World Mines Ministries Forum,
13-15 March 2002

Background

Workshop

Presentations

Background

MMSD was part of the Organizing Committee of the World Mines Ministries Forum (WMMF). Among those joining MMSD on the Committee were the World Bank, UNEP, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Natural Resources Canada. As well as MMSD's involvement with the Forum, other panels included those organised around the themes of 'Mining And People,' 'Creating a Positive Investment Climate' and 'The Role of Geoscience in Creating Investment.'

On 14 March, MMSD Project Director Luke Danielson made a keynote speech on Governance Issues in the Mining Sector, in which some of the principal conclusions from the Project's Draft Report were outlined.

Workshop

The Project also hosted a workshop entitled 'MMSD: An Agenda for Change in the Minerals Sector.' This workshop provided an opportunity for attendees to comment on, debate and contribute to the MMSD Draft Report and specifically on two proposals contained in the Agenda For Change. There were over 100 attendees at the workshop.

The first half of the workshop discussed whether the minerals industry was ready for a Sustainable Development Code, and was chaired by Luke Danielson. Three speakers - Jay Hair of ICMM, Doug Fraser, DJ Fraser Consultants Ltd, and Marcos Orellana from the Environmental Law Institute - introduced the discussions. Issues which they emphasized included: the need to demonstrate the business case for sustainable development; building on MMSD findings and other existing initiatives; and strengthening the international and national legal framework. In breakout discussions, attention was focused around this question: What are the conditions for the successful implementation of a sustainable development code for the minerals industry?

Key Conclusions from the breakout session were:

• developing and developed countries have different understandings of sustainable development;
• the importance of national legal framework is emphasized; the code must not conflict with national legislation;
• the sustainable development code (of conduct) should be voluntary, and should be part of an inclusive and long term multi-stakeholder engagement strategy; it should be developed with other key stakeholders; it should be reviewed periodically to reflect progress; it should apply to the full minerals cycle, not just mining; it should include sanctions against non-compliance and involve third party, independent and professional verification;
• the code at the global level could be supplemented by national and regional level efforts;
• there are concerns about liability and legal implications;
• there is a general agreement that the industry needs to step forward to demonstrate its willingness to improve its performance.

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The second session, chaired by Craig Andrews of the World Bank, was subtitled 'Transparency and Governance in the Management of Mineral Wealth' and featured presentations from John Stewart, South Africa Chamber of Mines, Daniel Meilan, Independent Consultant from Argentina, and Miguel Schloss, Executive Director of Transparency International. Meilan gave a case study on the institutional framework to manage minerals development in Argentina, whilst Stewart emphasised the need for governance and transparency policies to ensure that competition to attract investment will not lead to a race to the bottom. Schloss discussed the need to encourage transparency and anti-corruption practices in the minerals sector through collaboration between industry and civil society. At the breakout session, the following questions were posed: What policies on revenue distribution and transparency should be in place to attract investment and ensure development? What, therefore, is the key message for the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development [held in March 2002]?

Key findings from the second set of breakout discussions were:

• one size does not fit all;
• there should be a system of structured revenue-sharing within a well-defined legal system, which allows a portion of the revenue to stay with the communities;
• there is a need for clear understanding of the impacts of all kinds of benefits, not only cash, and integrated closure planning;
• corruption is destructive and hinders development; the discretionary power of authorities should be reduced;
• public disclosure is needed, including company payments to governments at all level;
• capacity building is key.

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The key message that emerged from this session was that mining and minerals investment can play an important role as a catalyst for development and reducing poverty, providing that good governance is in place and transparency exists.

Presentations

A number of papers were presented by the panels at the MMSD workshop sessions and some of these are now available below, along with some presentations made at other sessions:

WMMF website.

Miguel Schloss (MMSD workshop)

Paper
(PDF 149KB)

Marcos Orellana (MMSD workshop)

Paper
(PDF 413KB)

John Stewart (MMSD workshop)

Presentation
(PDF 53KB)
Paper
(PDF 107KB)

Cristina Echavarria (panel on the 'Road to Johannesburg Summit 2002')

Presentation
(PDF 174KB)

Summary of the Forum

Presentation
(PDF 1039KB)

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