The Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) and the Copper Mark revised the Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) Criteria and corresponding Criteria Guide in 2021-2023 and published the final version on 19 October 2023.

The RRA is used by over 320 mining, smelting, refining, and manufacturing sites across multiple metals including aluminum, alumina, bauxite, cobalt, copper, gold, graphite, iron ore, lead, lithium, mica, molybdenum, nickel, palladium, platinum, rare earth elements, silver, steel, tantalum, tin, tungsten, and zinc.

The RRA is both a set of criteria for responsible production and a tool for companies to communicate their environmental, social and governance practices. Its main uses are:

1. As a voluntary self-assessment and self-reporting tool for minerals and metals producers and processors participating in the RMI’s Responsible Minerals Assurance Process.
2. As the foundation of the RMI’s Environmental, Social, and Governance Standard for Mineral Supply Chains; and
3. As the foundation of the Copper Mark Criteria for Responsible Production against which sites are independently assessed during the Copper Mark Assurance Process.

Risk Readiness Assessment Revision Process

The first public consultation on the revised RRA Criteria and Criteria Guide took place from 2 May 2022 through 1 July 2022.

Summary feedback from that public consultation can be found here.

The draft documents on which stakeholders provided feedback during the first public consultation are here:

2022 DRAFT Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) Criteria (ESP, CHI)

2022 DRAFT Criteria Guide (ESP, CHI)

All of the feedback received was discussed by the Copper Mark and RMI teams. Substantive feedback was further discussed with the joint Copper Mark/RMI Technical Committee, a multistakeholder group of technical experts. The feedback received during the first public consultation and the subsequent input from the Technical Committee led to the development of a second draft of the RRA Criteria and Criteria Guide.

The second public consultation on the second draft of the RRA Criteria and Criteria Guide took place from 1 March through 1 April 2023.

Summary feedback from that public consultation can be found here.

The draft documents on which stakeholders provided feedback during the second public consultation are here:

2023 DRAFT Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) Criteria (ESP)

2023 DRAFT Criteria Guide (ESP, CHI)

Finalisation of the Draft

Once again, all of the feedback received was discussed by the Copper Mark and RMI teams. Substantive feedback was further discussed with the Technical Committee

The final RRA Criteria Guide was adopted by the Copper Mark Board of Directors and the RMI Steering Committee.

Publication of the final draft of the RRA Criteria and Criteria Guide (CHI, ESP, FRA, IND) took place at the Responsible Business Alliance Annual Conference on 19 October 2023.

Summary of the feedback that we received across both consultations, our responses to that feedback and lessons learned from the revision process can be found here.

Read about the process, stakeholder engagement plan, and Technical Committee Terms of Reference for the Risk Readiness Assessment revision.

The Copper Mark published its draft Chain of Custody Standard for consultation from 22 December 2021 through 28 February 2022.  The Standard is complementary to but not a replacement for an assessment of the Copper Mark Criteria, available to mines, smelters, refiners, and semis-fabricators (currently in pilot).

The Chain of Custody Standard’s core objectives are to:

• Increase transparency in copper supply chains.
• Allow customers to be confident that their copper was produced responsibly.
• To track a copper product throughout the supply chain.
• Contribute to the uptake of responsible production practices and in particular use of the Copper Mark Responsible Production Criteria (Copper Mark Criteria) and Assessment Process.
• Contribute to the increased use of recycled material and support efforts to move to a circular economy.
• Allow product-level claims of Copper Mark copper.

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback.  Your comments have been logged and will be reviewed to inform the revision of the Chain of Custody Standard.  If necessary, the Copper Mark will hold a second public consultation for any unresolved issues.

Development of the Standard

The development process is managed by Copper Mark staff through the Technical Working Group. The timeline for development, consultations, and finalization are intended to be complete for launch in 2023.

Summary documents of the public consultation are available below:

• Chain of Custody Standard Public Consultation Feedback Log
• Chain of Custody Standard Public Consultation Summary Report

The Joint Standard was developed by a working group including the partner organizations, other interested commodity associations, multi-metal company representatives, as well as OECD and LME. The Joint Due Diligence Standard will undergo an independent third-party OECD Alignment Assessment. Through the working group, the partner organizations implement a clearly defined roadmap to ensure copper, lead, nickel and zinc brands will be able to rely on the shared framework to respond to the LME before June 2022. The process includes four main phases:

• Phase 1 – 2019 / early 2020: Development of the roadmap and formation of the working group (completed)
• Phase 2 – 2020: Development of the joint Due Diligence Standard and Tool, including a public consultation (finalization of the tool in progress)
• Phase 3 – Early 2021: Pilot implementation of the joint Due Diligence Standard
• Phase 4 – 2021 / early 2022: Independent third-party OECD Alignment Assessment and application for approval by LME as Track A “OECD-aligned external standard”.

From 27 August 2020 to 30 September 2020, the partner organizations published a draft of the joint Standard for consultation. The anonymized comment log, as well as a summary report of the main feedback received and how the working group has sought to address these are published here:

• Joint Due Diligence Standard Public Consultation Feedback Log
• Joint Due Diligence Standard Public Consultation Summary Report