Climate change: As miners, we are used to grappling with uncertainty and the unknown, and above all anticipating

As a mining company, your operations bring you very close to nature: can you feel climate change at work?

Inherently, our activity is exposed to the elements, and we have learned to manage this. For several years now, we have been observing significant changes across our sites. So far, this is only the beginning, and we are well aware that these changes will continue to accelerate. The exception is most often becoming the rule. For example, in Niger, we are currently recording 62 days a year where temperatures exceed 40°, and forecasts are currently saying that by 2050 there could be up to 160 days like that per year. The country is also increasingly subject to torrential rains with disastrous consequences for populations. These are new constraints which needs to be taken into account. In France, climate modelling indicates that we will see more intense and longer rain events alternating with periods of drought, even though the total annual rainfall will remain more or less the same. This could mean that our mine remediation teams responsible for the environmental monitoring of the former mining sites  have to reassess the sizing  of our water treatment facilities, take preventive measures to manage and minimize risks related to geological and soil conditions
 In Canada, climate change is also underway, although for now it is having less of an impact on our activities. The biggest change we foresee is at the level of methods of exploration. As winters become milder, geologists will find it more difficult to get to exploration zones, due to the lack of ice support to bring in the drilling machines, meaning that we will need to work differently. 

Are you afraid that you won’t be able to manage these changes?

Not really! Because we have some experience in managing contingencies linked to climate. We often work in extreme conditions, in very different climates, and  that requires us to adapt continuously. Things we learn in one country can be used in another. For instance, in Kazakhstan, where increased temperatures are forecast, we can, if necessary, use equipment that is being deployed in Africa, such as air-cooled generator sets, or “tropicalised” drills. Our teams know that if they need to, they can rely on colleagues’ expertise in developing new processes or tools.  The same is true when it comes to managing excess water: we have to look at revising the sizing of our treatment facilities. The mining sector has an enormous advantage when it comes to dealing with climate change, and that is its ability to adapt to the terrain. We are used to grappling with uncertainty and the unknown, and above all anticipating, because we are an industry that functions over the long term. For teams who are working right now on  the Zuuvch Ovoo mine project in the Gobi desert of Mongolia, planning for 2050 makes sense, because that site is intended to operate until 2060, aspect to be integrated from the very beginning.

Are you writing real forecast scenarios? 

In recent years we have been taking a much closer interest in the impact that climate change will have on our sites.  By the end of the year, all of our sites need to have completed a risk analysis that looks at the climate models that are currently available. We need to know the precise ways in which our sites will be impacted. It’s a matter of envisaging all the possible scenarios and making a list of the solutions, the costs, the consequences in terms of working conditions, and so on. We are planning for extreme cases, so that we can be ready to activate solutions if they are needed. And, every year, the analyses will be re-evaluated in light of the new climate data that may become available. Integrating climate change into our operations has to become an operational reflex for everyone. This naturally entails a cultural shift, but we know how to adapt

So everything is under control?

It’s important to stay humble! There are still major uncertainties when it comes to the future course of CO2 emissions, or how the climate changes. On the one hand, our large portfolio of different sites means that we can learn from a wide range of climatic conditions in different countries, and that can help us adapt in other places. That being said, if conditions in one location worsen (increasingly extreme temperatures, for example), we will find ourselves faced with huge unknown factors! Moreover, in all of our scenarios, we are currently only looking at physical risks, but there will be other risks too, at the social and environmental levels: people’s lives will be affected, as will flora and fauna, and that will surely have repercussions for our activities. As scientists model these types of changes, we can integrate their findings into our studies.

We are truly committed to such an iterative approach, learning a little more each day about how to address climate change