New international mining resolution – now the industry needs to respond!

The growing focus on the social and environmental cost of resource extraction prompted a call for action at the Fourth United Nations Environmental Assembly (UNEA 4), held recently in Nairobi, Kenya. This year’s theme of “Innovative Solutions for Environmental Challenges and Sustainable Consumption and Production” could be the new mantra for an industry that has been slow to innovate and accept responsibility for its negative impacts.

The Assembly adopted a resolution on mineral resource governance, put up by Mexico and co-sponsored by Switzerland. The resolution urges UN Environment to support actions to improve the governance and sustainability of the global mining industry. It also calls on governments to support capacity building, research and innovation in the resource sector and promote increased sustainability, including the decoupling of economic growth from environmental degradation. 

However, the resolution fails to explicitly include a call for zero tailings dam failures, a goal considered achievable in the UN Environment and GRID-Arendal report Mine tailings storage: Safety is no accident. This rapid response assessment was released in 2017 following the devastating Samarco dam failure in Brazil. It highlighted the fact that urgent action was required to ensure zero dam failures, but unfortunately for many families around the world, our response has been too slow and tailings dams have continued to fail.

So, while this resolution is welcome, and sustainability is important, we also need to keep a focus on tailings dam safety. Unlike many of the big problems facing people and the planet, this problem is one we know how to fix. Not one more person should lose their life in a river of mud. It’s a crime that this has happened, and it will be even more of a crime if we let it continue. 

The collapse of the tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine in Brazil on January 25th 2019. More than 300 people died in the disaster.