Recognised “for their outstanding performance in the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative and commitments to corporate responsibility”, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has presented eight mining facilities operated by Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, First Quantum Minerals Ltd, IAMGOLD Corporation and Teck Resources Ltd with TSM Leadership Awards. This year, for the first time, TSM Leadership Awards were given to mining operations outside of Canada. These include Agnico Eagle’s Kittila mine in Finland, First Quantum Minerals’ Çayeli mine in Turkey, IAMGOLD’s Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso and IAMGOLD’s Rosebel gold mine in Suriname.
Implementation of TSM is mandatory for all MAC members’ Canadian facilities, however, these companies voluntarily apply TSM to their international sites as a way of demonstrating that they are managing their responsibilities throughout the world to the same high standard as their Canadian operations. “This year, we recognise eight facilities with TSM Leadership Awards for their stand-out performance in our TSM initiative and congratulate them and their staff for raising the bar in environmental and social performance. Awarded annually, this is the highest number of winners we have seen yet,” said Pierre Gratton, President and CEO, MAC.
The 2015 TSM Leadership Award Winners are as follows:
• Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, Goldex mine
• Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, Kittila mine
• Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, LaRonde mine
• First Quantum Minerals Ltd, Çayeli mine
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Essakane mine
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Rosebel mine
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Westwood mine
• Teck Resources Ltd, Line Creek Operations
TSM’s requirements go well beyond regulatory obligations and are designed to improve industry’s operational performance in key environmental and social areas of mining. The TSM Leadership Award is granted only when an operation meets or exceeds a Level “A” ranking for all 23 indicators under the six performance areas of the TSM initiative (known as “protocols”) – 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 must be externally verified to be eligible for this recognition. The 2015 winners were selected based on their 2014 TSM performance results.