The Copper Mark welcomes growing engagement in responsible production

The report marks an important milestone for the Copper Mark, which continues to expand its organisational capacity for promoting responsible copper production.

The report highlights that, in its first year of activity – despite a challenging operating environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the Copper Mark welcomed 17 mining, smelting, or refining sites in its assurance framework – exceeding the organisation’s expectations. The high levels of early adoption underline the copper industry’s commitment to responsible practices. The Copper Mark also welcomed six partners from the automotive, electronics, and copper manufacturing industries in its first year of operations, building a strong market signal to encourage responsible production practices throughout the copper value chain.

The Copper Mark’s report draws out a number of opportunities for improvement for its participants – particularly around implementing robust mineral supply chain due diligence processes. A long-standing expectation in the industries of tin, tantalum, tungsten, gold and most recently cobalt, supply chain due diligence will be required for any copper producers with registered LME brands by 2023, resulting in increased focus on this topic within the copper industry.

Michèle Bru¨lhart, Executive Director of the Copper Mark, comments:

“In its first year of operations, the Copper Mark has taken significant steps to promote responsible and sustainable copper production, securing broad stakeholder engagement from across the copper supply chain. Copper is fundamental to the clean energy transition and over the course of the next 12 months we will look to further strengthen our foundations ensuring that the Copper Mark is recognised as a credible assurance framework and its participants as responsible producers of copper.”

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/28072021/the-copper-mark-welcomes-growing-engagement-in-responsible-production/