Euromines Health and Safety Publication

A top priority for the European extractive industry is keeping workers as safe as possible. To do that, companies must make health and safety more than just a priority – it must be deeply embedded in the culture of an organisation. 

In this brochure, we address this difference and explain what companies can do to ensure the highest possible standards at every level of their organisations. This includes how policies are developed and communicated, the role of leadership and how new technologies are saving lives and reducing injuries. 

Resource accessibility for humans in the future is a complex concept and therefore needs to be adequately understood and reflected. The general equations for characterisation Life Cycle Impact Assessment models developed by the SUPRIM project represent a new state-of-art and are the most reliable of their kind thanks to the unique mix of expertise existing within the project consortium.

The proposed SUPRIM method responds to the European Commission’s call to develop a life-cycle based impact assessment method for resource use based on dissipation concepts for use in its Product Environment Footprint and Organisation Environment Footprint methodologies.

Euromines Annual Report 2016 “Why Not Invest in Europe!” is now available. This theme addresses the challenge the extractive industry faces of supplying minerals and metals to 500 million Europeans, as well as the steps the industry and in particular Euromines members are taking to help meet those needs. 

As Euromines President Mark Rachovides explains, “In short, our industry must belong to more people, be recognized as of value and as part of Europe’s future and its hope.” 

In this report, you will find information about key achievements that are taking us closer to this goal, such as important international partnerships, addressing the mineral and economic potential in Europe, maximizing benefits of technological growth and the continuous pursuit of improving policies and practices. 

The Euromines Annual Report 2019 is now available! This year, we present what Euromines is doing to secure supply chains in a rapidly changing world. The European mineral raw materials sector supports a wide variety of industries through the supply of raw materials, and in this role as well as within the mining sector itself, we must prioritise both sustainable efforts and competitiveness.

As Euromines President Mark Rachovides states in the Foreword:

“Today’s decision makers’ contexts, terms of reference, priorities and language have changed. They want and fear different things that reflect a new consensus, whether we like that or not, and that is an opportunity, not a threat.”

As always, we are certain in the ability of Euromines and our members to rise to the occasion and find solutions to today’s challenges.

Euromines brochure is a brief overview of the importance of mineral raw materials for the EU future development. Raw materials are the key enablers of many important policies that will shape our future, such as adaptation to and mitigation of the climate change challenges.

The EU has the potential to increase its capacity to source mineral raw materials domestically and sustainably. It is not a lack of resources; it is a lack of exploration with latest technology that feeds the myth of depleting resources. By increasing mineral domestic production, Europe becomes less dependent and improves its sustainable supply chain.

Mineral Raw Materials in modern society are the lifeblood of the economy. They are the basis for many sectors like agriculture, construction, IT, electronics, energy, chemistry, manufacturing, medicine. Raw materials depending industries in the EU provided 206 billion EUR of added value.

The economic importance of the raw materials sector goes far beyond the sector’s own economic activities.
Whilst engaging about 350.000 jobs within the EU, there are more than 24.6 million jobs in downstream
manufacturing industries depend on the secure supply of mineral raw materials.

Euromines has made significant contributions to the science of Life Cycle Assessment, on which the Environmental Footprint methods are based (click here for a full list of peer-reviewed publications). Since 2013, Euromines has been actively engaged in the European Commission’s Environmental Footprint (EF) and has helped develop, during the EF Pilot Phase, the ‘Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR) for Metal Sheets in Various Applications’. Through our involvement in the EF Pilot Phase, the PEF Guidelines have been improved, but not all the defined shortcomings have been resolved to ensure that the methodology is sufficiently robust for use in EU policy, and does not lead to inappropriate results. In particular, the need to develop a better method of assessing the impacts of Resource Use in the years to come has been formally expressed and the European Commission has committed to invest jointly with the industry in the development of an alternative approach to better quantify the potential for conservation of resources.

Read the full version of the Euromines feedback to Legislative proposal on substantiating green claims using PEF.

In this issue of Euromines Newsletter you will find the following articles:

• EU-Canada Mineral Investment Facility Project
• Agnico Eagle Finland – Proud of our Past, Focused on our Future
• Exporting Canadian Mining Expertise to Grow a Gold Mining Industry in Greece
• The EU industrial policy, raw materials and the CETA agreement
• The EU’s feasibility study on a Minerals investment facility - First Workshop in Brussels

Euromines supports the preparation of EU nature restoration targets in 2021. The different policies like the Biodiversity Strategy 2030 and the Zero Pollution Action Plan, but also other related policies like the Industrial Strategy and the list of Critical Raw Materials, must be coherent. A proactive dialog between our sector and EU decision makers is key to let our sector interact as source for EU businesses within the unique EU framework of nature protection. The European mineral raw materials industry can contribute with its best practices of biodiversity conservation.

Due to its long mining history, Europe has developed unique competence in rehabilitation and eco-system management and the European mining sector actively supports the conservation of biodiversity.

The Euromines Position Paper regarding the establishing the framework to facilitate sustainable investment (EU Taxonomy) is now available.

As the recognized representative of the European metals and minerals mining industry, Euromines welcomes the Commission’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan for a greener and cleaner economy and agrees that a socio - economically efficient, sustainable and flexible financial system is essential for long-term value creation.

The European mining industry plays a critical role in underpinning economic growth. The development of mineral resources is a pillar for many national economies, in terms of contribution to gross domestic product, foreign direct investment, tax & royalty revenues as well as other governmental revenues. Even more, the mining industry produces more than 42 different metals and minerals and employs 350.000 people directly and about 4 times as many indirectly. Modern extraction and processing of minerals and metals has brought huge benefits to society while reducing pressures on the environment, addressing green-house gas emissions, tackling pollution, minimising waste and improving efficiency in the use of natural resources. Even more, the mineral industry will continue to enable downstream sectors to realise all these improvements.