Decision support frameworks and metrics for sustainable development of minerals and metals

The Australian government-supported Co-operative Research Centre for Sustainable Resource Processing (CSRP) has undertaken a comprehensive review of sustainability metrics and decision support frameworks used by the global mining/minerals/metals sector. This paper provides a summary of that larger review. In particular, attention is given to the extent to which the plethora of current tools and approaches used by the industry are similar; the degree to which they conform with more formal approaches to decision making, as espoused by the management sciences community; and how indicators are, or should be, used to support decision making, or to set targets for achieving more sustainable outcomes from practices within the industry. We cite experience from six major companies within the sector as examples of current practice. Finally, we suggest how current best practice should be augmented by additional tools, which focus on information quality and management.