Guatemala’s national mining association Gremial de Recursos Naturales, Minas y Canteras (GRENAT) recently adopted the corporate social responsibility performance standards of Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM).
GRENAT and its affiliated companies will now adopt the indicators that will allow them to measure and publicly report on the most integral aspects of its mining industry, including those focused on environmental stewardship and effective community engagement, per the outlines of the mining environmental and social programme.
It joins 10 other mining associations in the adoption; it is the fourth in Latin America together with Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. Guatemala’s mining chamber will now tailor TSM’s performance areas to its unique components.
The adoption commits the country to implementation in the next five years.
“Since its origins, mining has been constantly evolving. And this evolution would not be complete without including responsible actions to help our planet, take care of our natural resources, and of course, our communities,” said GRENAT Executive Director Valery Zurita.
“Joining TSM will allow us to create an even more responsible model of mining for Guatemala and keep evolving in the right direction, in line with our commitment to national development and the creation of prosperity for new generations.”
TSM, first developed in Canada, was the first mining sustainability standard in the world to require site-level assessments and is mandatory for all companies that are members of implementing associations. Through TSM, eight critical aspects of social and environmental performance are evaluated, independently validated, and publicly reported against 30 distinct performance indicators.
“We feel privileged that Guatemala has chosen TSM to drive positive change in its mining sector and are very proud of TSM’s increasing international reach,” said TSM partner Mining Association of Canada’s President and CEO Pierre Gratton.
“The past several years have witnessed TSM’s adoption by other mining associations around the world and the program is now in the process of being implemented in Canada, Norway, Finland, Spain, Botswana, Brazil, Argentina, the Philippines, Australia and Colombia, allowing us to say that TSM is a truly global standard.”
TSM’s performance standards include climate change, tailings management, water stewardship, Indigenous and community relationships, safety and health, biodiversity conservation, crisis management and preventing child and forced labour.
Sources: www.TSMinitiative.com and www.grenat.gt