Award recognizes facility-level excellence in responsible mining practices

OTTAWA, Dec. 16, 2015 /CNW/ - For their outstanding performance in the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative and commitments to corporate responsibility, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC) has recognized eight mining facilities operated by Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, First Quantum Minerals Ltd., IAMGOLD Corporation and Teck Resources Limited with TSM Leadership Awards.

This year, for the first time, TSM Leadership Awards were given to mining operations outside of Canada. These include Agnico Eagle's Kittila mine in Finland, First Quantum Minerals' Çayeli mine in Turkey, IAMGOLD's Essakane Gold Mine in Burkina Faso and IAMGOLD's Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname. Implementation of TSM is mandatory for all MAC members' Canadian facilities, however, these companies voluntarily apply TSM to their international sites as a way of demonstrating that they are managing their responsibilities throughout the world to the same high standard as their Canadian operations.

"This year, we recognize eight facilities with TSM Leadership Awards for their stand-out performance in our TSM initiative and congratulate them and their staff for raising the bar in environmental and social performance. Awarded annually, this is the highest number of winners we have seen yet," said Pierre Gratton, President and CEO, MAC.

2015 TSM Leadership Award Winners:  

• Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, Goldex mine
• Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, Kittila mine
• Agnico Eagle Mines Limited, LaRonde mine
• First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Çayeli mine
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Essakane Gold Mine
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Rosebel Gold Mines N.V.
• IAMGOLD Corporation, Westwood Mine
• Teck Resources Limited, Line Creek Operations

TSM's requirements go well beyond regulatory obligations and are designed to improve industry's operational performance in key environmental and social areas of mining. The TSM Leadership Award is granted only when an operation meets or exceeds a Level "A" ranking for all 23 indicators under the six performance areas of the TSM initiative (known as "protocols")—safety and health, Aboriginal and community outreach, crisis management, tailings management, biodiversity conservation management, and energy use and greenhouse gas emissions management. An operation's TSM results must be externally verified to be eligible for this recognition. The 2015 winners were selected based on their 2014 TSM performance results.

About MAC

The Mining Association of Canada is the national organization for the Canadian mining industry.  Its members account for most of Canada's production of base and precious metals, uranium, diamonds, metallurgical coal, mined oil sands and industrial minerals and are actively engaged in mineral exploration, mining, smelting, refining and semi-fabrication. Please visit www.mining.ca. 

SOURCE Mining Association of Canada (MAC)