New Reporting Requirements in Place for Tailings and Waste Rock

  • Introduction and Overview
  • Resources - Legal Requirements, Guidance, Example Calculations and Q&As

Introduction and Overview

Through a Canada Gazette, Part I notice, under the authority of section 46 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA 1999), Environment Canada will now collect new information from mines on tailings and waste rock for the 2006–2008 reporting years, and publish it in the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). The new requirements for tailings and waste rock reporting are also incorporated in the annual NPRI Notice for 2009 reporting, which is being published at the same time. The reporting deadline for both Canada Gazette notices is June 1, 2010. Requirements for 2010 and later years will be published through future NPRI notices for those years.

With the new requirements, facilities must now report not only the quantities of NPRI substances released to the environment from the mine, but also the quantities of NPRI substances contained in the waste rock and tailings disposed of at the mine or transferred off site for disposal.  

As per past practice, publication of the preliminary unreviewed NPRI data for 2009, as well as the historical mine tailings and waste rock data for 2006–2008, is planned for June–July 2010. Publication of the reviewed data sets is expected to follow within six months after the June 1, 2010 reporting deadline.

Resources