TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) on Friday said its ninth annual ‘Towards Sustainable Mining’ (TSM) progress report had found a steady improvement in its member companies’ efforts to contribute positively to the communities where they operate.

The 2013 report took a detailed look at MAC members' 2012 performance in the initiative's three focus areas - communities and people, environmental stewardship, and energy efficiency.

"This year's TSM results have reinforced our confidence that TSM is taking the Canadian mining industry in the right direction. When we first embarked on TSM, the membership set out to improve the environmental and social performance of Canada's mining industry by implementing mandatory public reporting and third-party verification of performance against rigorous performance standards.

“Now, after nine years of applying TSM, MAC members can demonstrate significant, meaningful progress in key performance areas that Canadians can have confidence in,” MAC president and CEO Pierre Gratton said.

The report included facility-level results for 20 member companies of which five companies went through external verification.

TSM is the only system in the world that includes public reporting of third-party assured site-level performance for the mining sector.

Among the report’s findings were an average increase of 10% year-over-year in the number of facilities reporting a Level A, or higher, across the indicators for aboriginal and community outreach, crisis management planning, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management, and tailings management.

In the area of tailings management, 92% of facilities reported implementating an operation, maintenance and surveillance manual that adhered to industry best practices. This represented an increase of 18% from 2011.

The number of facilities assessed at a Level A, or higher, for demonstrating best practices in communicating and engaging with communities of interest, including Aboriginal communities, increased by 19% to 88% from 2011 to 2012.

For the first time, performance data for biodiversity conservation management, and safety and health – TSM's two new protocols – were presented in the report. Next year, these results would be published on a facility-by-facility basis.

Participation in the TSM initiative was mandatory for all MAC members. TSM is a performance-based programme that was developed by MAC and its members to help mining companies evaluate and manage their environmental and social responsibilities.

The programme's main objective was to enable mining companies to meet society's needs for minerals, metals and energy products in the most socially, economically and environmentally responsible way.

The MAC explained that in essence, TSM ensured companies were operating in a way that aligned with evolving societal priorities and expectations as they related to community engagement, safety and health, energy use and the environment.