Mining can pose significant health, safety and environmental risks to employees and communities. Certain risks, such as the health and safety of our workforce and tailings management, have the potential to become emergencies if not managed properly.
We recognize that maintaining strong relationships with our communities of interest and ensuring business continuity depend on our ability to effectively manage risks and to be prepared to respond in a timely and appropriate manner, should an emergency occur. Recent tailings incidents at other companies have underscored for Teck the importance of continued focus on emergency planning and management systems.
The importance of emergency preparedness is reflected in the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) 10 Principles. ICMM Principle 4 is to “implement risk management strategies based on valid data and sound science” and states that member companies must develop, maintain and test effective emergency response procedures in collaboration with potentially affected parties.
Emergency Preparedness Planning and Management at Teck
We identify a comprehensive range of potential emergencies and ensure we are prepared to respond to, and recover from, these situations as quickly and effectively as possible. Potential risks are mitigated through robust risk management measures. Various emergency scenarios are tested each year via emergency drills to evaluate the adequacy and effectiveness of our emergency preparedness — including human and physical resources. Emergency preparedness and planning are conducted at a corporate and site level as well as within the communities near our operations, as outlined in the table directly below.
Emergency Preparedness at Corporate Offices, Sites and Communities
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Corporate Risk Group — Crisis Management Team |
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Individual Sites |
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Local Communities |
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Emergency Response Planning at Individual Sites
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Components |
Example |
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Clearly defined roles/responsibilities |
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Emergency response guidelines and procedures |
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Communications systems and procedures |
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Response and Control |
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Internal Emergency Response |
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External Emergency Response |
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Testing and training for emergency situations |
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Incident investigation procedures |
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Our framework within Teck’s Global Risk Management Program guides the process of:
- Identifying hazards
- Assessing the risks associated with those hazards
- Applying relevant controls to minimize the potential risks
- Regularly checking effectiveness of controls
- Ensuring appropriate plans and resources are put in place to respond to emergencies that may occur
Standards for emergency preparedness are updated on a regular basis as required. With the support and guidance of our Risk Group, each operation develops site-specific emergency preparedness and response plans based upon those requirements. As such, emergency response plans and preparations are appropriate for site-specific conditions and are based on a range of credible — although extremely unlikely — incident scenarios.
