Adam Matthews

WHEN it comes to setting responsible mining standards, there are few more influential voices than Adam Matthews. As chief responsible investment officer for the Church of England Pensions Board, he has been involved in setting standards for the industry that seek to put mining on a more sustainable path. He was instrumental in developing the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management, which seeks to prevent catastrophic failures and enhance the safety of mine tailings facilities.

This followed the disastrous collapse of the Brumadinho tailings dam in Brazil in 2019, leading to the loss of 270 lives. In adherence of the standard, now being administered by the Johannesburg-based Global Tailings Management Institute, leading mining companies are investing billions of dollars so that their tailings dams are in compliance. Matthews is a founding member of the Transition Pathway Initiative, a global investor-led initiative that assesses companies’ readiness to transition to a low-carbon economy and serves as chair of the Global Investor Commission on Mining 2030, which seeks to improve governance of the industry.

The mining sector itself though, via the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), is developing its own consolidated mining standards. Difficult conversations lie ahead. Since the Church of England holds significant investments in leading mining companies, Matthews has also intervened in corporate actions in the sector. Most notably, he is supportive of the merger of Teck Resources and Anglo American to form the Anglo Teck Group, after coming out earlier against BHP’s proposed takeover of Anglo. As the special envoy for peace-building for the Archbishop of Cape Town, Matthews is closely involved in seeking to bring a measure of peace to the war-torn eastern DRC, where illegal mining is fuelling an armed conflict that has already cost thousands of lives.