Development and progress of the mining association of Canada's towards sustainable mining program
Abstract
© 2015, IGI Global. All rights reserved. Early efforts to address sustainability within the mining industry (GMI and ICMM) did not create a common set of protocols by which individual operations could be clearly ranked on their performance. Although the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) does provide protocols for the reporting of sustainability indicators for mining operations, GRI-based reports include a letter grade based on report completeness, not performance on the actual indicators. The Mining Association of Canada's Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) program provides protocols to address biodiversity, tailings management, crisis management, safety and health, energy/GHGs, and Aboriginal/community engagement. The TSM-based reports grade mining operation performance at implementing programs and systems to address each of these topics. Progress along these indicators tells us how well the industry is doing at addressing sustainability along each concept, and where further progress is still needed.