Beginning this year, all 19 members of the Chamber of Mines of the Philippines (COMP) with operating mines in the Philippines will fully implement the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative.

TSM is a global ESG performance measurement standard—with public reporting—that the organization adopted in 2017. There are currently 19 COMP member companies with operating mines in the Philippines.

In a statement, COMP said this means that these mines will submit their self-assessment reports on 8 TSM Protocols for their January to December 2023 performance via an online app called Mine Site Sustainability Audit (MSSA), exclusively designed for TSM’s implementation in the Philippines.

The mines will conduct internal audits and should be able to support their self-ratings with proof and evidence.

Ten of the 19 mines will be subjected to independent external verification by highly qualified Verification Service Providers (VSPs) to validate the reports. The other nine will be VSP-validated next year.

The results of all self-assessment and externally verified reports will be made public.

“After we adopted TSM in December 2017, we embarked on a 6-year preparation period that saw our members actively participate in the Filipinization of the TSM Protocols,” COMP Chairman Michael Toledo said.

“That period also saw the formation of our multi-sector Community of Interest Advisory Panel, the training and accreditation of our VSPs, the development and cascading of the MSSA, a self-assessment dry run, and the ‘mock’ external verification of three volunteer mines: Rio Tuba Nickel, OceanaGold Didipio, and Philex Padcal.”

The 16 other COMP member firms with operating mines are Benguet Corp., Cagdianao Mining Corp., Carmen Copper Corp., Carrascal Nickel Corp., CTP Construction and Mining Corp., Dinapigue Mining Corp., Eramen Minerals Inc., FCF Minerals Inc., Filminera Resources Corp., Hinatuan Mining Corp., Lepanto Consolidated MiningCo., LNL Archipelago Minerals Inc., Platinum Group Metals Corp., Taganito Mining Corp. and TVI Resource Development Philippines.

“This year, now sufficiently familiar with TSM, we are implementing the program following our commitment to our stakeholders that we will strive for ESG performance beyond the word of the law,” Toledo said.

COMP members will assess their ESG performance against these TSM Protocols: Safety and Health, Community and Indigenous Peoples Outreach and Social Development, Crisis Management and Communications, Tailings Management, Water Management, Biodiversity Conservation Management and Climate Change.

TSM is a set of tools and indicators to drive performance, ensure that key mining risks are managed responsibly, and best practices are used at members’ facilities. It was established by the Mining Association of Canada in 2004.

The Philippines, through COMP, remains the only country in Asia to subscribe to TSM. COMP has made TSM mandatory for all its members.

The other TSM-implementing jurisdictions are Argentina, Australia, Botswana, Brazil, Colombia, Finland, Guatemala, Mexico, Norway, Panama, Spain, and Quebec.

Reprinted from businessmirror.com.ph | February 26, 2024