UK EITI Mining & Quarrying subgroup meeting note, 21st November 2024

UK EITI Mining & Quarrying subgroup meeting, Thursday 21^st November 2024

Attendees

John Bowater                     Aurelie Delannoy                Mike Earp                                         

Dr Pat Foster                      Becca Kirk (CMA)               Hedi Zaghouani                 

Mike Nash (Chair)

Requirements 3.2a/3.2b/3.3a/3.3b 

The subgroup discussed the following mandatory requirements, which were currently assessed as “mostly met”.

3.2a Implementing Countries (ICs) are required to disclose timely production data, including production volumes and values by commodity. Data must be further disaggregated by project, where available.

3.2b The sources of and the methods for calculating production volumes and values must be disclosed. ICs are required to disclose existing mechanisms to monitor and verify the accuracy of production data and document findings, including any weaknesses related to the comprehensiveness and reliability of publicly available production data. 

3.2b ICs are required to disclose existing mechanisms to monitor and verify the accuracy of production data and document findings, including any weaknesses related to the comprehensiveness and reliability of publicly available production data. 

3.3a ICs are required to disclose timely export data, including export volumes and the value by commodity and by exporting company.

3.3b ICs must disclose existing mechanisms to monitor and verify the accuracy of export data and document findings, including any weaknesses related to the comprehensiveness and reliability of publicly available export data.

• It was agreed that there would be difficulties collecting the data being requested by these requirements. Data for UK minerals is generally very limited.
• There were also concerns around the credibility, granularity and timeliness of the data that is available. There were also concerns around commercial sensitivity of disclosing data by value and reticence by companies to disclose such data.
• Data on many minerals is no longer collected by the Office of National Statistics. The most recent data is from 2022.
• For requirement 3.2a “where available” can be used as grounds/justification for not disclosing. However, this would not be the case with requirement 3.3a.
• It was agreed that the first step should be to pull together a list of all the various data sources for the UK minerals sector. (Action: Subgroup members to provide links to various sources of data for the requirements to the UK EITI Secretariat to compile a list).
• Once the sources of data have been collected an audit can take place to look at the timeliness, granularity and credibility of the available data. (Action: Subgroup members and UK EITI Secretariat).
• This will then help to inform a short paper about the availability and practicalities of disclosing much of data required for tabling at the MSG meeting on 15^th January 2025 (or via email if the paper is not ready by the January MSG). (Action: Aurelie agreed to provide the first draft of paper for subgroup comment).