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