The International Cyanide Management Institute (ICMI) announced today that it had accepted applications from Golden Star Resources Ltd. and Sentinel Transportation, LLC making them signatories to the International Cyanide Management Code for the Manufacture, Transport and Use of Cyanide in the Production of Gold (Code). The Code is a voluntary industry program for companies involved in the production of gold using cyanide and companies manufacturing and transporting cyanide. Golden Star Resources Ltd is a U.S.-based gold mining company with operations in Ghana. Sentinel Transportation, LLC is a transporter of cyanide headquartered in the United States.
These companies join 16 other companies as signatories to the Code, which now covers nearly 90 facilities worldwide. By becoming a signatory, a company commits to following the Code’s Principles and implementing its Standards of Practice, and to have verification audits of their individual operations conducted by independent third-party auditors within three years of their initial application, and every three years thereafter. The purpose of the verification audit is to evaluate an operation to determine if its management of cyanide achieves the Code’s Principles and Standards of Practice, or in the case of cyanide producers and transporters, the Principles and Practices identified in their respective verification protocols. Operations will be certified if found in compliance with the Code, and will be de-certified if ICMI determines that they no longer comply with the Code.
The Code was developed under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme by a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee. The Code is intended to complement an operation’s existing obligation to comply with the applicable laws and regulations of the political jurisdictions in which the operation is located.
ICMI has been established to administer the Code, promote its adoption, evaluate its implementation, and manage the certification process. A detailed list of the operations covered by signatory companies’ applications, along with the full text of the Code and its implementing and administrative documents, are available at www.cyanidecode.org.
Date:
Wednesday, March 8, 2006