The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) 28 member companies are pioneering the initiative founded on eight socio-economic indicators, which the London-based organisation said it hopes will become industry standard.

The metrics include workforce composition, pay equality, wage level, training provided, local procurement, education and skills programmes, revenues, payment and tax, and capacity building.

ICMM chief executive Rohitesh Dhawan said the data feeding indicators such as pay equality should be disaggregated on the basis of gender and ethnicity, while employee compensation would be pitted against national living wage standards - representing sector firsts for mining.

"Disaggregating data by gender and ethnicity critically shows how company contributions are being shared and distributed in local communities", Dhawan explained.

"Meanwhile, the holistic nature of this framework will enable investors and stakeholders to compare social and economic performance across different companies. It goes beyond piecemeal community investments offered by corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.

The message we want to give is that social and economic contributions are much more than CSR which is often perceived as a form of charity.

Our framework is looking to holistically improve the lives of local communities in the areas defined by the indicators."