Our Water Model

The basis for the water use analysis at mine, company or country level is the development of the annual water balance. The main metrics that are used for this are water withdrawals, discharges, consumption, and eventually change in water storage. The values used are extracted from publicly available data sources such as sustainability reports and other corporate disclosures, information submitted to authorities for compliance, design reports, presentations, papers, geospatial data, technology providers, etc. For each mine site in the Skarn Water database the annual water balance is developed. Depending on the level of detail of available information, any missing information is back calculated and validated with reported production numbers, and where necessary benchmarked (from year-on-year indicators or similar operation configurations).

This Skarn water balance structure is aligned with the ICMM (International Council on Mining and Metals) 2021 Water Reporting Guidance[1]. Not all companies report water use metrics aligned with this guidance, other typical reporting standards encountered are

• GRI 303: Water and Effluents (2018)
• Minerals Industry - Water Accounting Framework WAF 2022
• CDP Water Security 2023 Questionnaire
• SASB – Metals and Mining Sustainability Accounting Standard (2018)