Gerdau’s Miguel Burnier iron ore mine completes IRMA audit

Today the Initiative for Responsible Mining (IRMA) released the audit report of Gerdau’s Miguel Burnier iron ore mine against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining. The Miguel Burnier Mine is located in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state in the municipality of Ouro Preto. Independent audit firm SCS Global Services assessed the Miguel Burnier Mine at IRMA 50 when measuring its performance against the Standard’s best practice social and environmental criteria.

IRMA 50 means that SCS Global Services verified that the operations at least substantially met all 40 critical requirements of the IRMA Standard, as well as at least 50% of the Standard’s criteria in each of the four principle areas: social responsibility, environmental responsibility, business integrity and planning for positive legacies. The full audit report is available on the Miguel Burnier audit page on the IRMA website.

“This report demonstrates that mines can point to transparent, independent evaluations of their environmental and social performance,” said Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of IRMA. “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.”

As the IRMA Standard is recognized and adopted around the globe, these audits are steps in a deepening dialogue between mining companies and those affected by their operations. Because the process is still evolving, the results should be reviewed and interpreted accordingly.

“An increasing number of community members and workers are engaging in IRMA audits, and they’re using the audit reports to communicate directly with the mining company about their priorities for improvement,” Ms. Boulanger said. “If readers find results inconsistent with their experience, we encourage them to share their perspectives with IRMA and the company so that we can improve the audit review process and support continuing improvement at the site—as community members and NGOs have already done in this case.”

“We are always looking to improve not only mining practices, but also IRMA’s system. IRMA’s improvements, and being transparent about how we need to improve, is built into our system and a measure of its success,” said Ms. Boulanger.

Wendel Gomes da Silva, Mining and Raw Materials Director at Gerdau, said: “Miguel Burnier’s IRMA 50 achievement, and the sharing of the audit results that explain our performance against the 400+ IRMA requirements, is a sign of our commitment to transparency, to more responsible mining practices, and to open dialogue with all affected stakeholders and rightsholders. In its 124-year history, Gerdau is commitment to be part of the solutions to society’s challenges and to have a positive impact on the regions in which it operates.”

Including Miguel Burnier, 23 industrial-scale mines worldwide are within the IRMA independent assessment system. After an initial self-assessment, a participating mine engages a third-party audit firm — trained and approved by IRMA — to conduct a detailed independent evaluation, including on-site visits to the mine and nearby communities. Following the release of the initial audit, a shorter surveillance audit checks on the mine’s performance. Three years after the initial audit, the operation is fully audited again.

The independent IRMA system is the only global mining standard that provides equal power to the public sector (communities and Indigenous rights holders, mine workers, and environmental and human rights advocates) alongside the private sector (mining companies, mined materials purchasers and investors).

For More Information:

Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director, +1.301.202.1445, [email protected]
Miguel Burnier audit packet: https://responsiblemining.net/miguelburnier-packet
Miguel Burnier IRMA audit page: https://responsiblemining.net/miguelburnier