SMO Gold launches the world’s first ESG Benchmark to measure responsible gold mining

By gathering and analysing disaggregated Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) data from mining companies’ annual reports, this tool provides real transparency for individual mine performances, allowing its users to clearly visualise what responsible gold mining looks like for the very first time.

Previously, most ESG data for gold mining was aggregated at the corporate level, making it difficult and time consuming to assess the performance of individual mines. The new SMO ESG Benchmark was created to address this, allowing investors, analysts, and mining companies to quickly evaluate and compare sustainability performance at mine-level.

Developed in partnership with Virtua Research, a leading provider of ESG data solutions – with guidance from sustainability expert Kate J. Harcourt (MSc, MIEnvSc, CEnv), who joined the SMO team as ESG advisor to the Board in December 2024 – the new SMO ESG Benchmark provides users with structured, mine-specific ESG data, including information on carbon emissions, water usage, waste management, workforce demographics, community investment, and business ethics.

A free-to-use version of the SMO ESG Benchmark allows users to compare the operations of accredited SMO Gold member mines around the world, while a premium version will offer enhanced functionality, amongst other benefits, enabling subscribers to compare any gold mine’s ESG performance against other geographically relevant data, with customisable search features to aid the performance analysis between peers. Furthermore, a practical ‘traffic light’ scoring system will reveal at-a-glance where performance benchmarks are met, exceeded, or fall below the expected standard.

Charlie Betts, Managing Director of The Betts Group and co-founder of SMO Gold, says:

“The aim of this new Benchmark is to provide unprecedented levels of detail and transparency around ESG data from gold mining. Now, you can look at individual mines, or groups of mines, and see how they compare across a range of important criteria, including carbon emissions, female employment levels, and social spending. This Benchmark represents a ‘best in class’ of available data, which we hope will be a driver for further beneficial change within the industry, generate further interest in Single Mine Origin gold, and more responsible sourcing in general.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/06052025/smo-gold-launches-the-worlds-first-esg-benchmark-to-measure-responsible-gold-mining/