Industry Partners are select Member companies of the World Economic Forum that are actively involved in the Forum’s mission at the industry level. With privileged access to the Forum’s multistakeholder networks and experts, partnership brings visibility and insight to strategic decision-making on the most important industry and cross-industry related issues.

This access and insight allows Partners to contribute to leading change in global and regional issues and engage in action to support corporate global citizenship. 

Highlights 

The Mining and Metals community at the World Economic Forum consists of 27 major mining and metals companies. Our Industry Partners are select Member companies of the World Economic Forum that are actively involved in the Forum’s mission at the industry level. We offer our partners in the Mining and Metals community to be the pre-eminent partners in identifying and transforming multistakeholder mineral resources issues, through global visibility, privileged access to the Forum’s networks and experts and insight to strategic decision-making on the most important industry and cross-industry related issues. In the course of the various Forum events throughout the year our partners contribute to leading change in global and regional issues and engage in action to support corporate global citizenship.

Since 2010, activities of the mining and metals community have focused on the development of the Responsible Mineral Development Initiative.

 Responsible Mineral Development Initiative

Recognising the diversified nature and extent of the challenges currently faced by the mining industry the RMDI has been examining how the extractive industries in mineral-wealthy developing countries can contribute to socio-economic development and guarantee sustainability in their relationship with national, sub-national and local communities. The Responsible Mineral Development Initiative has identified six dimensions that drive value in the extractives industry, and has used this to develop a structured approach to help stakeholders align drivers of value and provide guidance to maximize that value as a core strategic objective of the respective national mining vision.

The scoping papers 

Looking ‘beyond 2013’ is the goal of the most recent project of the mining and metals team which will be developing a series of high level scoping papers on key issues relevant to the mining & metals (MM) sector, identifying potential future workstreams for 2014. Topics to be examined and developed as part of the white paper series will include the following:

• Non-Governmental Organisations and the Mining and Metals sector;
• New models of infrastructure investment in the Mining and Metals sector;
• Downstream (value chain) challenges and opportunities in the Mining and Metals sector, i.e. aluminium      and steel;
• The role of Mining and Metals in and contribution to a sustainable world- what are the challenges and opportunities? 

The scoping papers project will likewise explore the possibility of developing a responsible mineral development index to measure a country’s and company’s performance in responsible mineral development as well as potential partnerships for implementation.

 Mining and Metals Scenarios to 2030

How will the environment for the global mining and metal sector look in 2030? Based on input from 200 private sector, government, academia and international and non-government organization leaders, three scenarios have been developed to stimulate dialogue and mutual understanding between the public and private sectors and civil society regarding the future of the natural resource sector, and to provide useful tools to improve strategic decision-making, contributing to the sustainability of the global mining and metals sector.

The scenarios consider four categories of uncertainty:

• Geo-economic landscape: Will cross-border flows be more open or more closed?
• Geopolitical landscape: How will stability within and across countries develop over time?
• Environmental outlook: How will environmental regulation evolve in the long term?
• Economic outlook: Will future volatility be more extreme or unpredictable?

The three scenarios to 2030 which have been developed are:

1. Green Trade Alliance – The world is divided and countries are defined economically by whether or not they belong to the Green Trade Alliance (GTA), which was formed to promote environmental sustainability without compromising competitiveness.
2. Rebased Globalism – The world is committed to realizing the benefits of global interconnection but has become far more multi-polar; power comes from control of resources and possession of capital, with resource-rich countries playing by their own rules.
3. Resource Security – The world sees a breakdown in globalization as nations prioritize narrow self-interests; they hoard domestic resources and engage in neo-colonialism and import substitution strategies.

Meet the team members

Michael Tost - Associate Director , Head of Mining & Metals
Contact: michael.tost@weforum.org 

Jose Garcia - Senior Community Manager
Contact: jose.garcia@weforum.org 

Inga Petersen - Community Manager
Contact: inga.petersen@weforum.org 

Lu Zhao - Project Manager
Contact: lu.zhao@weforum.org 

Nadia Buhna - Team Coordinator
Contact: nadia.buhna@weforum.org