Mogalakwena joins other Anglo American Platinum mines in achieving IRMA credentials
Anglo American Platinum says its Mogalakwena mine in South Africa has been assessed against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) comprehensive mining standard for the first time, achieving an IRMA 50 level of performance.
This is a further reflection of Anglo American Platinum’s integrated approach to sustainability and its commitment to transparency in striving for responsible platinum group metals (PGMs) production, the company says.
Mogalakwena is the last of the four owned PGMs mines in Anglo American Platinum’s stable to complete an IRMA audit. This follows the achievement of Unki mine in Zimbabwe, the first mine in the world to publicly commit to be independently audited against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining, achieving IRMA 75 in 2021 and reconfirmed in 2024 at IRMA 75 following a regular surveillance audit. Mototolo and Amandelbult were also audited in 2024 – for the first time, achieving IRMA 75 and IRMA 50 respectively.
IRMA offers independent third-party verification against a comprehensive standard for all mined materials that provides ‘one-stop coverage’ of the full range of issues related to the impacts of industrial-scale mines, IRMA states. The IRMA scoring system recognises four levels of performance: IRMA Transparency, in which a mine is third party-assessed and publicly shares its scores; IRMA 50, 75 or 100, signifying that a mine meets a core set of critical requirements together with at least 50%, 75% or 100% of the requirements in each of the four principles of the Standard for Responsible Mining being sustainably or fully met respectively.
IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mining has been developed over a decade through a public consultation process with more than 100 different individuals and organisations, including mining companies, customers and the ultimate downstream users of mined products, NGOs, labour unions, and communities, and is considered to be one of the most rigorous verification processes.
Craig Miller, CEO of Anglo American Platinum, said: “As a leading adopter of the IRMA, we recognise that stakeholders, including our shareholders and customers, need to trust where and how our metals are mined. With this latest IRMA accreditation for Mogalakwena, we have achieved our target of having all our mines assured by 2025. We are immensely proud of the work the teams are doing across all of our operations to support responsible mining, enabling us to demonstrate an ethical value chain for our metals, and we look forward to continuing to lead the way in the PGMs sector globally.”
Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of IRMA, said: “Through detailed IRMA audit reports, mining companies, communities and companies that purchase mined materials can gain the information they need to decide what’s going well and what may require more attention at specific mines. Mogalakwena’s report demonstrates that the mine can point to transparent, independent evaluations of their environmental and social performance along with the other three Anglo American Platinum mines in South Africa and Zimbabwe.”
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