Amira Collaboration on Tailings (ACT)
There is no disputing the impact tailings failures have on human lives, the environment, and the reputation of mining. What is critical is how we respond as an industry to address and resolve the challenge.
Now more than ever, our industry needs to act collaboratively on a global scale.
The tailings challenge will intensify
Our industry is facing its greatest pressure to secure a sustainable and just supply of raw materials to fuel the green technology revolution and meet decarbonisation goals.
Productivity demands are exacerbated by the changing landscape of available resources with deeper, more complex, and lower grade orebodies.
This is resulting in increasing volumes of tailings, increasing energy and water consumption, and additional risks to society and operators.
Gaps in knowledge, data, technologies, and capabilities are further impeding our industry’s ability to achieve its aspirations.
Achieving zero harm tailings
Amira has developed a preliminary prospectus proposing a pathway to enable the mining industry to rise to our shared challenge while meeting ESG and production requirements.
The prospectus is designed as a catalyst for conversation; we seek to begin a global conversation with the international mining ecosystem about its contents.
Our goals for the world-wide discussion are:
- seek agreement on a set of industry targets that could simultaneously meet production demands and ESG requirements
- frame the design of a global coordinated program of research, development, innovation, and implementation that could deliver a suite of outcomes that will resolve industry’s tailings challenge
- identify the scale of investment required to meet these aspirations and collaborate on designing a coordinated and efficient investment model to realise shared benefits.
The conversation begins in Santiago, Chile with the official launch of the prospectus.
Extensive consultation will held around the world, culminating in a summit at the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) on 18 October, 2022 in Australia to evaluate and incorporate industry’s responses.
This is a mega challenge
Amira’s not-for-profit status, its global industry membership basis, and its mature and transparent governance infrastructure, presents a neutral platform for the global industry and allied bodies to come together to tackle the tailings challenge collaboratively.
It is well recognised that tailings management is a challenge beyond any single company to solve, and not limited to a region or commodity. It is truly global.
