On 25th January 2019, there was a catastrophic tailings dam collapse at Vale’s Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho, Brazil. The tragedy resulted in 272 lives lost, devastated communities and considerable impacts on the local environment. The disaster has widely been recognised as revealing asystemic failing in mine waste management in the mining sector.
In response, the Investor Mining and Tailings Safety Initiative (IMTSI) was launched by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Swedish Council on Ethics of their public pension funds. The initiative was backed by over 100 institutional investors with more than $25 trillion in assets under management, and has transformed transparency and accountability in mining.
What the initiative did
Led by the Pensions Board, investor initiative delivered a programme of reforms that reshaped industry practice:
- Drove widespread industry disclosure: Within months of Brumadinho, the Initiative engaged with mining companies to require public disclosure of every tailings facility globally alongside 20 governance and safety questions. 45 of the 50 largest miners complied, covering 87% of the sector by market capitalisation, with more than 1,800 dams made public for the first time.
- Established a global tailings portal: Partnering with GRID-Arendal and the United Nations, the initiative created a free, searchable database (tailing.grida.no) giving investors, regulators, and communities unprecedented visibility of tailings facilities worldwide.
- Created a global safety standard: Together with the UN and the International Council on Mining & Metals, the Initiative led the investor contribution to the development of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM), which was launched in 2020 after extensive consultation with stakeholders.
- Drove adoption and accountability: Over 300 companies were engaged to commit to the Standard, with responses published for transparency. Investors used these disclosures to guide proxy voting, escalating pressure on companies that did not take this risk seriously. Over 68% of publicly listed companies by capitalisation committed to implement the Standard or work towards doing so.
- Established independent oversight: To secure lasting impact, the initiative worked with the UN, representing the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) to set up an independent Global Tailings Management Institute, to be a permanent body to monitor progress, provide global accountability and oversee independent auditing of companies compliance with the Industry Standard. The Global Institute is now operational (thegtmi.org) with an independent multi-stakeholder Board headquartered in South Africa.
