6th December 2004 - Trucost Sector Report - Metal Mining Sector: Between a rock and a hard place

This report looks at the environmental impacts of metal mining companies and how these impacts affect each company's valuation. Trucost has studied the financial and environmental reporting of thirteen of the largest metal miners looking for discussion and disclosure of environmental issues.

Key Findings:

- Relative company valuations are not well correlated with environmental disclosure and performance levels
- Conversely, there is no evidence to substantiate the fear that transparency leads to an equity discount
- Investors are not adequately informed about key risk areas, particularly heavy metal emissions and the management of tailings dams
- Heavy metals pollution can cause conflict between the operator and local authorities, with significant repercussions for the companies'
licences to operate
- An industry-wide standard should be established for the management and monitoring of tailings dams. This would benefit the most responsible operators
- The case of Newmont in Indonesia shows the importance of control and disclosure of heavy metal emissions from mining waste

For more information contact Trucost on:
T: +44 207 321 3833.
info@trucost.com

You can download the Key Findings of this sector report in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf) by clicking on the download image in the top right corner of this page.

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