An urgent letter to 683 listed extractives companies ...  has been sent by the Church of England Pensions Board and the Swedish Council on Ethics for the AP Funds, and is supported by 96 investors with $10.3 trillion (USD) in assets under management... The individual company disclosures will be scrutinised by investors as they develop an assessment framework to profile each company on their tailings management... John Howchin, Secretary General of the Swedish Council on Ethics for the Swedish AP Funds said: "Having had an initial in-depth review on this topic the need for serious action is very clear... we need to set a global system in place..." Professor Upmanu Lall... Director of the Columbia Water Centre at Columbia University, said: "Tailing dams are massive structures that store toxic waste... Given the thousands of such sites, some failures are inevitable... Monitoring, mitigation and accurate disclosure of these risks to investors and society is a primary fiduciary responsibility for mine operators."