The Investing in African Mining Indaba is a valuable platform for driving best practice and positive change in the mining industry, providing a forum where governments, companies, investors and civil society can meet and exchange views, says mining organisation International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) CEO Tom Butler.

“Our mission is to improve environmental and social sustainability, first and foremost with our members, but also with the wider mining industry, so we feel it is important for us to attend conferences that are well attended by the industry.”

Despite the economic uncertainty prevailing in the global mining industry, Butler stresses that now is a good time for companies and governments operating in Africa to work on managing the issues facing the sector.

“As we all know, mining is a cyclical industry. Now is the time to address problems before the market gets hot again.”

He notes that, although some commodity prices have started to recover, they are still far from where they were during the previous commodities supercycle, when a lot of greenfield projects were being actively promoted across the African continent.

“Companies have been nursing their balance sheets and trying to get maximum efficiency from their existing assets. In this context, access to low-cost and reliable energy continues to be one of Africa’s main challenges, as well as reliable infrastructure and investment climate stability.”

Water is also a priority issue for many companies, as a result of its increasing scarcity in some areas, resulting in competition for the resource, says Butler. He adds that improving the way in which the mining industry approaches water use will be a key topic of discussion at the Mining Indaba, which will take place from February 6 to 9 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.

The ICMM will also attend the Alternative Mining Indaba, also to be held in Cape Town from February 6 to 8, which is a civil society initiative. Butler highlights that it provides a valuable opportunity for the council to hear the concerns and debates raised by this sector with regard to mining on the continent.

“The ICMM has been considering the ways in which mining can play an important role in helping to achieve each of the 17 United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals, and we are open to collaborating with civil society and other organisations.”

Published in 2015, these goals aim to guide the public, nonprofit, for-profit and voluntary sectors in global development. The goals cover a broad spectrum of focus areas, including poverty alleviation, health promotion, education, employment and income equality, gender equality, access to water, energy, sanitation, sound infrastructure, environmental conservation and social justice.

Managing Tailings Dams
In line with these goals, the ICMM has adopted a range of new measures to manage tailings dams, following the 2015 disaster at the iron-ore operations in Minas Gerais of Brazilian mining company Samarco’s, a joint venture between mining giants BHP Billiton and Vale.

Following the incident, which claimed the lives of 19 people, the ICMM launched a review of global tailings management, as well as the associated standards and governance, of its member companies, which include BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Newmont and South32.

Mining Weekly reported on the release of the review last month, which concluded that an increased emphasis on governance was needed to ensure that extensive existing technical and management guidance was more effectively applied.

As a result, the ICMM has issued a new position statement that commits members to reducing the risk of catastrophic failures of tailings dams by adopting six key elements of management and governance – accountability, responsibility and competency, planning and resourcing, risk management, change management, and emergency preparedness and response.

The position statement has been unanimously endorsed by all ICMM member companies’ CEOs and members are expected to implement commitments to the position statement by November 2018.