Crackdown warning on compliance for miners

Mining companies have been warned that Government agencies will renew their focus on environmental, Aboriginal and cultural heritage compliance in the wake of a new report in Western Australia that criticises the current level of policing.

This foreshadowed crackdown is a timely reminder for mining companies of the need to have adequate systems in place to manage the myriad of compliance requirements or face significant penalties.

The West Australian Auditor General’s report, ‘Ensuring Compliance with Conditions on Mining’,found that while agencies continue to make improvements in the way they handle project assessment and approvals for mining, they need to do much more.

The Report found that the monitoring and enforcement of environmental conditions required significant improvement.

In response, the West Australian Department of Mines and Petroleum (DMP), the main agency responsible for monitoring environmental conditions for mining, said that the Report provided the impetus to strengthen its compliance processes.

In Western Australia, like many other jurisdictions across the globe, mine operators are required to submit Annual Environmental Reports (AER).

Environmental conditions vary, but generally relate to waste management, mining within approved areas and managing fuel and vegetation loss.

Annual Environment Reports can also include information about planned environmental management activity, information resulting from such activity, self-reported non-compliance and corrective action.

Submitting an AER is a condition for most mines under the West Australian Mining Act.

“Our testing of 71 mines found that 64 were required to submit AERs, but only 35 (55 per cent) complied,” the Report stated.

Miners in Western Australia, like other parts of Australia, are also required to comply with relevant Aboriginal heritage conditions.

The audit report found that the West Australian Department of Indigenous Affairs (DIA) had not effectively monitored or enforced compliance with these conditions.

As a result, heritage sites may have been lost or damaged without the State knowing or acting.

In the Report, the DIA acknowledged the problem and noted that it will be seeking increased and improved enforcement powers under its planned review of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972.

The West Australian Office of the Environment Protection Authority (OEPA) is responsible for monitoring Ministerial conditions placed on projects as a result of environmental impact assessments by the EPA.

Around 115 mining projects are required to report to the OEPA.

With increasing numbers of projects, the OEPA believes it is unlikely to ever be able to audit or inspect all projects with Ministerial conditions.

To mitigate this, the EPA has recently required managing directors of operating companies to formally approve reports submitted to the OEPA.

The OEPA believes that this increases accountability and responsibility for compliance and non-compliance.

Many mining companies actively and successfully manage their environmental compliance activities and requirements.

However, there is a lack of consistency on how the information is compiled for easy access and eventual auditing by government agencies.

So what can be done to make compliance easy?

A newly upgraded compliance management tool has been adapted by SKM to not only tackle the task, but to help organisations manage the process, cut costs, reduce risks and build a compliance culture across mining operations.

SKM’s TrackRecord™ is a web based tool used by organisations across the globe for the real time proactive management of multiple project or location specific compliance issues.

Delivered by SKM professionals with a deep understanding of the industry, TrackRecord™ can be used by mining companies to reduce reporting and project management costs, whilst providing increased confidence around the compliance of specific construction works with the relevant approvals and permits.

TrackRecord™ manages permit documentation, actions and frequencies of ongoing activity including the owners allocated and delivery timescales set.

In an environment management context, the tool can be utilised to manage compliance for a range of conditions, including:

• Management of tailings and other hazardous dams (i.e. process dams / heap leach pads).
• Land clearing and vegetation management, particularly in the vicinity of endangered regional ecosystems, as well as land contamination and subsidence
• Surface and Groundwater impacts (both shallow and deep aquifers)
• Atmospheric impacts from point and non-point processes
• Aboriginal heritage
• Management of other waters (e.g. process water, contaminated stormwater, final voids, sewage and sullage)
• Nuisance impacts (dust, noise, odour vibration, and light)
• Rehabilitation, particularly of associated tailings dams / waste rock dumps and other final land forms
• Waste management including overburden / waste rock / tailings, industrial, regulated and general waste
• Ancillary facilities – concentrate storage and transport, camps, workshops etc.

This approach to compliance delivers real savings and provides an efficient and reliable process for reducing compliance risk, including the added benefit of the continuity of data, evidence and knowledge management across the project and client organisation.

Importantly, TrackRecord™ can be utilised across a project’s life cycle – from feasibility through to closure.

For further information on SKM’s TrackRecord™ adaptive compliance management tool, visit www.globalskm.com/trackrecord