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Monitoring & Environmental Management
Emissions from Group operations are managed in strict compliance with Russian regulatory requirements. Monitoring data at existing operations at Pokrovskiy and Pioneer indicates no identified air or water quality impacts outside the footprint of mining operations. Newer operations and development projects such as Kuranakh, Malomir and K&S are located in more challenging settings with more complex geochemistry and where water management in particular will be a key issue.
No Group projects are located in nature protection areas, and environmental assessments have demonstrated that operations will have no significant impacts on natural parks located 12km from Kimkan – the nearest such area to a Group operation.
All mining operation generate significant volumes of waste, as waste rock, tailings and general industrial and domestic waste. Due to the remote location of all Group mining operations, all waste is managed, recycled and disposed on-site.
While iron ore concentration relies on physical and magnetic processes, gold processing requires the use of cyanide to extract gold. An independent cyanide audit was conducted in 2009 for gold operations at Pokrovskiy and Pioneer, which found existing procedures broadly in compliance with the requirements of the International Cyanide Management Code (ICMC). A plan is in place to bring outstanding procedures into compliance with the ICMC in the near future.
There is an ongoing rehabilitation programme at all operating mines to rehabilitate completed waste rock stockpiles in accordance with regulatory and permit requirements. Outline closure plans have been prepared for operating mines as part of the initial licensing process and these will be updated as mines approach the end of their operating lives.
