Building strong relationships with our host communities, in particular indigenous communities, is a fundamental component of TSM. The Indicators of the Indigenous Peoples and Community Outreach Protocol determine whether a facility:

• Has a formal system in place to establish who they should be speaking with about their operations and how to best engage with them.
• Participates in two-way dialogue with their host communities.
• Receives and responds to host community concerns.
• Communicates their activities and performance through public reporting.

Protecting the health and safety of employees, contractors and communities is fundamental to TSM and is deeply ingrained in COMP’s culture. The indicators of the Safety and Health Protocol determine whether a facility:

• Has processes in place to prevent incidents.
• Has made senior management accountable for the safety and health of their people.
• Sets safety and health targets for continuous improvement and meets them.
• Monitors and publicly reports safety and health performance.
• Conducts risk-based training for all employees, contractors and visitors, and fosters a culture of safety.

The Crisis Management and Communications Planning Protocol provides mining companies with the tools needed to effectively plan for communications in the unfortunate event of a crisis at one of their facilities or at the corporate level. Where the crisis is caused by a physical emergency, such as a fire or flood, the tools offered in this protocol are intended to work in conjunction with emergency response plans at the facility.

The Indicators of the Crisis Management and Communications Protocol determine whether a company’s corporate office and facility(ies):

• Have developed crisis management and communications plans.
• Established crisis communications teams to support the execution of the plans.
• Have communications programs in place to effectively alert their people and the public in the event of a crisis.
• Engage with local emergency responders such as fire, police and ambulance.
• Regularly review their plans and conduct crisis simulation training exercises.

This protocol is a tool for preventing the use of child and forced labor as defined by International Labor Organization (ILO) Conventions 29, 138 and 182 addressing Forced Labor, Minimum Age and the Worst Forms of Child Labor, respectively.

The protocol seeks to provide guidance to member companies on verification requirements regarding the prevention of child labor and forced labor. The verification protocol sets out the general approach taken to verifying that processes are in place to ensure that neither child or forced labor as defined by ILO conventions are occurring at TSM participating facilities.

Through interview and review of documentation, this protocol seeks to determine that:

• There are processes in place that are commensurate to jurisdictional risks to ensure forced labor, including bonded or indentured or involuntary prison labor, is not used.
• Where there is a high risk of forced labor, processes have been put into place to monitor supply chains and relationships with recruitment agencies for human trafficking and forced labor.
• There are processes in place that are commensurate to jurisdictional risks to ensure that no child under the age of 18 engages in work which by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to jeopardize the health, safety or morals of young persons as defined in national law or regulation.
• There are processes in place that are commensurate to jurisdictional risks to ensure that no child is under the age

Adopting best practices in biodiversity conservation management through all stages of a mine’s life cycle is an industry priority. The indicators of the Biodiversity Conservation Management Protocol determine whether a facility:

• Has made formal commitments to manage biodiversity at their site.
• Has identified significant biodiversity aspects, is implementing action plans for them and partners with interested stakeholders on conservation planning.
• Publicly reports on its biodiversity activities and performance.

Tailings facilities are necessary components of some mining activities and it is crucial that they be managed responsibly to protect human safety and the environment. COMP has adopted tailings management guides patterned after those of the MAC, which are used around the world. The guides outline how mining companies can safely manage tailings facilities by adhering to best practices in tailings management. The Tailings Management Protocol measures adherence to these guides.

The indicators of the Tailings Management Protocol determine whether a facility:

• Has a policy and commitments in place to safely manage tailings facilities.
• Has implemented a tailings management system that conforms to COMP’s three tailings guides.
• Has implemented a tailings management system that conforms to COMP’s three tailings guides.
• Has assigned accountability for tailings management to the CEO or COO of the company.
• Conducts an annual tailings management review.
• Has implemented an Operation, Maintenance and Surveillance Manual that conforms to COMP’s guidance.

The purpose of this assessment protocol is to provide guidance to facilities in completing their evaluation of water stewardship performance against TSM indicators. The assessment protocol sets out the general expectations for water stewardship as part of the TSM initiative. This protocol supports implementation of the TSM Water Stewardship Framework.

The Water Stewardship protocol contains four indicators:

• Water Governance
• Operational Water Management
• Watershed-scale Planning
• Water Reporting and Performance

The purpose of this protocol is to facilitate continual performance improvements in the mining sector related to the management of climate-related risks and opportunities, including associated mitigation and adaptation strategies, target-setting and reporting. Implementation of  this  protocol  is  intended  to  support  companies,  at  both  the  corporate  and mine  site,  in advancing  the  goals  of  the  Paris  Agreement1. The Paris  Agreement  aims  to  strengthen  the global  response  to  the  threat  of  climate  change  by  keeping  a  global  temperature  rise  this century  at  well  below  2°C  above  pre-industrial  levels  and  by  pursuing  efforts  to  limit  the temperature  increase  even  further  to1.5°C.

To assess performance and measure progress towards achieving this purpose, the Climate Change Protocol specifies criteria associated with three indicators:

• Corporate climate change management
• Mine site climate change management
• Mine site performance targets and reporting