Glencore provides disclosure on tailings storage facilities

Earlier this year, the world was shocked by the tragic and devastating impact of the Brumadinho dam failure in Brazil. Quite rightly, the mining sector’s investors and communities subsequently called on extractive companies to increase their disclosure on their TSFs. 

Glencore are committed to operating in a responsible manner across all aspects of our business. This includes the management of the waste generated from our mining activities. A TSF failure is unacceptable and represents a catastrophic risk. The company review its catastrophic risks to understand whether they are adequately controlled and put in place appropriate management and mitigation measures. 

Glencore utilises a group-wide approach to evaluating exposure to and the controls associated with all identified catastrophic hazards. This programme uses third party expertise to ensure that leading practice is incorporated into our approach. TSFs have been part of Glencore’s catastrophic hazard evaluation programme for a number of years and have drawn on external expertise applying leading standards from CDA (Canadian Dam Association), ICOLD (International Commission on Large Dams) and ANCOLD (Australian National Committee on Large Dams). 

Glencore's group-wide dam integrity and safety assurance programme involves an assessment against over 100 dam safety and leading practice criteria. As part of Glencore’s approach, they utilise the services of Klohn Crippen Berger, one of the world’s leading experts on TSF assurance, to independently audit and assess the integrity and safety of our TSFs.

In addition, assets are required to conduct regular dam safety inspections, as well as undertaking independent dam safety audits.

On the launch of the microsite, Ivan Glasenberg, CEO, said: “Safety is a core value at Glencore. The safety of our workforce and the communities living around our assets is a priority during all of our operational activities.

Appropriately managing the safety of our TSFs is part of our commitment to act as a responsible operator and to minimise our direct and indirect impacts on the environment.”

 

Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/handling-processing/10062019/glencore-provides-disclosure-on-tailings-storage-facilities/