Mogalakwena sets new standard in mining

Anglo American Platinum has announced that its Mogalakwena mine in South Africa has undergone its first assessment against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) rigorous mining standard, achieving an IRMA 50 rating

This milestone underscores the company’s holistic approach to sustainability and its dedication to transparency in responsible platinum group metals (PGMs) production.

Craig Miller, CEO of Anglo American Platinum, emphasised the significance of this achievement, “As a leading adopter of the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), we recognise that stakeholders, including our shareholders and customers, need to trust where and how our metals are mined. With this latest IRMA accreditation for Mogalakwena, we have achieved our target of having all our mines assured by 2025. We are immensely proud of the work the teams are doing across all of our operations to support responsible mining, enabling us to demonstrate an ethical value chain for our metals, and we look forward to continuing to lead the way in the PGMs sector globally.”

Mogalakwena is the final mine among Anglo American Platinum’s four wholly owned PGMs operations to undergo an IRMA audit. This follows the assessment of Unki mine in Zimbabwe, which became the first mine globally to commit to an independent IRMA audit, securing an IRMA 75 rating in 2021 and reaffirming it in 2024 through a surveillance audit. Mototolo and Amandelbult mines were also assessed for the first time in 2024, achieving IRMA 75 and IRMA 50 ratings, respectively.

IRMA provides independent third-party verification covering a broad range of social and environmental impacts associated with large-scale mining. The framework evaluates mines across four key principles, with certification levels ranging from IRMA Transparency—where mines disclose their assessment results—to IRMA 50, 75, or 100, depending on their adherence to core requirements and the percentage of additional criteria met.

Developed through more than a decade of public consultation involving over 100 stakeholders—including mining companies, consumers, NGOs, labor unions, and local communities—IRMA's Standard for Responsible Mining is recognized as one of the most comprehensive and stringent mining verification processes.

Aimee Boulanger, executive director of IRMA, highlighted the value of these audits, “Through detailed IRMA audit reports, mining companies, communities and companies that purchase mined materials can gain the information they need to decide what’s going well and what may require more attention at specific mines. Mogalakwena’s report demonstrates that the mine can point to transparent, independent evaluations of their environmental and social performance along with the other three Anglo American Platinum mines in South Africa and Zimbabwe.”