Environmental Incidents
Newmont's Management System provides the framework for reporting potentially harmful incidents and releases. This allows us to identify problem areas and take action to prevent more serious incidents.
Incidents are events or releases that have occurred where there has been a loss of control. They are categorized on five levels based on their potential environmental impact (from Level 1 with no or very low potential impact, through Level 5 with potentially severe impact).
In 2010, we recorded a total of eight Level 3 environmental incidents. There were no Level 4 or Level 5 incidents. All of the eight Level 3 incidents occurred onsite and did not impact areas outside of the mine site boundary. Newmont had no significant environmental impact related to transportation for supply chain/logistical purposes.
In response to a Q4 2009 overflow of processing solution containing low concentrations of sodium cyanide at our Ahafo operation in Ghana, considerable effort was undertaken by Newmont Ghana in late 2009 through 2010, with the participation of regulatory agencies, to rigorously review and modify its control systems and monitoring procedures. A number of immediate measures were implemented to:
2010
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Incidents are events or releases that have occurred where there has been a loss of control. They are categorized on five levels based on their potential environmental impact (from Level 1 with no or very low potential impact, through Level 5 with potentially severe impact).
In 2010, we recorded a total of eight Level 3 environmental incidents. There were no Level 4 or Level 5 incidents. All of the eight Level 3 incidents occurred onsite and did not impact areas outside of the mine site boundary. Newmont had no significant environmental impact related to transportation for supply chain/logistical purposes.
In response to a Q4 2009 overflow of processing solution containing low concentrations of sodium cyanide at our Ahafo operation in Ghana, considerable effort was undertaken by Newmont Ghana in late 2009 through 2010, with the participation of regulatory agencies, to rigorously review and modify its control systems and monitoring procedures. A number of immediate measures were implemented to:
- Reduce the risk of overfilling the event pond during process plant shutdowns
- Improve the reliability of the instrumentation and level detection systems
- Increase the event pond pumping capacity to redirect process solution more quickly during rain events
- Improve containment within the processing plant site in the event other systems fail during a process water overflow
- Improve and accelerate communication with stakeholders, and,
- Improve onsite protocols and procedures
2010
- Re-sloping of areas around the process facilities for storm water control
- Redesigning of the storm water channels away from cyanide process lines
- Installation of fencing around the TSF to control unauthorized access
- Replacement of the cyanide feed line
- Expansion of concrete secondary containments around process tanks
- Installation of shroud protection around slurry lines in the process pond area
- Relocation of the storm water channels away from ponds and slurry lines
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