Award recognizes facility-level excellence in corporate responsibility
SUDBURY, ON, Dec. 22, 2014 /CNW/ – For its outstanding performance in the Towards Sustainable Mining (TSM) initiative, Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (Sudbury INO) has been recognized with a special TSM Leadership Award.
The TSM Leadership Award is granted only when an operation meets or exceeds a level “A” ranking in its results across all of 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 (GHG) emissions management. An operation’s TSM results must be externally verified to be eligible for this recognition. In addition to the TSM Leadership Award, Sudbury INO was also recognized with TSM Performance Awards for each of the six performance areas of TSM based on its 2013 results.
“The TSM Leadership Award is a rare distinction. It is given to operations that demonstrate leadership in these key areas. With this award, we celebrate the dedicated employees of Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations for being a role model to other mining operations in Canada,” said Pierre Gratton, President and CEO, the Mining Association of Canada.
Marc Boissonneault, Glencore Vice President, said that he was honoured to accept the award on behalf of all employees at Sudbury INO.
“Many of the milestones that we have accomplished in our sustainable development performance are a direct result of the contributions of our employees across all levels in our organization and so this is quite special,” he said. “This award represents our concerted efforts on a number of important fronts, including the advancement of our safety culture to much higher levels. I am especially proud of our employees in this regard as safety is core to everything that we do.”
“To see that we have also been recognized for our performance in five other key areas in our sustainable development framework is also quite an honour,” Boissonneault added. “We take pride in being responsible stewards of the environment and we value our relationships with our stakeholders as they are an extension of our business in so many respects.”
While the Sudbury INO’s scores reflect leadership across all TSM performance areas, it also stands out for demonstrating best practices in energy use and GHG emissions management. In this area, the operations achieved the highest possible ranking—level “AAA”—across all of the indicators that make up this protocol.
Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations joins an elite group of a small number of mine sites that have achieved this distinction in TSM’s 10-year history, including Syncrude Canada’s oil sands facility (awarded in 2007), Barrick Gold Corporation’s Hemlo Mine (awarded in 2011), Teck’s Elkview Operations (awarded in 2013), Teck’s Cardinal River Operations (awarded in 2014), and Teck Trail Operations (awarded in 2014).
About Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations
Sudbury INO has been mining nickel-copper ores in the Sudbury area of northern Ontario since 1929. Its activities consist of Exploration, two underground mines (Nickel Rim South and Fraser Mine), Strathcona Mill and the Sudbury Smelter. The operations are spread throughout the geological formation known as the Sudbury Basin. Nickel and copper are the primary metals, but it also produces cobalt and precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum and palladium. The company employs about 1,300 permanent people.
Recently, Sudbury INO achieved 5 million hours without a single lost time injury in their integrated business of exploration, mining, milling and smelting operations, and its Nickel Rim South Mine received the prestigious John T. Ryan Award in 2013, recognizing the site as the safest metal mine in Ontario.
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)
For further information: Jessica Draker, (613) 233-9392 x225 or jdraker@mining.ca; Johanne Senécal, (613) 233-9392 x325 or jsenecal@mining.ca