Rio Tinto details on tailings facilities

(Posted on 17/06/19)

Rio Tinto has disclosed additional information in relation to its global tailings facilities at www.riotinto.com/tailings. The latest disclosure builds on the detailed information provided on each of the company's global tailings facilities on 20 February 2019, when Rio Tinto also published its Group Procedure and its Standard for 'Management of tailings and water storage facilities', which was introduced in August 2015.

In line with the company's commitment to disclose further detail over time, Rio Tinto has now provided additional information about the construction, management and monitoring of facilities, including independent reviews.

All Rio Tinto managed facilities are subject to three levels of governance and assurance:

First level of assurance takes place at the asset itself with the main tenets being effective facility design, comprehensive operational controls and regular reviews. Independent reviews of the operations must be conducted at least every two years
Second level is assurance to the Rio Tinto Standard through periodic Business Conformance Audits and Technical Reviews, supported by Rio Tinto's Surface Mining Centre of Excellence
Third level of assurance is independent of site management and normally conducted by third parties

All Rio Tinto managed facilities, whether active or inactive, have an external engineer of record or design engineer.

In order to align with guidance from the International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM) some of the information previously disclosed has been updated. This includes limiting the status classifications of facilities to 'active', 'inactive' or 'closed', and ensuring the construction method specified describes the most recent type of embankment raise on the facility. In addition, following a comprehensive review of Rio Tinto's global operations by the company's technical teams, some facilities have been reclassified resulting in some tailings facilities being added to the list and others being removed.

All facilities have been given a hazard classification in accordance with the regulatory or industry body that oversees tailings in each region or jurisdiction.

Hazard classifications are not a judgment on the condition of a facility or the likelihood of failure but on the potential consequence if there were to be a failure.

Full details of all Rio Tinto tailings and water storage facilities are available at https://www.riotinto.com/tailings.