ICMM - International Council on Mining & Metals

NEWS

27.02.09
ICMM hosts interactive session on mining and sustainability at PDAC

For the first time, ICMM is hosting an interactive half-day forum at the 2009 Conference of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada, on how to address the sustainable development challenges that face the sector.

ICMM President Anthony Hodge says: “We greatly value our partnership with PDAC. Their annual convention is the biggest in the mining calendar, and a great opportunity for ICMM to engage constructively with practitioners in the sector to find out what issues they are currently facing. The challenge for mining is to continue the improvement of sustainable development practices at a time when economic conditions are very tough – our stakeholders demand it.”

The Good Practice Guidance Forum takes place on Monday 2 March from 2-5pm in Room 711. The purpose of the half-day session is to engage participants from multinational, junior and exploration companies in constructive dialogue on tools and techniques for implementing sustainable development practices. There will be audience polling to find out what sustainability issues are currently most challenging to practitioners in the sector.

The forum will open with a discussion panel on mining and sustainability led by ICMM President Tony Hodge. The panel includes Dennis Jones (GeoQuest International), Peter Sinclair (Barrick Gold) and Marketa Evans (Plan Canada). Full biographies for each speaker are available.

The second half of the forum will focus on three ICMM toolkits and guidance publications – community development, biodiversity and mine closure. In each case, an expert will introduce the subject, and propose a set of questions to facilitate discussion by participants. The room will be set up so that participants can discuss the issues and their experiences in small groups.

ICMM will capture the observations from the small group discussions and the data from audience polling to be published at a later date. A short summary will be available for the media on Tuesday 3 March.

For further information, contact Hanna Hindstrom (Hanna.Hindstrom@ICMM.com) or visit our booth – 452.