Last week, members of the LBMA team - Ruth Crowell (Chief Executive), Neil Harby (Chief Technical Officer) and Alan Martin (Head of Responsible Sourcing) - attended the 2025 OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains in Paris. The Forum continues to be the premier event in the responsible sourcing calendar, drawing a wide array of participants from across several mineral supply chains.
A high-level Africa panel set the scene, highlighting the continent’s pivotal role in global mineral supply chains. Ministers from several countries explored strategies for sustainable resource management, value addition, and equitable partnerships to ensure that African producer countries maximise the benefits of their mineral wealth while contributing to the global energy transition.
With the growing control of mineral rich areas of Eastern Congo by M-23, a Rwanda-backed militia group, the event was also a timely reminder that such conflicts that spawned the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas remain as relevant today as when the process was launched some 15 years ago.
In addition to networking and the peer learning offered by the various panel sessions, the LBMA team held a constructive luncheon roundtable with civil society groups, held a private meeting with the new Minister of Lands and Natural Resources from Ghana, the Honourable Emmanuel Buah, and participated in an OECD-moderated session on how industry schemes can meet the disclosure requirements of “red flag” suppliers and locations.
Following the close of the Forum, Neil Harby, Ruth Crowell, and Gregory Mthembu-Salter (Consultant, LBMA) participated in a Global Coalition for Action on Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM). Co-sponsored by the World Gold Council (WGC), World Bank and Inter-Governmental Forum on Mining (IGF), the “Global Coalition” shares many of the same objectives of LBMA’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) Initiative that seeks to raise environmental, social, and governance performance in the ASGM sector.