By continually improving our knowledge, our understanding of challenges and our actions, we honour our commitment to promote respect for the environment and minimize our environmental footprint. Whether through reforestation, waste management or water use, we face significant challenges in the operations of our mines. Our commitment has translated into a corporate Environmental Policy that is supported by this management system and applied at all our sites

Compliance

We make it our duty to uphold current regulations in our host countries. We also aspire to meet Quebec standards, which are generally higher than those of our host countries.

Water

Water is indispensable to our industry. We are committed to using it prudently and we educate our employees to avoid all water waste. We endeavour to limit our natural water consumption through systematic monitoring and by constantly improving our performance in the area of water recycling and reuse at our processing plants. To uphold our Environmental Policy and in accordance with current water-quality legislations, we regularly conduct water analysis studies. These analyses are carried out on wastewater, drinking water and surface water.

Responsible Waste Management

Tailings from ore processing are disposed of safely and controlled in our fully fenced-in tailings sites. Water contamination risks are monitored closely and every measure is taken to limit the possibility of pollution. We ensure that water is free from pollutants through the use of observation wells to monitor groundwater quality around our tailings impoundment. Tailings site management methods are monitored and optimized, particularly by creating buffer zones along the dikes to sequester the water far away from the dikes, thereby minimizing the possibility of leaks. We also perform analyses of mine tailings deposited in the impoundments. This information is crucial during rehabilitation phase of tailings sites. We recover the used oil generated by our activities by means of a collection system in place at our mines. The oil is then sent to treatment centres through our hydrocarbon supplier for recycling. We are sensitive to concerns expressed regarding the risks associated with the transportation, storage and handling of cyanide used in our industry. This is why our goal is to become a signatory of the International Cyanide Management Code for the Gold Mining Industry at Mana. To this end, we have launched internal information and awareness sessions, and have identified a partner to guide us in this process. We expect to become a signatory of the Code in 2012 and anticipate certification no later than 2014.

Energy Consumption, Greenhouse Gases and Other Emissions

The need for energy in our industry is considerable. Our energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions have increased over the past two years due to increased activi¬ties. Direct sources of greenhouse gas emissions include fuel used for our fleet of trucks and mining equipment, as well as electricity generation on-site. In our industry, energy is used primarily for processing ore. As an energy-intensive business, we are working on several projects to increase our energy efficiency. As our production capacity increases, we improve equipment control and promote initiatives that enable us to update our processes.

Back to top