Mining & Metals suffer on ethics, Alcoa and Rio Tinto dispute leadership – Covalence Mining & Metal Industry Report 2008

Insisting questioning of local impacts and benefits have made the Mining & Metals industry’s ethical reputation suffer last year, while Alcoa and Rio Tinto continued progressing, indicates a report published today by Geneva-based research firm Covalence — Covalence Mining & Metal Industry Report 2008. It has been a difficult year for the Mining & Metal industry: from July 2007 to June 2008 it got only the 8th EthicalQuote reputation score out of 10 industries, due to a decrease of positive news count and to an increase of negatives on issues such as CO2 emissions, pollution, community relations and human rights. The difficulty to show the value of their products in terms of Corporate Social Responsibility can explain why the Mining & Metal industry receives the smallest amount of positives. Metals are everywhere and hard to trace or label; for mining companies it is a challenge to demonstrate the social utility of luxury products such as gold.

Publication: Covalence Press Release | Region: Global | Company: Alcoa, Anglo American, Barrick Gold, BHP Billiton, China Steel, Gold Fields, Harmony Gold, Impala Platinum, JFE Holdings, Kinross Gold, Newmont Mining, Nippon Steel, POSCO, Rio Tinto, Vale, Xstrata | Source: Covalence