Amid surging global demand for minerals and metals, this report maps more than 100 sustainability standards across mining value chains, examining how they interact with laws, regulations and policy commitments. It assesses whether these standards strengthen environmental governance or risk undermining it.
The study finds that while standards are increasingly used to improve environmental and social performance, their rapid proliferation has created a fragmented and confusing landscape for governments, companies and communities.
To address this, the report identifies 15 hallmarks of effective standards and calls for their use as a practical reference for policymakers, alongside independent impact assessments and greater cooperation and interoperability.