Policy asks to support increased capabilities of artisanal and small-scale miners BOX 8 Support cross-sector and cross-industry collaboration Mining and metals companies can collaborate within the sector and beyond to encourage sustainability, innovation and responsibility across the industry. For example, businesses can: –Support knowledge sharing, including disclosure requirements, between junior and major companies or leading and lagging regions. –Engage with legitimate ASM producers, alongside national and local governments and environmental NGOs, in the spirit of progressive improvement, providing technical and financial support to help ASM actors implement correction action plans.294 –Collaborate across industrial sectors to harness process efficiencies, for example, by developing industrial hubs, clusters or parks to share infrastructure and services and trial innovative new technologies (e.g. sharing waste management facilities, CCUS facilities or transport and trialling hydrogen technologies).295 –Require that mining companies comply with FPIC of Indigenous, tribal and traditional communities with collective land and resource rights, throughout all stages of exploration and extraction. –Require that mining companies identify potential and actual risks and impacts to biodiversity before, during and after mining as part of the environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) process and permit conditions; integrate biodiversity into environmental and social management plans (ESMPs). –Require that mining companies submit performance assessments to governments and publish regular public reports, disclosing environmental and social impacts and actions. –Strengthen pollution policy to promote innovation, for example, in line with the EU’s “best available techniques” regulation.290 –Set stronger requirements for restoration and relinquishment in closure planning,291 including limiting large-scale developments following a mining action and requiring robust stakeholder engagement processes to determine post-mining land uses. –Tackle the legacy of abandoned mines in collaboration with mining companies, including assigning responsibility and rehabilitation requirements. –Establish mechanisms, platforms and requirements for information sharing and reporting in collaboration with companies across the value chain and civil society. –Support the scale-up of circular materials production and development of advanced recycling and sorting technologies to reduce demand for primary materials, e.g. electric vehicle battery metals.292 –Improve governance to support artisanal and small-scale mining and tackle illegal mining (see Box 8). As well as supporting the development of more progressive policies to reduce nature impacts, companies should embed nature in all advocacy efforts and avoid advocating for policies that negatively impact nature. Artisanal and small-scale mining is a complex and diversified sector, and companies can collaboratively call on governments to strengthen policies in order to reduce this sub-sector’s impacts on nature and enhance the quality of life of workers.293 This includes: –Integrating ASM into the formal economy and legal system, for example, by developing specific legal frameworks to manage operations, supporting operators to meet regulatory requirements, and establishing robust mechanisms for monitoring and enforcement of sanctions when practices are unacceptable. –Integrating ASM into the economic system, for example, by providing technical training, facilitating access to the financial system and improving finance literacy, and supporting the development of associations and responsible supply-chain initiatives. –Developing environmental and social protections in ASM, for example, by establishing and enforcing regulations to safeguard water sources, minimize habitat loss, manage tailings and rehabilitate sites; taking steps to reduce and, where possible, eliminate the use of mercury and other toxic substances; and strengthening the capacity of women working in ASM. Nature Positive: Role of the Mining and Metals Sector 45

Nature Positive Role of the Mining and Metals Sector