Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) is a globally recognised sustainability framework that helps mining companies assess performance, strengthen management systems and demonstrate continual improvement across key environmental, social and governance priorities.
Implementation of TSM in Australia is designed as a phased process, with companies and facilities progressing through onboarding, self-assessment, public reporting and independent verification over time.
Adopting companies or individual facilities may be at different stages of implementation depending on when they entered the framework, the maturity of their systems and whether they have progressed to public reporting or external verification. The goal of TSM is not simply to tick a box or achieve a rating, but to support ongoing improvement, transparency and accountability.
Each year, participating companies reflect on their performance, identify opportunities for improvement and implement actions to address emerging risks and stakeholder expectations. The framework is designed to drive measurable improvement over time while providing greater transparency for communities, investors, employees and governments.
The recommended stages of implementation are shown in the figure below.
Implementation in Practice: Early Results
The inaugural Australian TSM Progress Report demonstrates how the framework is being implemented across the Australian minerals industry and provides the first national benchmark of performance. The report is based on voluntary reporting by 12 MCA member companies covering 35 facilities.
These facilities represent organisations at different stages of implementation and provide an early indication of the strengths and improvement opportunities identified through TSM reporting.
Initial results show strong performance across a number of protocol areas including:
- Safe, Healthy and Respectful Workplaces
- Indigenous and Community Relationships
- Biodiversity Conservation Management
- Water Stewardship
- Preventing Child and Forced Labour.
The report also identified areas where participating companies have opportunities to continue strengthening performance, which is a core objective of the TSM framework. Protocols such as Climate Change, Biodiversity Conservation Management and Community Impact and Benefit Management provide a structured pathway for companies to improve systems, practices and outcomes over time.
Why Continual Improvement Matters
TSM is designed to support continuous learning and improvement. Rather than providing a one-off assessment, the framework encourages facilities to:
- Assess current performance
- Identify gaps and opportunities
- Implement improvements
- Measure progress
- Report outcomes publicly
This process helps companies strengthen governance, build more effective management systems and improve transparency with stakeholders. Over time, repeated assessments allow facilities to demonstrate progress against consistent performance indicators and recognised good practice benchmarks.
From Industry Progress to Company Performance
The 2026 Inaugural Progress Report provides an industry-wide view of implementation and emerging trends across participating companies and facilities. While these aggregated results offer valuable insights, each company's TSM journey is unique. Companies may be implementing different protocols, operating at varying levels of maturity and progressing through different stages of reporting or verification.
To support transparency, participating companies publish company-level reporting profiles that provide information about facility participation, reporting status and performance results under the TSM framework
Interested in how individual companies are implementing TSM?
Visit the Companies page to:
- View participating companies
- Explore company and facility-level reporting
- Understand reporting and verification status