The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - February 13, 2024
Teck Resources' Red Dog Mine on NANA land in Northwest Alaska has been awarded the Zinc Mark, a certification showing the operation has been assessed and verified against 32 ESG criteria.
Teck Resources Ltd.'s Red Dog Operations in Northwest Alaska is the world's first zinc mine to be awarded the Zinc Mark, a certification that the facility meets high environmental, social, and governance standards.
Accounting for more than 4% of global zinc production – along with lead, silver, and germanium byproducts – Red Dog is the largest critical minerals mine in the United States.
"Zinc plays an important role in enabling a low-carbon future and our people are focused every day on responsibly producing this critical mineral that the world needs," said Teck Resources President and CEO Jonathan Price.
Now, the critical metal produced at Red Dog will bear the Zinc Mark, an extension of the Copper Mark framework established by the International Copper Association in 2019 as an independent entity to promote responsible mining practices and demonstrate the sector's efforts to uphold the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Copper Mark-assured sites currently account for 25% of the copper mined globally. This includes Teck's Highland Valley Copper Operations in BC, which was the first mine in Canada to be awarded the Copper Mark.
This sustainability certification was expanded to include Zinc Mark, Molybdenum Mark, and Nickel Mark.
To be certified with any of these marks, operations are assessed and independently verified against 32 ESG criteria, including greenhouse gas emissions, community health and safety, respect for Indigenous rights, and business integrity.
Meeting the requisite criteria, Red Dog is now Zinc Mark certified.
"Teck's Red Dog Operation is the first mining site to receive the stand-alone Zinc Mark. We are excited to see the standard applied to other metals operations, and congratulate Teck on the initiative and Red Dog on its achievement," said Copper Mark Executive Director Michèle Brülhart.
Adding to the ESG credentials of zinc mined at Red Dog, Teck's Trail Operations, a British Columbia refinery where the Northwest Alaska's mine's concentrates are shipped for processing, is also Zinc Mark certified.
In addition, the Canada-based mining company's Quebrada Blanca Operations and Carmen de Andacollo operations in Chile were awarded the Copper Mark in 2022.
"With Red Dog being awarded the Zinc Mark, all of Teck's managed base metals operations are now verified and recognized for strong environmental and social performance, illustrating our focus on responsible production for the benefit of our customers, and for the environment and people where we operate," said Price.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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