The Copper Mark serves to validate the copper industry’s responsible production practices and the industry’s contribution to the United Nations SDGs.
THE COPPER MARK CRITERIA FOR RESPONSIBLE PRODUCTION
The Copper Mark Criteria for Responsible Production are management system requirements defined in the Risk Readiness Assessment and the Criteria Guide. All participants of the Copper Mark commit to fully meet all criteria within 24 months.
The Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) is created by the Responsible Minerals Initiative. It represents the core expectations from over 40 leading existing voluntary sustainability standards across all major environmental, social, and governance topics. To learn more about how it was developed, visit the Responsible Mineral Initiative’s website.
Download the Risk Readiness Assessment criteria here.
The Criteria Guide provides additional guidance, including a description of the performance determination and means of verification for each criterion.
Download the Criteria Guide here.
ELIGIBILITY
The Copper Mark Assurance Process must be implemented at site-level. A site may comprise several activities in different locations in the same geographic area (e.g., mines, wastewater treatment facilities, refineries, ports and associated infrastructure), and under the same management control. Integrated sites, where the point of extraction and transformation or processing are critical operations to the output of the site, will generally be treated as one site. Companies may engage in and operate one site or multiple sites. In the case of a joint venture, the name of the joint venture will be designated as the site and the operating partner will be responsible for demonstrating conformance.
Sites of a copper producer are eligible to take part in The Copper Mark Assurance Process:
A copper producer is a company involved in the production of copper, including but not limited to companies involved in mining, solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW), smelting, or refining of copper. To be eligible to be a Participant in The Copper Mark, the entity must produce copper or copper products. The Copper supply chain includes multi-metal producers. Multi-metal producers can choose to include these other metals in the scope of the Copper Mark requirements.