Uranium symposium covers state of the art (Part 4)

Another paper presented at the U2009 uranium symposium in Keystone, Colo., was by Andres Meglioli of Environmental Resource Management and Paul Nazaryk of BHP, who spoke about the development of a health, safety, environmental and community management system, and how it can benefit the uranium mining industry.

They say that the development of any mining project will generate controversy, particularly if stakeholders suspect impacts on the surrounding communities and natural resources.

Therefore, any proposed uranium mining or milling operation will attract attention, scrutiny, and possibly controversy. Some of the controversy will be based on legitimate risks and impacts. The concerns raised, and how the mining company responds, can determine whether a project can go ahead.

“Identifying and mitigating these risks and impacts at an early stage is critical,” Meglioli and Nazaryk say. They believe that the early development of a closure and post-closure plan is a critical component in the risk identification and project planning activity.

An ongoing systematic approach to identifying and resolving risks and issues as they arise is important. A reputation of a mining company as being committed to sustainable development is also an effective component of community relations. Such reputation can be gained by a genuine commitment from top management, which can be communicated both internally and externally.

Over the past 30 years, the industry has become sensitive to issues such as environment, health and safety, and social responsibility. But the industry’s reputation of insensitivity to these issues has persisted.

Meglioli and Nazaryk advocate that companies develop a framework for environmental, health and safety management encompassing regulatory compliance; mitigation of project risks; minimization of long-term liabilities; and enhancement of credibility with the work force, the local community, regulators and other stakeholders. This can help a company develop a reputation as an industry leader, in turn facilitating the financing and permitting of new projects and expansions.

The authors recommend using the ISO-14001 standard for this framework. A second standard which is sometimes used is the British Standard Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OSHSAS) 18001:2007 standard, which is focused on health and safety. Few companies in the mining industry find the need to certify or register their health and safety management systems to the British standard, but it is a useful guideline to setting up these systems.

The mining industry, through the industry body International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), subscribes to ten principles of sustainable development. The sustainable development framework requires that member companies report to the public their progress toward meeting the ICMM principles. It also requires third party audits to ensure compliance.

Since mining a deposit is, by its very nature, not sustainable, because it depletes the resource, the concept of sustainable development is most applicable to mine closure.

Similar in nature to ICMM’s ten principles are the Equator Principles developed by the World Bank. The Equator Principles require an assessment for any project with environmental and social impacts.

Similarly, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) has developed requirements, referred to as Performance Standards, which establish environmental and social requirements for companies receiving support from the IFC or other banks.

Most major mining companies have their own internal standards for managing the environmental, health and safety aspects of their operations to ensure that the impacts of the entire life cycle of large projects, from project conception to final closure, are properly considered.