JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Mining Association of Canada (MAC) board has directed its Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) governance team to identify how best to integrate 29 recommendations that are expected to enhance tailings management requirements under MAC’s TSM initiative.
TSM – a mandatory programme for MAC members – was designed to improve the industry’s operational performance in key environmental and social areas, including tailings management.
The recommendations were made by an independent seven-member multi-interest task team, which was established by MAC in March to advise it on steps that could further strengthen the association’s tailings management system.
This was in response to the August 2014 tailings dam failure at TSX-listed Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley mine, in British Columbia.
Chaired by retired Teck Resources senior executive Doug Horswill, the task team worked over the past several months to review MAC's three tailings management guides and the TSM initiative's tailings management performance indicators.
“The task team's recommendations were developed with the objective of assisting the mining industry in its drive to the goal of zero failures.
“It is our hope, as task team members, that our report sets out measures which, when incorporated into the tailings management component of TSM, will promote continual improvement in company performance and help restore public confidence through the knowledge that MAC's member companies are doing all they can to protect public safety and the environment,” said Horswill.