| Insight
Left: Aerial view of a mine tailings reservoir in Madagascar, receiving slurry through a pipeline from an ore processing plant
45 of the top 50 largest mining companies in the world responding.
87% of the industry by market capitalisation responding.
114 companies disclosing details. With a strong response from the mining sector, the initiative sought to make the new data accessible and standardised, and developed the Global Tailings Portal. Launched in January 2020, this free, searchable database details information on more than 1800 mine tailings dams around the world. (See
tailing.grida.no) While acknowledging that “better and more accessible data is important as it can enable both company and external scrutiny”, the initiative continued to advocate for an appropriate global industry response, such as a standard of good practice. And so in 2020, Adam Matthews from the Church of England Pensions Board, and John Howchin from the Council on Ethics for the Swedish Public Pension Funds, entered discussions with the mining industry (represented by the International Council on Mining and Metals - ICMM), and the UN Environment Programme, with a view to co- convening a process to develop such a standard. The Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM) was developed through a consultative and multi-stakeholder process, and was formally released in August 2020. In December 2020 the initiative contacted over 300 mining companies requesting that they support and confirm their timeline of adoption of GITSM. ICMM’s members, which represent a third of the global metals and mining industry, committed to implementing the standard, placing priority on all Extreme and Very High potential consequence tailings storage facilities, with the aim of having these in conformance with the standard by August 2023. This would then be followed with all other facilities by August 2025. As of January 2024, according to the Church of
England Pensions Board, over half of the mining sector (by market capitalisation) is committed to implementing the GISTM. “We do acknowledge the effort undertaken by the industry in this first round of reporting, along with that early commitment made by companies to meet the standard,” Adam Matthews from the Church of
England Pensions Board commented. “But as with everything,” he added, “this is a journey.”
Implementation Implementing the standard is a complex process that
requires companies to undertake a significant amount of work, especially those with a large inventory of tailings storage facilities. As the webinar highlighted, 23 of the 25 ICMM member companies have reported their level of conformance with the GITSM (two companies do not have Extreme or Very High rated facilities), with 113 Extreme and 125 Very High consequence tailings storage facilities being declared. While sixty percent of TSFs are reported with requirements that are in conformance with the standard. The release of this information by ICMM members was described as being “a major step forward in transparency” and a desk-based review of the company disclosures was undertaken by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), along with David Cooling, a tailings expert from Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) - a UN-supported network of investors working to promote sustainable investment.
Members of the public looking for information related
to a specific TSF can easily find associated disclosures by searching for them on a company website, but compiling and comparing such data has been described as being “quite a challenge” due to the different approaches to disclosures undertaken by companies. For example there was great variation in the
approach and format of reporting, as well as companies’ interpretation of conformance. Some stated they were conforming if no gaps were identified in the standard, while others also said they were conforming if gaps were identified but actions to address these were in progress. There were also different approaches taken to the definition of tailings facilities, the assignment of consequences and independent verification of conformance. Cindy Kroon·is the Head of Responsible Tailings Management at British multinational mining company Anglo American, which has made “significant progress towards conformance with the GISTM over the
www.waterpowermagazine.com | Yearbook 2024 | 13
Below: The Paraopeba River was polluted by tailings after the collapse of the tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão mine owned by Vale, in Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, Brazil
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