Tailings | finnCap Mining quarterly sector note

Tailings | finnCap Mining quarterly sector note

This quarter’s finnCap Mining sector topic: Following the disastrous tailings dam failure at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine near Brumadinho in Brazil, the response from the global mining industry and from investors has been startling. Within the past few weeks, most of the world’s larger mining companies including the likes of Rio Tinto, BHP, Anglo American and Glencore, have published details of their tailings facilities, both active and inactive, and have given considerable detail about how they manage these facilities. The International Council on Mining & Metals (ICMM), a London-based industry group representing 27 major mining companies, has said that it intends to establish an independent panel of experts that will develop a global standard for tailings facilities to be followed by its members. Perhaps most importantly, a group of 96 investment managers with a total of US$10.3trn under management have written to the world’s mining industry, requesting that they publish details of all of their tailings storage facilities. We take a quick look at tailings dam construction methods and review the various tailings dams that are in use by the mining companies that we have under current coverage.

Authors: Martin Potts mpotts@finncap.com

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