Responsible Mining Business Integrity Tool

Translations

Transparency International’s Responsible Mining Business Integrity (RMBI) Tool helps mining companies evaluate and strengthen their anti-corruption controls and procedures, with a specific focus on project licensing, permitting and acquisitions.

With indicators selected from close to 40 international best practice standards and frameworks, this online and interactive tool helps companies reduce their corruption risk exposure by:

highlighting the most critical policies and procedures for business integrity
providing a framework for companies to evaluate business integrity performance
offering practical guidance and resources

Why use this tool?

Governance insights: exploring China’s global mining sector Today, investors are placing greater emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, geopolitics, and climate change. As the extraction of green minerals expands to meet the demands of the energy transition, prioritising climate governance within the mining industry has become crucial for governments, investors, and civil society.

Having effective systems, underpinned by company-wide values, to detect, prevent, and manage corruption risks is a business imperative. It ensures compliance with applicable laws because it is good for business. Corruption impacts project viability, company reputation, and future business relationships.

This tool was developed through examination of international best practice standards and frameworks such as GRI, IFC Performance Standards, SASB, UK Bribery Act Guidance, US FPCA Guidance, IRMA, Responsible Mining Index, and the UN Global Compact.

The business case

For the second year in a row ESG issues have been identified as the number one business risk for the mining industry. Therefore, a company’s ability to demonstrate business and climate integrity in the mining sector is increasingly critical to the success of any project. There is also a commercial incentive to take action. Companies that take corruption risk and business integrity seriously can increase their investment attractiveness.

What's in the tool?

The tool is designed to enable companies to evaluate performance in three key areas:

Assessing business integrity risks in the country context and within the company's business activities and relationships

Embedding business integrity measures in training, communications and the company's anti-corruption programme.

Demonstrating business integrity through the company's external communications and reporting

How can this tool help?

The tool helps companies assess their policies and procedures on business integrity and anti-corruption and identify where these need to improve.

In addition, the tool aims to increase awareness across business units and functions of the importance of business integrity from an ESG perspective. For companies with robust business integrity policies and practices, the tool enables them to identify and demonstrate their strengths and efforts to stakeholders such as investors, regulators, and citizens of host countries.

The tool’s main components are:

highlighting the most critical policies and procedures for business integrity.

providing a framework to evaluate business integrity performance.

meaningful community engagement, including gender considerations and women’s participation.

transparency, reporting and disclosures.

offering practical guidance and resources.

Transparency International’s Accountable Mining Programme, supported by the Anglo-American Foundation, has developed this tool.

The tool’s development was funded by the BHP Foundation and the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade between 2016 and 2021.

The online version of this tool was developed with the support of the Worley Foundation.