Mining and Water: Are operational concerns overriding public interest?

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Mining companies are much less likely to track and report on their management of water quality compared to water quantity. Other stakeholders sharing the same water resources as mining operations rely heavily on the quality, as well as the quantity, of these resources and they need useful information on water pollution levels. And mining investors, financiers and customers want to know how well companies are preventing water pollution and managing asset-level water quality-related risks. Yet it seems that while companies’ operational concerns about their water supply promote more regular reporting of water consumption levels, companies have largely neglected to publicly disclose locally-relevant data on water quality. Research shows that mining companies generally disclose water quality monitoring data only when they are required to do so by producing country regulations.