This guidance highlights the key issues, benchmarks, and standards in four main areas of environmental management in mining—water, biodiversity, waste management, and emergency preparedness and response—and governments' role in ensuring that each is managed in support of sustainable development.

This assessment was conducted by the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development (IGF) and its associates at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) between December 2016 and February 2017 with support from the Government of Canada.