Throughout its 30-year history, IAMGOLD has demonstrated its commitment to responsible and sustainable mining through consistently meeting high standards of environmental, social and governance practices, and incorporating our Zero Harm® vision in every aspect of our business.

While enduring, we believe that our Zero Harm® vision is a journey, rather than a goal with an end in sight, and that it is our responsibility to continue to improve our mining practices in the context of evolving sustainability opportunities and challenges.

We sat down with Aaron Steeghs, our VP of Health & Safety, Environment and Communities at IAMGOLD to reflect on our sustainability performance and the release of the 2023 Sustainability Report and inaugural 2023 Tailings Management Report.

1. What are the key sustainability highlights of 2023?

In 2023, we met many of our targets as we worked to deliver on operational and sustainability performance. We had a strong safety performance and achieved a Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate (TRIFR) of 0.69, meeting our objectives, and all sites met their targets related to the safety leading indicators on inspections and management visits. We also, importantly, set an interim target of achieving 30% absolute reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and started to identify a list of decarbonization projects. Lastly, we released our inaugural Tailings Management Report this year.

2. Tell us about IAMGOLD’s approach to sustainability reporting.

We have a long history of sustainability reporting. This is the 17th year that IAMGOLD has publicly reported on its sustainability performance. Our Sustainability Report provides a forum to share where our business has been, where it is going and the impact we’ve made. It allows us to share information on our goals, initiatives, and performance, including our challenges. Reporting publicly allows our stakeholders to hold us accountable for our corporate ambitions, actions and progress.

As sustainability reporting moves from voluntary to mandatory, we will work with various functions across the organization to improve and standardize our data collection, review and approval process in anticipation of emerging report requirements.

3. Can you tell us a bit more about this inaugural Tailings Management Report and why it is so important?

Tailings management is such an important part of responsible and safe mining operations. Reporting on our tailings management system and best practices allows us to build trust and recognizes the increasing level of interest in tailings management among stakeholders.

While we report on tailings in our Sustainability Report, our inaugural Tailings Management Report provides comprehensive insights into our tailings-related governance, management systems, storage facilities, and best practices. It also highlights our approach to tailings management, which takes a life-of-mine view encompassing planning, design, construction, operations, closure and post-closure to prevent, mitigate and minimize risks.

4. What is on the horizon for 2024?

There are a lot of big initiatives on the go this year, but here are a few highlights, that I think are going to help us continue to raise the bar.

• Revisiting Zero Harm®: We love our Zero Harm® mission and vision! And we also hear from employees that the timing is right to start thinking about, and articulating how and where we can go ‘beyond’ Zero Harm®.
• Health and safety: We will be introducing Critical Risks Protocols (CPRs) in the second quarter of this year. This is a multi-year journey, but the CRPs are designed specifically to prevent critical incidents and fatalities.
• Biodiversity: Years ago, we set an ambitious target of net positive biodiversity by 2050. This year, we will develop a roadmap that will outline how we can get there. This process will include biodiversity accounting for all our sites to understand what our impact on biodiversity has been since the beginning of our operations.
• Water stewardship: We will be developing a water stewardship framework that takes a catchment-based planning approach. This may not sound exciting to most people, but the intention here is to ensure IAMGOLD’s water management is leading edge and not just a risk that needs to be managed, but an opportunity for the company to differentiate itself in the industry.  
• Greenhouse gas emissions: We will continue to focus on evaluating our decarbonization plans and projects, develop an energy management system, enhance our quantification of Scope 3 emissions by working with suppliers, and develop an internal price on carbon.

“Sustainability is an ever-evolving field with constant new challenges which require that we continuously adapt. That’s why we see our Zero Harm® vision as a journey, rather than a goal,” said Aaron Steeghs, VP of Health & Safety, Environment and Communities, IAMGOLD.