Environment

Energy is essential for operating our mines: crushing and transporting ore, ventilating our mines, and the mineral extraction process all consume significant energy. The efficient use of energy, and access to secure and reliable energy sources, is a key strategic focus for Goldcorp.

Our Energy Stewardship Strategy ensures we take active steps to manage energy use and minimize GHG emissions through annual site-level and enterprise risk assessments.

Responsible energy management is also a key focus in addressing climate change issues. We support Canada’s ratification of the Paris Agreement, which brings all countries together to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. As a member of the Mining Association of Canada, we are prioritizing innovative policies and activities to address climate change and promoting efficient and responsible energy use in our projects and operations.

Learn more about what we’re doing to reduce energy and manage the risks of climate change
Read about how we’re using innovation to reduce our energy use

Water is essential to our operations, our stakeholders and the environment, and is a key strategic focus for Goldcorp.

Our Water Stewardship Strategy helps us better understand and manage our water footprint and water-related risks. It requires every Goldcorp site to establish water milestones for their local environment, including recycling and stewardship around monitoring and quality.

H2Zero is our ambitious, voluntary, industry-leading water stewardship program, that targets dramatic reductions in our use of fresh water and increased water recycling rates at every one of our operations. We expect H2Zero to trigger a series of innovations that will lead us to significantly change our water footprint.

Read our Corporate Water Summary 2017
Read about our H2Zero strategy
Learn more about what we’re doing to reduce our use of water

Responsible storage, handling and disposal of solid and hazardous waste are central to sound environmental management.

We focus first on minimizing the generation of waste and residue, then on recycling and re-using waste or by-products. When material can’t be recycled, we dispose of it in an acceptable way.

Our Tailings Stewardship Strategy ensures good practices in the planning, design, construction, operation and closure of our tailings storage and water retention facilities. We use filtered tails at Éléonore and at two of our closed sites (Marlin and El Sauzal). We’re exploring its use for high-volume applications.

Read our Fact Sheet on Tailings Stewardship and Construction
Learn more about what we’re doing to manage waste at our operations
Learn more about EcoTails and our innovative approach to water reduction and tailings management

Protecting the world’s ecosystems is important to us and for our stakeholders.

We manage over 400,000 hectares of land at and around our operating mines. Our operations span a range of ecosystems, from the boreal forests of northern Canada to the Patagonia area of Argentina. In all cases, we seek to design, construct, operate and ultimately close our operations in ways that minimize the risks to biodiversity. All our operating sites are required to have a biodiversity management plan in place.

After land is disturbed by exploration or mining, we reclaim the disturbed areas as quickly as possible.

Learn more about how we’re protecting biodiversity at our operations
Learn more about biodiversity at Marlin