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PRESS RELEASE

Perth, Australia, 25 - 27 October 2000

WORKSHOP SETS PRIORITIES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY IN MINING

The need for better tailings management, mine monitoring and training were among issues identified at a major international workshop on environmental safety in mining.

Over 40 regulators and professionals from 20 countries attended the Perth workshop on October 26-27, which was organised by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Australian Government in response to such accidents as the cyanide spill from a gold mine in Baia Mare, Romania, in January. The spill killed over 1000 tonnes of fish in the Danube River system and threatened local water supplies.

Participants agreed the workshop made significant progress towards finding better ways of regulating potentially hazardous mining operations. Participants from developing countries currently opening up new mining operations said they found it particularly timely.

The workshop reviewed lessons learned from past mining accidents, and compared actions taken by government regulators to prevent their recurrence. Key issues included:

  • how to adapt regulations and permitting procedures to the variety of mines found in many countries and the different management systems and codes now in use;

  • best practice regulatory instruments to ensure safe tailings management;

  • the need to build appropriate skills and maintain expertise within agencies to enhance regulatory capacity;

  • how to monitor operations effectively to identify early warning signs of impending accidents; and

  • how to communicate technical guidelines to the range of small and large mining operations, improve inter-agency communication and cooperation within countries, and make mining companies more accountable to local communities.

Participants used the meeting to identify future partners to further refine their legislative tools, and called for similar workshops in future to allow additional matters to be discussed.

The workshop was jointly organised by UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry and Economics and the Australian Government with support from the Australian minerals industry.

Further information:
Fritz Balkau
+33 1 44 37 14 40
fbalkau@unep.fr

For general information about the workshop:
http://www.mineralresourcesforum.org/