There's a new standard out. Will mining companies finally get it right with Indigenous Peoples? August 13, 2024

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which represents many of the world’s largest mining companies and a third of the global metals and mining industry, released their revised Indigenous Peoples and Mining Position Statement last week. This policy is particularly important given the rapid rollout of renewable energy technologies and transport electrification that will likely increase new extraction of minerals...

On the one hand, ICMM’s new position statement recognizes Indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination and affirms a clear definition of the principle of Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC)...

The policy also acknowledges that mining projects can contribute to the marginalization of subgroups of the population, including women and girls, and states that community engagement processes should pay “particular attention to the equitable participation of Indigenous women and others in vulnerable situations.”...

That said, however, ICMM’s guidance to companies on how to implement community consultation and consent processes when differences of opinion arise is extremely problematic. In the explanatory notes for the commitments, ICMM references unspecified “situations in which States might determine that a project should be authorised even without consent.”...

Nevertheless, ICMM has muddied the water with language companies could interpret as a greenlight to bypass effective FPIC processes. The notes state that any company determination to proceed without consent “must adhere to established criteria of necessity and proportionality for permissible limitations on Indigenous Peoples’ rights,” but under what circumstances might a mining project be so necessary as to justify a violation of Indigenous peoples’ rights? Here the guidance creates ambiguity when the point is clear – if communities do not support the project, then it should not move forward...