Users who wish to contribute documents to this page should email the material, preferably in MS Word or Adobe PDF format to minerals.forum@unctad.org or to Chik J Duncan.

Global Dialogue of Governments on Mining/Metals and Sustainable Development

The Global Dialogue is designed to bring together high-level government officials with a responsibility for mining and metals policy in a forum where the member governments can exchange information and discuss issues, policies and regulatory approaches that the non-energy minerals and metals sector can undertake to contribute to sustainable development. The Global Dialogue is a Type II Partnership Initiative that has evolved out of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002.

• Global Dialogue of Governments on Mining/Metals and Sustainable Development (MS Word 38KB) - Information Paper, Patrick Chevalier, Natural Resources Canada, July 2003.

Further information is available at the Global Dialogue website: www.globaldialogue.info

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

• Mineral Policy, Legislation and Regulation (Adobe PDF 223KB) - J.M. Otto. UNCTAD Mining, Environment and Development series of papers.

United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD)

• Voluntary Approaches to Corporate Responsibility: Readings and Resource Guide - United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), May 2002. The essays and resource guide in this volume aim both to inform readers of recent developments and analysis related to voluntary initiatives, and to highlight some of the strengths and weaknesses of company codes of conduct and “multistakeholder” standard-setting and certification schemes, involving NGOs and multilateral organizations.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

• Summary Report on an International Workshop on Environmental Regulation for Accident Prevention in Mining: Tailing and Chemicals Management (Adobe PDF) - United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), October, 2000.

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) - Conventions of Relevance to the Mineral Industry

• Convention on the Transboundary Effects of Industrial Accidents

• Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution

• Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes

• Convention on Environmental Impact Assessment in a Transboundary Context

• Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters

UN Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

In June 2000, the President of the UN Security Council requested the UN Secretary-General to establish a Panel of Experts on the illegal exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo with the following mandate (S/PRST/2000/20):

(a) To follow up on reports and collect information on all activities of illegal exploitation of natural resources and other forms of wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, including in violation of the sovereignty of that country;

(b) To research and analyse the links between the exploitation of the natural resources and other forms of wealth in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the continuation of the conflict.

The documents subsequently prepared by the expert panel are as follows:

• Final report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - United Nations, UN Doc: S/2002/1146, 16 October 2002. (Adobe PDF)

• Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - UN Doc: S/2001/357 - 12 April 2001. (Adobe PDF)

• Addendum to the report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - UN Doc: S/2001/1072 - 13 November 2001. (Adobe PDF)

• Interim report of the United Nations Expert Panel on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo - UN Doc: S/2001/49 - 16 January 2001. (Adobe PDF)

European Union / European Commission

• Chemical Accident, Prevention, Preparedness and Response - The Seveso II Directive

• Consultation of interested parties on a Draft proposal for a European Parliament and Council Directive amending Council Directive 96/82/EC of 9 December 1996 on the control of major-accident hazards involving dangerous substances (Seveso II Directive) - This consultation has been initiated, in part, by the January 2000 failure of a tailings dam at Baia Mare in Romania, with subsequent transboundary pollution of the Tisza and Danube Rivers by cyanide and heavy metal contaminated effluent.

• Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the management of waste from the extractive industries
  • Management of Mining, Quarrying and Ore-Processing Waste in The European Union - Study - Draft Final Report (Adobe PDF 1.1MB) - Annex (Adobe PDF 660KB)
  • A Study on the Costs of Improving the Management of Mining Waste - Exec Summary (Adobe PDF 40KB) - Draft Final Report (Adobe PDF 460KB)

• Promoting sustainable development in the EU non-energy extractive industry (Adobe PDF) - Communication from the Commission (COM/2000/265).

• Safe operation of mining activities: a follow-up to recent mining accidents - Communication from the Commission (COM/2000/664)

• White Paper on Environmental Liability - 9 February 2000 - Explores how the polluter pays principle, one of the key environmental principles in the EC Treaty, can best be applied to serve the aims of Community environmental policy.

• Technical Working Group on BAT for Management of Tailings and Waste-Rock in Mining Activities (Adobe PDF) - 1st Meeting June 2001 - European Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) Bureau
  See the IPPC website for more information on the working group under the 'Activities' section.

World Summit on Sustainable Development

• Draft Plan of Implementation for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Adobe PDF 728kB) - Released following PrepCom 4, Bali, Indonesia - 12 June 2002.
  The draft plan refers directly to the mining, mineral and metal sector in several sections, specifically paragraphs 9, 44, and 56, while other paragraphs may impact indirectly upon the activities of the sector. See here for extracts of the relevant sections and paragraphs.

International Finance Corporation (IFC)

Developing Value: The Business Case for Sustainability in Emerging Markets (Executive Summary - Adobe PDF) - IFC, SustainAbility and the Ethos Institute, 2002.
The report demonstrates that sustainability applies as equally to the private sector in the emerging markets as it does to companies in developed nations. Based on more than 240 real-life examples in over 60 countries, the study analyzes the 'business case' for sustainability in emerging markets – the opportunity for businesses to achieve benefits such as higher sales, reduced costs, lower risks and enhanced reputation from better corporate governance, improved environmental practices, and investments in social and economic development. The examples include 17 from the oil, gas and mining sector. These can be identifed through the Business Case Matrix search facility.

The report can be purchased from the IFC through the World Bank.

• Guide to the Application of the ANZECC/ARMCANZ Water Quality Guidelines in the Minerals Industry - Drs Graeme Batley, Simon Apte and Jennifer Stauber of CSIRO and Dr Chris Humphrey of the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist, 2003. A handbook specifically written for the minerals industry that explains and provides case studies for the ANZECC/ARMCANZ Water Quality Guidelines released in 2000. Available in hard copy and CD-ROM from the Australian Centre for Mining Environment Research (ACMER).

• Mineral Exploration in Australia: Trends, Economic Impacts and Policy Issues (Adobe PDF 480KB) - Hogan, L., Harman, J., Maritz, A., Thorpe, S., Simms, A., Berry, P. and Copeland, A. ABARE eReport 02.1, Canberra, December 2002.

• 2002 Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development - Canadian Government, 2002. Chapter 3 examines Abandoned Mines in the North (Adobe PDF 892KB). Other chapters of the 2002 report as well as those from previous years may be accessed from the Commissioners website.

• Dealing with the Legacy Issue - lessons from 12 years' experience in Ontario: Be Creative; Be Flexible and Be Strict ! (Adobe PDF 22KB)- Mr. John B Gammon, Assistant Deputy Minister, Mines and Minerals, Government of Ontario, May 2002.

• APEC Network on Minerals and Energy Data (ANMED)
  ANMED is an information database for the mining and energy resource sectors in the Asia Pacific Economomci Cooperation (APEC) forum member countries. Legal and regulatory information is available, as well as information on resources, industries, finance and investment, land and environment, and geoscientific data.

• The Mining Laws of Asian Countries - Metal Mining Agency of Japan (MMAJ)
  The MMAJ have compiled the mining laws of the Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan Korea Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, The Phillipines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Comparative tables for each country and for all countries are available.

• Corporate Code of Conduct Bill 2000 (Adobe PDF) - The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia - The Senate.
  "A Bill for an Act to impose standards on the conduct of Australian corporations which undertake business activities in other countries, and for related purposes."
  Proposed federal legislation to impose minimum social, labour, safety, human rights and environmental standards upon the conduct of Australian corporations operating outside Australia. Particular attention has been focused on the activities of the Australian mineral industry in developing countries. The Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Joint Statutory Committee on Corporations and Securities who published their report in June 2001. Various submissions, for and against, the Code were made to the inquiry. Two contrasting viewpoints are provided by the industry association the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), and an NGO the Minerals Policy Institute (MPI).

The Mining Certification Evaluation Project (MCEP) is a joint research and development exercise with participation from the mining industry, NGOs, labour, government agencies, the financial and accounting sector and research institutions. It aims to evaluate whether independent third party certification of environmental and social performance can be applied to the mining sector, by undertaking a policy research project in the Australian context.

The MCEP has secured the financial and in-kind support of BHP Billiton, CSIRO, Newmont, Placer Dome, WMC Resources and WWF for this project.

The project commenced in August 2002 and will run for 18 months.

A working paper was released in December 2003 for comment by 24 January 2004. The Working Paper introduces the MCEP, discusses some background concepts, and proposes draft Working Principles and Criteria for mine site certification.

Working Paper 1 – Principles and Criteria for Certification (PDF 596KB)

The following background documents are available in relation to the project:

Evaluating the Feasibility of Independent Third Party Certification for the Mining Sector (PDF 44KB) - Michael Rae, Andrew Rouse and Fiona Solomon, Australian Journal of Environmental Management, Vol. 9, December 2002.

MCEP Discussion Paper (PDF 639KB)

MCEP Fact Sheet (PDF 17KB)

A series of regular updates is being produced through the course of the project:

Update 1 - January 2003 (PDF 24KB)

Update 2 - April 2003 (PDF 32KB)

Update 3 - August 2003 (PDF 28KB)

Update 4 - November 2003 (PDF 28KB)

Update 5 - February 2004 (PDF 25KB)

Update 6 - June 2004 (PDF 25KB)

Further information is available from the project website: http://www.minerals.csiro.au/certification

• Worldwatch Paper #162: The Anatomy of Resource Wars - Michael Renner, October 2002. The paper is now available as a free PDF download from Worldwatch.

• Time for Transparency: Coming clean on oil, mining and gas revenues - Global Witness Limited, March 2004. Revenues from oil, gas and mining that should be funding sustainable economic development have been misappropriated and mismanaged. This Global Witness report considers five major examples of this problem: Kazakhstan, Congo Brazzaville, Angola, Equatorial Guinea and Nauru.

• Finding the Way Forward: how could voluntary action move mining towards sustainable development? - Jim Walker and Steve Howard, 2003. Follow up report to the MMSD project that reviews the role of voluntary initiatives in the mining sector.

• The Regulation of Mineral Enterprises: A Global Perspective on Economics, Law and Policy (PDF) - James Otto and John Cordes, Institute for Global Resouces Policy and Management, Colorado School of Mines, 550pp, May 2002. A comprehensive text addressing a variety of mineral law and policy issues. Major topics covered in the volume include:mineral policy, mining laws and agreements, conflict avoidance and dipute settlement, bilateral and multilateral arrangements that affect the mineral industry, international investment laws and mineral taxation, and environmental and sustainable development issues. The preface, contents and an order form are available as downloads in Adobe PDF. The book may be purchased through the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (RMMLF).

• Comments on 'Treasure or Trouble? Mining in Developing Countries' - Michael L. Ross, UCLA Department of Political Science. Submission to the Extractive Industries Review (EIR).

• Should Developing Countries Renounce Mining?: A Perspective on the Debate (PDF 132KB) - Graham A. Davis and John E. Tilton, commissioned by the ICMM as a submission to the World Bank Extractive Industries Review (EIR), December 2002.

• Spreading the Wealth: The Role of the World Bank Group in Mining (PDF 220KB) - ICMM submission to the World Bank Extractive Industries Review (EIR), December 2002.

• Looking Beneath the Surface: An Assessment of the Value of Public Support for the Metal Mining Industry in Canada (Adobe PDF in English 915KB and French 506KB) - MiningWatch Canada and the Pembina Institute, 2002. The report shows how the cost to Canadian federal taxpayers for the care and feeding of the metal mining industry has increased to C$383 million a year, while in return the industry is delivering fewer jobs and reduced economic activity. The study quantifies both the public costs to support the metal mining industry and the benefits generated by the industry in fiscal years 1994-95 and 2000-01.

• Leaders and Laggards: Next-Generation Environmental Regulation - Prof. Neil Gunningham, and Darren Sinclair, Australian National University (ANU), 2002.
  Chapter 7 of the book focuses upon voluntary approaches in the mining sector.

• Report on the Philippine National Conference on Mining (Adobe PDF 631KB) - Engr. Catalino Corpuz, Jr. Briefing Paper No. 10, Tebtebba Foundation, May 2002.
  The Briefing Paper focuses on the results, including the declaration
  and resolutions, of the Philippine National Conference on Mining held
  last May 6 - 8, 2002 in Baguio City, Philippines.

• The Significance of a National Conference on Mining (Adobe PDF 650KB) - Engr. Catalino Corpuz, Jr., Briefing Paper No. 9, Tebtebba Foundation, May 2002.
  The Briefing Paper analyzes and critiques mining initiatives, in the national as well as in the international arena and discusses an alternative mining policy that supports genuine national industrialization and genuine agrarian reform.

• Indigenous Perspectives: The Myth of Sustainable and Responsible Mining - Tebtebba Foundation, Vol. 5, No.1, 2002.
  The third in a series focusing on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). The issue discusses the mining industry's efforts to present its paradigm of “Sustainable and Responsible Mining” to greenwash industry activities. These initiatives are critiqued in the light of indigenous peoples' opposition to extractive industries that mine and destroy their lands.

• Regulatory Approaches for the 21st Century - How Government
  Regulations Interface with Voluntary Initiatives to Improve the
  Environmental Performance of the Mining Sector (Adobe PDF 8MB, ZIP 3MB) - UNEP-DTIE Regulators Workshop 2 Report, Toronto, Canada, 13 -15 March 2002.
  

• From Rio to Johannesburg: Mining Less in a Sustainable World - Payal Sampat, World Summit Policy Brief #9, Worldwatch Institute, 2002. - Proposes a plan of action that expands on the WSSD Draf t Implementation Plan and other activities currently in progress.

• Mineral Law and Policy course - A distance learning course has been prepared by the Centre for Energy, Petroleum & Mineral Law & Policy (CEPMLP) at the University of Dundee, 2002.
  

• Green National Accounting: the Case of Chile's Mining Sector - Eugenio Figueroa, Enrique Calfucura and Javier Nunez. Environment and Development Economics, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 215-239, May 2002. - This study concludes that Chile's outstanding recent economic growth, attributed largely to the mineral sector, has been overestimated by the traditional National Account Systems as a significant part corresponds to the depreciation of the country's natural capital.

• Why Governments Waste Natural Resources: Policy Failures in Developing Countries - William Ascher. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.

• Two Cultures of Sustainable Development (Adobe PDF 414kB) - Susan A. Joyce and Ian Thomson - Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Communique, May 2002. Discusses how the differing perceptions of developed and developing country stakeholders affect views on the mineral industry and sustainable development.

• The Annual Survey of Mining Companies - The Fraser Institute, Canada. - A survey of the perception of mining executives as to the investment attractiveness of different countries based on geological and policy attractiveness for the years 1998/1999, 1999/2000, 2000/2001, and 2001/2002.

• Undermining the Law: Addressing the Crisis in Compliance with Environmental Mining Laws in British Columbia (Adobe PDF) - West Coast Environmental Law and the Environmental Mining Council of BC, December 2001.

• The MMSD Final Report - The final report and recommendations of the Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development (MMSD) project that is intended to provide guidance for moving the industry towards sustainable development.

• The ICMM Toronto Declaration - A declaration by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) presented during the Global Mining Initiative (GMI) Conference held in Toronto in May 2002. The GMI conference brought together top industry leaders and critics to discuss the outcomes of the MMSD project. The declaration is intended to guide the development of a work plan for the ICMM.

• Mining Sector Reform and Investment: Results of a Global Survey - Koh Naito, Felix Remy, and John P. Williams, Mining Journal, 2001. Survey of 44 countries comparing the progress in implementing legal, fiscal, and institutional reform of their mining sectors. 

• Review of Legal and Fiscal Frameworks for Exploration and Mining - Koh Naito, Felix Remy, and John P. Williams, Mining Journal, 2001. A detailed analysis of 25 mineral-rich developing countries that have updated their mining laws.

• The RMMLF Digital Library - The Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation (RMMLF) have prepared a natural resources legal databases containing over 2,000 articles from 150 books and manuals (over 80,000 pages) that have been authored by experts for the Foundation during the period 1955-2001. These are available on a CD-ROM that may be purchased from the RMMLF.

• Hard Currency: The Criminalized Diamond Economy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its Neighbours (Adobe PDF Full Report / Summary) - Partnership Africa Canada, June 2002. Report of the Diamonds and Human Security Project that links the wars in Angola and the Congo, along with other conflicts in Central Africa, to the illicit trade in conflict diamonds. Concludes with recommendations for countries in Central Africa, the United Nations, the Kimberley Process and donor agencies.