The ICMI Board of Directors met in Lima, Peru on September 16, 2006, and took a number of actions of interest to stakeholders in the International Cyanide Management Code.
Auditor Guidance for the Use of the Cyanide Transportation Verification Protocol: A new Guidance Document for the Use of the Cyanide Transportation Verification Protocol is now available at http://www.cyanidecode.org/pdf/TransportAuditorGuidance.pdf. This document provides detailed interpretive guidance with respect to each question on the Verification Protocol for Cyanide Transport, as well as general guidance on the role of consignors of cyanide shipments and how transport by rail and sea should be addressed.
Adoption of the Transport Guidance Document has required a conforming change to the existing Auditor Guidance for the Use of the Gold Mining Verification Protocol. In its discussion of question 3 under Standard of Practice 2.2, that document had indicated that a non-certification audit of a transporter that resulted in a finding of substantial compliance was not sufficient for a gold mine’s certification. During development of the Transport Auditor Guidance document, it was determined that such a finding could support a similar finding of substantial compliance for a gold mine. The same interpretation had also been applied to cyanide producers in the discussion of question 3 under Standard of Practice 1.1. These discussions have been revised in an updated Auditor Guidance for the Use of the Gold Mining Verification Protocol. This new version, dated September 2006, replaces the previous version (May 2006) at http://cyanidecode.org/pdf/AuditorGuidance.pdf.
Effective Dates: Two events are triggered after a Code audit: an operation that has been either fully or conditionally certified has three years before a new audit must be conducted; and an operation that has been found in substantial compliance and certified conditionally has up to one year to come into full compliance and be fully certified. However, the Code has not included a definition of the exact starting date for either of these periods. The Board has approved revisions to two existing Code documents to clarify when an audit is complete and, therefore, when these periods begin.
A sentence has been added to the Code Verification and Certification section of the Code clarifying that the three-year period for the next audit begins on the date that ICMI formally accepts the Summary Audit Report for posting on its web site. The revised Code (now dated September 2006) is found at http://cyanidecode.org/pdf/thecode.pdf. A similar clarification has also been added to item 2 under the Instructions section of the Corrective Action Plan Requirements. The revised Corrective Action Plan Requirements document (September 2006) is found at http://www.cyanidecode.org/pdf/RevisedCorrectiveActionPlan.pdf.
Code Logo Policy: Operations that have been certified as conforming to the Code are authorized to display the Code logo as evidence of their responsible cyanide management practices. The Board has adopted a policy for the use of the logo, a copy of which can be found on at http://www.cyanidecode.org/become_logo.php.
New Board Member: ICMI has elected Mr. Niclas W. Svenningsen to its Board of Directors. Mr. Svenningsen is the programme officer for industry and urban development in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in the Division office for Technology, Industry and Economics (DTIE) in Paris, France. Mr. Svenningsen holds an M.Sc in Civil Engineering from Lund Institute of Technology, and M.Sc in Petroleum Exploration from Chalmers Technological University, and a Diploma in Environmental law from University of Uppsala. He has previously worked as principal technical officer at the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Date:
Thursday, September 28, 2006