TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Mining Association of Canada (MCA) has recognised eight mining facilities operated by Canadian miners Agnico Eagle Mines, First Quantum Minerals, Iamgold and Teck Resources, for their outstanding performance in the association’s Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative and their commitments to corporate responsibility.

The MAC announced that 2015 was the first year that TSM Leadership Awards were given to mining operations outside of Canada. These included Agnico Eagle's Kittila mine, in Finland, First Quantum Minerals' Çayeli mine, in Turkey, Iamgold’s Essakane gold mine, in Burkina Faso and its Rosebel gold mine, in Suriname.

The 2015 TSM Leadership Award winners were Agnico Eagle Mines’ Goldex, Kittila and LaRonde mines; First Quantum Minerals’ Çayeli mine; Iamgold’s Essakane, Rosebel and Westwood mines; and Teck Resources’ Line Creek operations.

TSM initiative's requirements were designed to go well beyond regulatory obligations and to improve industry's operational performance in key environmental and social areas of mining. The TSM Leadership Award was granted only when an operation met or exceeded a Level ‘A’ ranking for all 23 indicators under six performance areas.

These ‘protocols’ comprised safety and health, Aboriginal and community outreach, crisis management, tailings management, biodiversity conservation management, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management.

An operation's TSM results had to be externally verified to be eligible for recognition. The 2015 winners were selected based on their 2014 TSM performance results.

MAC membership was conditional on implementing the TSM guidelines at all Canadian facilities, however, these companies voluntarily applied TSM to their international sites as a way of demonstrating that they were managing their responsibilities throughout the world to the same standard as their Canadian operations, the MAC advised.