As a member of the World Gold Council (WGC), Agnico Eagle is committed to producing gold in a responsible manner. To underscore our commitment, we have fully endorsed the WGC’s Responsible Gold Mining Principles (RGMP) (the “Principles”).
Accordingly, we:
• develop and implement policies, systems, processes, and controls that conform with the Principles,
• disclose information that helps external stakeholders understand how we achieve conformance,
• secure annual independent assurance over the process to ensure stakeholder confidence and credibility in the process and conclusions; and,
• disclose instances or events that have given rise to a situation of non-conformance and the steps taken to remedy the situation.
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2021 Activities
The RGMPs apply to – and must be implemented at – all mining operations over which the company had direct control in 2021. In accordance with the RGMP implementation schedule, six Agnico Eagle mines were externally audited in 2021. Meliadine mine, which began commercial production in 2019, will be audited in 2022, and Hope Bay, acquired in 2021, will be audited at a later date. Additionally, to support our implementation of the RGMPs, we completed a detailed gap analysis in 2020 at both the corporate and mine level, except for Meliadine and Hope Bay.
The six Agnico Eagle mines that were externally audited in 2021, along with the corporate level, were Kittilä, Meadowbank, LaRonde, Goldex, Pinos Altos and La India mines. Despite the pandemic, the Canadian and Finnish site audits were conducted in person. The Mexican site audits were completed by video conference due to travel restrictions. Agnico Eagle has systems in place for monitoring adherence to company policies and processes, including those related to conformance with the RGMPs. Based on the monitoring procedures performed, the company conformed with the Responsible Gold Mining Principles for the period ended December 10, 2021.
Agnico Eagle engaged the services of an assurance provider, EEM EHS Management, and its Independent Assurance Report can be viewed here.
In 2022, we will continue to reinforce our existing processes to strengthen overall compliance with the RGMP requirements. For example, we plan to document Chance Finds procedures and implement an audit program for our main suppliers, to ensure compliance with Agnico Eagle’s commitments on Human Rights. We will also conduct an external audit of the Meliadine mine, which is in the process of completing RGMP implementation.
Former Kirkland Lake Gold operations, which were acquired as part of Agnico Eagle’s merger with Kirkland Lake Gold in February 2022, are outside the scope of Agnico Eagle’s 2021 audit and report. The Kirkland Lake Gold operations completed the 2021 RGMP verification and reporting process in September 2021, and were found to be in conformance with the “year two” assurance requirements set out in the RGMPs. A separate summary report is available on our website. In 2022, we are integrating the newly merged entities into Agnico Eagle’s implementation and reporting process for RGMPs.
For more information on RGMP, click here.