SAFETY, HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT BULLETIN - MIRMgate

presents objectives of a planned approach to tailings storage and notes that continuous management
is a fundamental principle planning.
Environmental Australia’s (EA) Environmental Protection Group (EPG), formerly the Environment
Protection Agency (EPA), has prepared a series of Best Practice Environmental Management in
Mining modules (guides). These documents are designed to provide developers and contractors with
guidelines on how to implement sound practices that minimise environmental impacts and reduce the
impacts of mining by following the principles of ecologically sustainable development. Modules of
particular relevance to tailings include: Tailings Management (EPA, 1995), Managing Sulphidic Mine
Wastes and Acid Drainage (EPG, 1999), Cyanide Management (EPG, 1998), Landform Design for
Rehabilitation (EPG, 1998) and Environmental Risk Management (EPG, 1999) presents advice on
ERM methods for the mining industry.
The Australian Mine Industry Code for Environmental Management (1996) is an industry initiative that
sets out nine principles to respond to community concerns and improving environmental performance.
Adoption of the Code is voluntary and open to all minerals companies. Signatories are required to
demonstrate commitment to environmental excellence by a process of external verification trials have
been carried out.
C.3 CANADA
As with Australian States, the Canadian Provinces regulate the mining industry through acts and
regulations. The exception is uranium mining that is regulated by the Federal Government. There are
also federal environmental laws and regulations that relate directly to the mining industry, particularly
respecting the receiving environment.
The mining Association of Canada (MAC) determined, from workshops, that there was a consensus
within the industry that the technology and expertise was available to design and build safe tailings
facilities but that the industry believed that it needed higher standards for its management and
operation of its tailings facilities. This was the impetus for MAC to prepare “A Guide to the
Management of Tailings Facilities, September 1998”
The MAC guide is a primarily management system as apposed to technical guide. It presents a full life
cycle tailings management framework, from planning and design, through construction and operation,
to eventual decommissioning and closure. The framework is expanded into a series of checklists, each
of which addresses the various stages of the life cycle. Appended to the document are lists of technical
considerations that cover the environmental setting, design, and operating aspects that are typically
encountered throughout the life cycle of a tailings facility.
For each stage in the life cycle, design, construction, operation and closure, the check list revolves
around:
• policy and commitment,
• planning,
• implementing the plan,
• checking and corrective action, and
• management review for continual improvement.
The approach recognises that the responsibility for tailings management may rest with different groups
within a company and that the emphasis changes during the different stages of the life cycle. The
checklist approach assists in identifying the stages and roles and provides a management framework.
The system requires that actions be planned within the context of agreed policies and commitments,
Issued by the Anglo Technical Division page 18 of 47