From 23 to 26 April 2012, 170 African and international industry representatives, tin buyers, UN representatives, and traceability experts discussed the current state of “conflict minerals”, and initiatives to stem their flow in the Great Lakes region. Notable milestones were Burundi’s official endorsement of the ITSCI (ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative) traceability system, and indications by the Ugandan delegation that it would study the feasibility of implementing the sc…

The introduction to the UN Guiding Principles emphasises that a company’s responsibility to respect human rights can be discharged through effective due diligence. Through its experience of the natural resources supply chain in complex environments, RCS is well-placed to assist mining companies in their approach to human rights, and welcomes the International Council on Mining and Metals' launch of a guide focused on integrating due diligence into corporate risk management processes. ICMM…

Our new Senior Consultant, Cindy Kroon, has joined Resource Consulting Services to focus on the IFC Performance Standards’ participatory monitoring in the extractive industries sector. Cindy has extensive experience on governance issues in oil, gas and the mining sector, which she covered for the World Bank. Cindy appraises governance as a quite a broad concept, which includes transparency and accountability at the institutional and project level. Her work highlights stakeholder participa…

Spring came early to Munich this year, with two sunny days on March 22 and 23 for the workshop on Standards and Certification in the minerals trade held at the Munich Center on Governance (MCG) in Germany. Hosted and sponsored by BGR (the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources), MCG and Cost (European Cooperation in Science and Technology), the workshop bought together academics and practitioners to discuss international approaches to certification in the sector. RCS was…

RCS is well is well represented this year at Indaba, with 3 delegates (Nick Garrett, Director and Head of Sustainibility, Ben Clair who focuses on investment advisory, and Hilaire Avril who looks at Standards Compliance).  We heard some interesting and fresh thinking at the traditional World Bank panel discussion that kicks off the 4-day conference. The panelists started by observing that commodity prices might be threatened by the ongoing European economic crisis. They pointed out th…

RCS is proud to announce the launch of our new website, which presents our globally expanding company and our key work areas: business sustainability, standards compliance, investment advisory, public policy and organisational development. As the company enters its fourth year of operations, we are proud to have achieved a strong reputation, reflected in our clients’ endorsements, for professional and innovative research, audit, advisory and training services in the global extractive indus…

RCS continues to be invited as expert speakers and participants at conferences in our four key sectors: extractive industries, conflict minerals, forestry and land investment. RCS Senior Consultant Usman Ali will speak about the "Role of the Civil Society Organizations in LSM-SSM relations" at the National Assembly of Pakistan on March 26th. RCS Director and Head of Standards Compliance, Harrison Mitchell, will be a panelist at the high-profile expert meeting at Ludwig-Maximilians University Mun…

RCS has rapidly expanded in the last year with the addition of key clients globally, who benefit from our expertise in a broad range of sectors and geographies. With a number of new prospects in Asia, we are excited to announce that Ch. Usman Ali has joined the RCS team in January to lead RCS’s work in Asia. Usman has over eighteen years of experience in a broad range of areas related to public and private sector development and adds additional regional and thematic expertise to our portfo…

RCS will be represented at the 2012 Mining Investment Indaba in Cape Town. RCS Director and Head of Business Sustainability, Nicholas Garrett, as well as RCS Senior Consultants Hilaire Avril and Benjamin Clair will be attending the event, as well as a number of side events, such as the IFC’s CSR Networking and Knowledge Sharing Reception and the World Gold Council’s and the World Bank’s Gold for Development Seminar. RCS Senior Consultant Usman Ali will be attending the Mines an…