Assurance

Assurance is the process by which the Copper Mark ensures that the claims made by participants are credible and trustworthy.

ASSURANCE

Participants in the Copper Mark commit to fully meet the requirements of the Copper Mark standards.  Each site is independently verified to meet the standard criteria through a rigorous site-level assessment process.

Conformance is verified by senior assessors with a strong track record of evaluating management systems.  The Copper Mark reviews their qualifications and approves each assessor individually.

After successful completion of the assessment, the performance determination and a summary of the assessment activities, methodology and results are published.  Sites must address all gaps between their practices and the standard criteria to meet their commitment.

The Copper Mark recognises that core expectations evolve over time and become more demanding.  For this reason, each site is re-assessed every three years against updated criteria.  Detailed expectations and timelines are defined in the Copper Mark Assurance Process.

Key elements in the assurance process include:

  • Transparency in process and results: The process for implementing the Copper Mark’s assurance framework is clear with the required steps and their associated timelines publicly available on our website here. The results of a site’s assessment, including the performance level for each criterion and a high-level summary of findings, are published here.
  • Site-level, independent third-party assurance: The Copper Mark assurance process is implemented at site-level by independent third-party assessors.
  • Grievance Mechanism: The Copper Mark Grievance Mechanism aims to address concerns arising from producers, stakeholders and the public regarding the initiative, the assurance system, assessor competencies or claims made by participants with regards to their conformance status with the Copper Mark.
  • Accountability: Our governance and financials information, including our fee schedule and annual audited financial accounts, are publicly available on our website here. The Copper Mark publishes external reviews, and our improvement plan to address gaps identified in them, on our website here.

We provide assurance services against the following standards:

Users of our services are able to obtain the following claims:

  • Copper Mark, Molybdenum Mark, Nickel Mark and Zinc Mark
  • OECD-aligned mineral supply chain due diligence system
  • Performance scores against Towards Sustainable Mining Protocols