Spotlight Feature Articles MWH/Stantec Tailings and Waste Management July 16 | Page 2

TAILINGS AND WASTE MANAGEMENT What to do about tailings Resa Furey* considers tailings stewardship and risk and reports on the recent CIM workshop hether you love them or hate them – or love to hate them – tailings are a key part of mining. The practice of tailings management has come a long way over the past 50 years, yet tailings management remains one of the greatest sources of concern for miners and their stakeholders. Recent tailing dam failures, in geographic regions with established mining districts, considered to have leading regulations and regulatory oversight, have raised awareness and broadened the group of concerned stakeholders. The story doesn’t stop there: based on data collected between 1990 and 2010, researchers at the Center for Science and Public Participation predict 11 more tailing dam breaches will happen by 20201. Miners and the communities they serve are clamouring for improvements to the industry’s collective performance in managing mine waste. The industry is rising up to the challenge and a workshop was conducted at this year’s Canadian Institute of Mining (CIM) convention to identify actions to improve performance, oversight and corporate governance. Speakers at the State of the practice in water, tailings and mineral waste management workshop agreed: the industry has to improve technical, environmental and social performance related to water, tailings and mineral waste management and has the opportunity to contribute to how those changes will be made. The day’s discussion revolved around how to W *Market Analyst at MWH, now a part of Stantec International Mining | JULY 2016 meet the goal of zero major incidents. Recent industry reports have stated that standards around tailings, water, mineral waste, social and environment are imprecise and that strengthening disclosure requirements is an opportunity that would benefit the industry. Workshop participants agreed that tailings are inadequately addressed in Canada’s national instrument NI 43-1012 and other reporting tools and many welcomed the idea of strengthening the NI 43-101 to improve disclosure on mining projects. Charles Dumaresq presented on the Mining Association of Canada’s (MAC’s) progress toward integrating a risk based approach and other protective measures into the organisation’s ‘Guide to the Management of Tailings Facilities’. Chris Collins from the British Columbia Securities Commission dissected the legal aspects of the NI 43-101, noting that the instrument’s requirement for reporting about tailings and waste management is not prescriptive. Representing CIM, Rick Siwik of Siwik Consulting described how an Environmental, Social and Governance Task Group with representatives from MAC, CIM and Prospectors and Developers of Canada (PDAC) has been formed to spearhead initiatives to improve the disclosure guidance for tailings and water. Tailings: a core of mining Each speaker had his/her own inputs to the issue and potential solutions. Speaking from the producer/business prospective, Michel Julien of Agnico Eagle Mines mentioned that “tailings The Cerro Corona tailings management facility in Peru must become part of our core business”. He redefined a company’s core business to include anything that can, “make or break a company”. His logic: while tailings rarely (if ever!) make a company, they definitely can break a company and so must be considered core to staying in business. He noted that tailings are viewed differently by people in different roles: for a geotechnical engineer it’s about, “dykes and confining structures”, whereas for a mill superintendent, mine waste management is “an extension of the process plant”. Julien emphasised that the mine waste management process is a complex, highly dynamic and evolving system of links and interactions that include storage facilities, water management and treatment systems, and backfilling strategies. Control points on these systems are subject to evolving criteria and must be managed using an adaptive, agile management approach. Because the tailing management facility (TMF) is part of the larger mine, any failure – of operation, the water management, or the containment structure – must be seen as a system failure. According to Julien, accepting mine waste and water management as core to the business means mining companies must have in-house capabilities to properly operate TMFs; solid support teams that include good external consultants and experienced senior reviewers; secure information management systems that are easily transferred in the event of personnel and ownership changes; and strong, easily