Unravelling the dynamic emplacement of the carbonate-rich Munali Ni–Cu–PGE breccia deposit, Zambia

among many others. A potentially significant one for the assurance of ethical and responsible mineral sourcing is the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance, currently being rolled out. But the viability and effectiveness of such schemes is often contested and depends on their having demonstrable value to and engagement frommultiple actors across complex interacting supply chains and value chains, including mining companies, manufacturers, investors, retailers, and end-point consumers. Public attention and changes in attitude to corporate ethics and governance can gather pace very rapidly, as demonstrated in recent years in the U.K. by consumer backlashes towards corporations perceived not to be paying a fair amount of tax. It may very quickly become valuable to miners, manufacturers and retailers alike, all concerned to ‘do the right thing’ as well as to anticipate their customers’ ethical concerns, for there to be a credible, transparent and easily comprehensible publicfacing ‘kitemark’ for responsibly sourced minerals and products manufactured using such minerals, akin to the Fairtrade or Forestry Stewardship Council schemes. But defining what such a kitemark should denote and implementing its uptake are likely to be highly challenging. Building on its November 2017 meeting on ‘Mining for the Future’, held in conjunction with the IUGS RFG initiative, the Geological Society convened two workshops in London (May 2018) and Vancouver (June 2018), bringing together actors from across the value chain plus researchers from the U.K. and internationally, to explore how they would assess the value and viability of responsible sourcing schemes; what characteristics would be required for these to be taken up across the chain; and how they can be made transparent and meaningful to end-point consumers. This presentation will report the conclusions of the workshops and will outline a PhD research project now under way to explore these challenges.