systems," in line with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management.

Zijin and Ma'aden did not immediately respond to requests for comment..."