Stewart Investors has announced the launch of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Investor Network, a collaborative engagement project of which it is founding member.
The network brings together investment industry stakeholders to advance responsible sourcing and mining by giving investors access to due diligence tools and collaborative opportunities.
Reflective of Stewart Investors’ commitment to promoting sustainable development, the network will provide the tools, expertise and connections to source minerals responsibly, including from conflict-affected and high-risk areas. This fulfils RMI’s mission to enable companies to track mineral sourcing issues in supply chains, and is crucial to achieving a just renewable energy transition.
The collaboration echoes the firm’s successful collaborative engagement in 2021: ‘Tackling conflict mineral content in the semiconductor supply chain’. This initiative was supported by 160 signatories amounting to $6.59trn (£5.2trn) of assets as of November 2021.
Senior investment analyst at Stewart Investors, Chris McGoldrick, said: “Investors have a role to play in ensuring that global mineral supply chains are free of human rights abuses. In the past, NGOs, regulators and companies have found themselves on different sides of the table when it comes to conflict minerals. Addressing this problem will require a coordinated effort from all stakeholders to improve transparency and support responsible mining practices.
“Investors are central to this co-ordination. The RMI Investor Network marks an important step forwards towards both influencing and improving mineral supply chains. We look forward to working with the RMI Investor Network as an inaugural member and encourage others to join us in this important initiative.”
