Sustainability Reporting: Lessons on initiating a sustainability report in a junior mining company

This project seeks to simplify and clarify the process of initiating a sustainability report using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). During Lindsay’s previous Mitacs Accelerate project, she identified the GRI as the best reporting framework for Junior and Mid-Tier miners. Further to this, Lindsay created a “Quick-Sheet” as a tool to help small companies understand the GRI and which identifies and recommends Performance Indicators which represent core sustainability obligations in the mining sector. The scope of the Quick Sheet includes governance, transparency, health and safety, environmental performance, climate mitigation, project financing and engagement with communities. This project will include researching and consolidating “best-practice” advice for how to put into place robust and complete data collection mechanisms, lessons learned from implementation of said advice, and key recommendations for how to make the initiation of a sustainability report a smooth undertaking. The findings of this project will help Keegan Resources reduce risk and will help to bolster their sustainability performance and reputation. It is our hope that the project will resonate with other Juniors and Mid-Tier companies in the mining sector and thus also transfer these benefits to these firms, raising the sustainability performance of the industry as a whole.

Faculty Supervisor:

Stephanie Bertels

Student:

Lindsay McIvor

Partner:

Keegan Resources Inc.

Discipline:

Business

Sector:

Mining and quarrying

University:

Simon Fraser University