 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the past two years, AEM has grown from approximately 2,500 employees and contractors to more than 4,500. In so doing, we have sought to maximize the number of local employees working at our operations. In 2009, 99% of our workforce at Pinos Altos came from Mexico, and 40% of our workforce at Meadowbank came from Nunavut. AEM invested heavily in employee training in 2009 and will continue to do so in the coming year, with safety at the core of all training activities.
Safe production | Respect the environment | Respect for people and host communities | Sustainable Development Report
Safe production
We want all of our people to return home safely at the end of each shift. Achieving this requires safe and orderly workplaces, competent and well-trained personnel who look out for each other’s well-being, a positive and cooperative attitude towards working safely and effective safety systems that are jointly created and supported by all employees and continually improved.
In 2009, the lost-time injury frequency rate for all AEM employees and contractors was 2.65, which was well below our corporate objective and 2008 result of 3.70. This performance places AEM among the best performers in our sector of the mining industry. It is especially noteworthy in a year when construction was under way at all sites.
The LaRonde mine won its fifth consecutive Provincial Mine Rescue Championship, an accomplishment never before equalled in the Quebec mining industry. The Goldex mine rescue team also qualified in its first year in competition. Members of the LaRonde mine rescue teams have since travelled to Pinos Altos and Kittila to train mine rescue personnel at these new operations.
We introduced nursing and medical services at all mining operations. We also worked to instill our corporate safety culture in our new mines. This involved adapting proven health and safety programs to reflect the specialized needs of each site, including emergency response training, training on safe job procedures and ensuring that the required resources are in place.
We want all of our people to return home safely at the end of each shift. Achieving this requires safe and orderly workplaces, competent and well-trained personnel who look out for each other’s well-being, a positive and cooperative attitude towards working safely and effective safety systems that are jointly created and supported by all employees and continually improved.
In 2009, the lost-time injury frequency rate for all AEM employees and contractors was 2.65, which was well below our corporate objective and 2008 result of 3.70. This performance places AEM among the best performers in our sector of the mining industry. It is especially noteworthy in a year when construction was under way at all sites.
The LaRonde mine won its fifth consecutive Provincial Mine Rescue Championship, an accomplishment never before equalled in the Quebec mining industry. The Goldex mine rescue team also qualified in its first year in competition. Members of the LaRonde mine rescue teams have since travelled to Pinos Altos and Kittila to train mine rescue personnel at these new operations.
We introduced nursing and medical services at all mining operations. We also worked to instill our corporate safety culture in our new mines. This involved adapting proven health and safety programs to reflect the specialized needs of each site, including emergency response training, training on safe job procedures and ensuring that the required resources are in place.
Respect the environment
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.
In 2009, we continued to increase awareness and develop our management systems to improve environmental stewardship at all operations. There were no serious environmental incidents to report and no compliance actions were taken at any of our sites.
At Goldex, 3.2 million tonnes of non-acid-generating flotation tailings have been deposited onto the former Manitou tailings site since the start of operations in 2008. This represents approximately 20% of the total volume calculated as being necessary to fully neutralize and encapsulate the acid-generating tailings at this formerly orphaned site, which is now being operated and reclaimed as a joint venture project between the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and AEM. The release of acidic runoff from this site has been halted and is now being managed under the joint venture.
At Meadowbank, we continued construction of the dewatering dikes to isolate mining pits from lakes. To address the issue of sediment control, we installed floating turbidity barriers at a cost of $2 million and established a dedicated, round-the-clock monitoring program. Despite these actions, short-term exceedances of our target sediment release levels still occurred and we are taking remedial action. We also installed and operated two new water treatment plants, both of which have met the tight discharge standards for total suspended solids and turbidity established by the Nunavut Water Board.
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.
In 2009, we continued to increase awareness and develop our management systems to improve environmental stewardship at all operations. There were no serious environmental incidents to report and no compliance actions were taken at any of our sites.
At Goldex, 3.2 million tonnes of non-acid-generating flotation tailings have been deposited onto the former Manitou tailings site since the start of operations in 2008. This represents approximately 20% of the total volume calculated as being necessary to fully neutralize and encapsulate the acid-generating tailings at this formerly orphaned site, which is now being operated and reclaimed as a joint venture project between the Quebec Ministry of Natural Resources and AEM. The release of acidic runoff from this site has been halted and is now being managed under the joint venture.
At Meadowbank, we continued construction of the dewatering dikes to isolate mining pits from lakes. To address the issue of sediment control, we installed floating turbidity barriers at a cost of $2 million and established a dedicated, round-the-clock monitoring program. Despite these actions, short-term exceedances of our target sediment release levels still occurred and we are taking remedial action. We also installed and operated two new water treatment plants, both of which have met the tight discharge standards for total suspended solids and turbidity established by the Nunavut Water Board.
At Pinos Altos, we commissioned the tailings filtration plant, with all of the mill tailings now being filtered and deposited as a dry stack within the tailings impoundment, and with the filtrate water being recycled to the mill for re-use as process water. The program to recover and move critical vegetation in the mine footprint was continued throughout 2009.
At Kittila, work started on an expansion of the tailings containment area with the preparation of the base for installation of a low permeability bituminous liner system along with the construction of the main dike. In 2009, we encountered unexpectedly elevated levels of nickel in the effluent from our autoclave operation, which led to the installation of a lime treatment system. In the interim, none of this effluent was released to the environment. The stored water is being treated and cycled within the tailings pond in preparation for its release to an infiltration field in 2010, once nickel levels have been reduced to the accepted discharge standard.
At Kittila, work started on an expansion of the tailings containment area with the preparation of the base for installation of a low permeability bituminous liner system along with the construction of the main dike. In 2009, we encountered unexpectedly elevated levels of nickel in the effluent from our autoclave operation, which led to the installation of a lime treatment system. In the interim, none of this effluent was released to the environment. The stored water is being treated and cycled within the tailings pond in preparation for its release to an infiltration field in 2010, once nickel levels have been reduced to the accepted discharge standard.
Respect for people and host communities
AEM strives to act as a responsible neighbour, employer, and business partner, to the benefit of the regions where we chose to work. This commitment to sustainability and responsible mining is reflected in our effort to build relationships based on trust, open dialogue, mutual respect, and understanding.
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 at all times in a fair, respectful and open manner, and seeking their input and involvement in a meaningful way in all phases of our operations. At each operation, we have established Collaboration Committees, consisting of elected employees, which meet regularly with local mine management to discuss issues of concern to the employees, including conditions of employment, compensation, work schedules and procedures, equipment selection and grievances.
We engage our host communities through a wide variety of means specific to the country, region or site in which we operate. For example, Goldex maintains regular contact with elected representatives on the city council in order to address all issues relating to the mine’s operation. At LaRonde, we are working with two local councils and nearby cottage owners to monitor and understand increased noise disruption, and we have installed new noise attenuation barriers and new ventilation fan enclosures as a result.
At Meadowbank, a Community Liaison Committee was jointly formed with the village of Baker Lake 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 all issues relating to this development and the impacts on their community.
At Pinos Altos, we are pleased to have received, for our second year running, certification as a socially responsible company from the Centro Mexicano para la Filantropia. This certification is overseen by a committee of 25 people who audit the performance of our Pinos Altos mine against a wide range of factors addressing Corporate Social Responsibility. Pinos Altos has also received certification for providing equality of women’s rights in the workplace (Equidad de genero).
Sustainable Development Report
As an important step towards continuous improvement, AEM collected sustainable development performance data in 2009. This data will be used to set objectives for subsequent years. It is based in part on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators, the Canadian Mining Association’s Toward Sustainable Mining (TSM) indicators, and AEM’s own indicators. The data will be presented in May 2010 in the first AEM Sustainable Development Report.