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Gold Fields shares tailings
info
Gold Fields recently responded
to a request from the Church of
England Pensions Board and the
Swedish Council on Ethics for
information on mining companies’
tailings storage facilities (TSFs).
According to the company it
currently manages 32 tailings facilities,
of which 12 are active and one will be
commissioned imminently. A further two are
managed by Joint Venture operations. Gold
Fields maintains measures to manage its
TSFs’ safety, including compliance with the
International Council on Mining and Metals’
(ICMM) Tailings Governance Position
Statement.
All Gold Fields’ TSFs, as well as associated
pipeline and pumping infrastructure, are
subject to an independent, external audit
every three years – or more frequently where
required by local circumstances or regulations
– as well as regular internal inspections,
monitoring and formal annual Engineer of
Record reviews.
www.miningmirror.co.za
During 2017 and 2018, external and internal
reviews of our alignment with the ICMM
position statements on water and tailings
management were carried out. The conclusion
was that Gold Fields was aligned with both
position statements.
Gold Fields supports and is contributing
to the current work of the ICMM, UN
Environment and the UN Principles for
Responsible Investment to
develop an international standard
on tailings management, led
by an independent panel of
experts. The standard will be
based on best practices to
ensure that tailings facility risks
are managed appropriately,
consistently and transparently.
Following the catastrophic
failure of the tailings facility at the
Corrego do Feijão iron ore mine
in Brumadinho, Brazil, in January
2019, which left close to 300 people
dead, Gold Fields’ operations carried out
additional safety inspections at its facilities.
To further improve operational safety of
its TSFs, Gold Fields is, where practical,
evaluating the potential to move away
from the construction of upstream facilities
to centre-line or downstream designs,
considering filtered and dry stacked
tailings, as well as in-pit tailings disposal.
Gold Fields will also continue to review
and, where applicable and practical,
adopt leading practices in the design,
construction, operation and closure
(including post-closure) of our tailings
dams.
AUGUST 2019 MINING MIRROR [9]