Purpose
The purpose of the assessment protocol is to provide guidance to facilities in completing their evaluation of Indigenous and community relationships performance against Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) indicators. The assessment protocol sets out the general expectations for Indigenous and community relationships as part of the TSM initiative. This protocol supports implementation of the TSM Mining and Indigenous Peoples Framework. As with any assessment of a management system, professional judgment is required in assessing the degree of implementation of a system indicator and the quality of management processes and intervention. Application of this protocol will, therefore, require a level of expertise in auditing and systems assessment and knowledge of and experience in the practice of Indigenous and community relationships. This assessment protocol provides an indicator of the level of implementation of proactive outreach and engagement practices as part of the TSM initiative. It is not, of itself, a guarantee of the effectiveness of Indigenous and community relationships activities.