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Responsible Mining Framework | Operate Safely | Protect the Environment | Quebec Sustainable Development Award
Treat People Well | Engage with the Community | Honour Local Cultures and Objectives |
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Agnico-Eagle is committed to creating economic prosperity for our stakeholders in a safe, socially and environmentally responsible manner. This is how we define sustainability and we apply it in our business activities through four core values – operate safely, protect the environment, treat people and communities well and make a profit.
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While the lifespan of our activities is finite, we strive to invest in our host communities to create economic benefits and opportunities that will outlive our activities and contribute to their economic, social and environmental sustainability.
In a year of growth, we made significant progress in building occupational health and safety systems, environmental management systems and community engagement programs at each of our new operations. Nevertheless, challenges remain. We aim to learn from these challenges as a means of continuously improving our systems and programs.
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The health and safety of people is a core value of Agnico-Eagle. We also believe that health and safety is a shared responsibility among the employees, suppliers and contractors on our sites. We believe that each person has a contribution to make to the health and safety of everyone else in the workplace and that such a contribution is expected by all. In a safe environment, employees will always be heard and their concerns satisfactorily addressed. We recognize that our employees must feel that they have management’s unwavering support.
In 2008, the combined lost-time injury frequency rate* for Agnico-Eagle and all contractors at our operating mines and mines under construction was 3.7, slightly better than our objective of 3.8. This places Agnico-Eagle among the best performers in the mining sector and is especially commendable in a year in which all our project sites had significant construction activities.
The LaRonde mine won its fourth consecutive provincial mine rescue championship, an accomplishment never before equalled in the Quebec mining industry. The LaRonde mill team achieved a commendable performance of 1,000 days without a lost-time injury.
Operating safely does not come easily and requires continuous diligence by all. In 2008, we had the task of bringing our corporate safety culture to the new mines in Finland, Mexico and Nunavut, and of extending LaRonde’s success to Lapa and Goldex. This involved adapting new and proven health and safety programs at each of these divisions to reflect their specialized needs, including emergency response training, developing and training on safe job procedures and ensuring that the required resources were in place to empower our people to operate safely.
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From exploration to mining, we work hard to preserve and protect our natural environment by implementing sound environmental management systems and processes at all stages of our business activities, and by pursuing continuous improvement in our environmental performance. This commitment starts at the top with the Chief Executive Officer and the Vice-President of Environment and Sustainable Development, and extends to the general managers at each of our operations and all management, technical and operational employees.
In early 2008, environmental staff and employee representatives from all operations came together with senior management for a two-day workshop to examine our environmental systems, challenges and risks and to advance the implementation of environmental management systems across the company. Each operation has an environmental committee consisting of employees and management to address local environmental management issues and performance.
Overall, 2008 environmental performance was good, with all of our operations in full compliance. We continued to increase awareness and develop management systems to improve environmental stewardship at all sites.
At Lapa, we found innovative ways to manage ammonia levels in mine water including making snow during winter months to separate the water from the ammonia. The Lapa mine is a relatively dry mine, which makes source control underground difficult. The ammonia is a byproduct of the underground explosives used in mine development and production.
At Meadowbank, we commenced construction of the first 800-metre de-watering dyke across Second Portage Lake to isolate the future Portage pit from the lake. We addressed the challenge of sediment control by installing floating turbidity barriers and establishing a dedicated, 24-hour-a-day monitoring program.
At the LaRonde mine, deterioration of our underground ventilation system fan silencers resulted in noise concerns for private-property owners. We met with the residents and initiated an action plan which started with the installation of a noise attenuation barrier. We will install new silencers in 2009.
At Pinos Altos, we continued a program to recover and move critical vegetation from the mine footprint. New sedimentation ponds were constructed to manage the de-watering of ramps. These ponds were built by a regional workforce using local techniques.
At Kittila, the final environmental permits were obtained and tailings deposition commenced in the fourth quarter.
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In 2008, the Desjardins Group, the largest financial institution in Quebec, awarded Agnico-Eagle the Sustainable Development Award for the Western Quebec region, as part of the large-scale Desjardins Entrepreneurship Prizes program. The award recognized our focus on quality, growth and a strong financial position while protecting the environment and maintaining a safe workplace for employees. We were also commended for adhering to a strict environmental policy that includes assessing the impacts of mining to ensure responsible consumption of water and energy, waste management, site rehabilitation, education and the health and safety of employees and the public.
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Agnico-Eagle strives to build relationships based on trust, open dialogue, mutual respect and understanding. We are committed to enriching the lives of our employees and their families and to benefiting the communities in which we operate. We acknowledge that our main benefits and responsibilities to the community are the provision of well-paid local employment, skills development that enhances the ability of our local workforce to obtain similar employment elsewhere when our activities cease, the development of opportunities for entrepreneurial ownership within the community and to leave a lasting positive influence on the communities in which we operate.
We work to be the “employer of choice” in each of the communities in which we operate. This requires that we empower our employees, treating them in a fair, respectful and open manner, and seeking their input and involvement in a meaningful way at all phases of our operations. We have seen the benefits of building such a close-knit family having some of the lowest turnover and absenteeism rates in our industry.
We value the loyalty of our employees and know that this requires us to work with them to develop skills and provide job advancement within the company. The recent commissioning of the Kittila mine saw a team of employees from the northwestern Quebec mines go to Finland to help in the start-up and training of the new workforce at this site.
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We aim to maintain broad-based, ongoing community support for our activities and to devote time and resources to nurturing dialogue and building relationships with local citizens and their communities.
At Meadowbank, a Community Liaison Committee was formed to provide a forum for ongoing community engagement in an area seeing industrial development for the first time. The committee brings together elders, community leaders, the business community, youth representatives and mine management to address issues relating to this project and the impacts on their community.
The Meadowbank mine is being constructed on Inuit-owned land and will see royalties and social benefits flowing directly to the Inuit through their designated organizations. Agnico-Eagle has signed and implemented an Inuit Impact Benefits Agreement that provides funding for education and skills development, and a means to maximize Inuit employment, skills development and business opportunities.
We have organized tours of the Meadowbank site for elders, community leaders, members of the local hunter and trapper organizations and school groups to help them understand the development and its impacts first-hand. We have signed and implemented a water compensation agreement with the Inuit to provide compensation for water used and/or diverted as a result of our activities.
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We recognize the importance of honouring the diverse cultures represented at our operations and the value of working with the communities to help them achieve their own objectives in a sustainable manner. At Meadowbank, we have initiated cross-cultural training for our managers to help them understand the cultural values and history of the Inuit. We have implemented zero-tolerance policies to address discrimination and harassment, and we operate our remote sites as drug- and alcohol-free zones. We have initiated policies to address freedom of language in the workplace. For example, Meadowbank employees are free to speak their own language with the caveat that English be the common language when communications addressing safety are involved. Signage at Meadowbank is in Inuktitut, English and French.
At Pinos Altos, we continued with several initiatives, in coordination with the local community, which have been designed to assist with health, education and vocational training needs in our area. We were very proud to receive recognition from the governor of Chihuahua in 2008 for our accomplishments as a “Socially Responsible Company.”
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