At IGO we value responsible environmental management, seek continual improvement of our environmental performance and aspire to be effective environmental stewards.
View IGO’s Environmental Policy here.
Environmental Management
We recognise that our operations can have potentially adverse environmental impacts through our exploration, mining and processing activities.
Biodiversity loss, the rapid decline in nature and increasing water scarcity are critical global challenges. We recognise the importance of healthy functioning natural systems and the close linkage between climate, water and nature. We operate in biodiverse environments and recognise that our operations can have direct impacts on biodiversity through land clearing as well as our mining and processing activities. Indirect impacts to biodiversity, such as climate change, altered fire regimes and invasive species add additional stressors and further complicate the management of biodiversity. Despite these challenges, we strive to minimise our adverse environmental impacts and reduce biodiversity loss.
Water is a critical shared resource, with freshwater sources subject to increasing global pressure and scarcity. We recognise that water is integral to our mining operations, the healthy functioning of surrounding ecosystems and the livelihoods and wellbeing of our host communities. IGO’s operations depend heavily on groundwater abstraction. Most of the water we abstract is brackish or hypersaline, posing unique challenges to our mining and processing activities. If poorly managed, the abstraction of groundwater can lead to adverse impacts on local water tables and ecosystems. We are mindful of the cumulative impacts of our operations, those of other industries in the regions where we operate and other stressors such as changing precipitation patterns. Proper water management is crucial to maintaining the balance between the needs of our operations with those of surrounding environments and communities.
The safe management of tailings, waste and non-GHG emissions is crucial to protect our operational assets, workforce, surrounding environments and communities. We recognise that our activities, including resource extraction, primary processing, transportation of products, and ship loading for export, can result in the generation of dust, noise, and other non-greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Mining and processing activities also lead to the generation of tailings, a by-product that remains after the extraction of recoverable minerals and metals. If not effectively managed, tailings, waste and other non-GHG emissions can have adverse environmental and social impacts. We are committed to the safe and responsible management of our tailings storage facilities and promote responsible waste management practices to minimise waste generation and maximise resource efficiency throughout our operations.
Land clearing, or the removal of vegetation, is often required for activities such as exploration, construction, infrastructure and the provision of access corridors. Disturbance caused by land clearing can have adverse environmental impacts, including habitat reduction for flora and fauna, wind or water erosion and the generation of dust. We seek to minimise the amount of land we clear, controlled through land clearance permits, and rehabilitate disturbed areas. While our underground mining practices leave a small surface disturbance footprint, we aim to undertake progressive rehabilitation where possible.
We seek to rehabilitate exploration project areas and close mines to be safe, stable, non-polluting, and capable of sustaining an agreed post-mining land use. We collaborate and consider the perspectives of all stakeholders in our closure process as we seek to build trust and deliver positive social and environmental outcomes.
IGO believes that effective environmental management arises from effective risk management strategies based on valid data and sound science. We continue work to improve the integrity of our data and to better understand our impacts.
Stakeholder engagement is integral to our environmental management approach. We engage and collaborate with key stakeholders, including regulators, subject matter experts and Traditional Owners, to address environmental challenges and opportunities effectively.
For more information about our progress and performance on environmental management, refer to our Sustainability Report and Sustainability Databook.
To guide responsible environmental management across our business, IGO introduced a set of Group Environmental Standards. These standards define a performance expectation that exceeds simple compliance with our statutory obligations.
For more information, refer to supplementary information on:
Tailings Dam Disclosure
Tailing storage facilities (TSFs) are reservoirs or dams that store mine tailings. Mine tailings are the fine- grained waste rock material, suspended in a water slurry, that are discharged from an ore processing plant following the extraction of the desired metal or mineral. Inappropriate storage of tailings can lead to safety, health and or environmental hazards.
We are committed to the safe and responsible management of our tailings storage facilities. This year we undertook a review of our tailings management practices, including the potential implementation of the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM). As an outcome of the review, and in the context of the majority of IGO’s managed assets entering (or soon to be entering) into care and maintenance or mine closure, IGO will pursue partial alignment with GISTM across all our operations with a focus on improving governance of tailings management and regular internal progress reporting to our CEO.
IGO supports the need for the public disclosure of TSF management practices. Read the IGO 2024 Tailings Storage Facility Disclosure.
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