Washington, D.C. (June 28, 1999) — By July 1, 1999, mining facilities in the United States will provide to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and to state and local agencies, data gathered through the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) program of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (Act). TRI is an annual report by private companies and government facilities that covers nearly 650 chemicals and substances listed by the EPA. This is the first year mining companies have been included in the reporting program, which has applied to other industries since 1986.

Individual facilities must report the amount of any release (above an established threshold level) of these substances to the air, to water or to the land as defined uniquely under the Act.

The reports for metals mines, including gold mines, will be unlike reports filed by other industries for three very important reasons:

• Under provisions of the Community Right-to-Know Act, approximately 85 to 99 percent of what mining operations will include in their reports are large volumes of naturally occurring metals that remain in unneeded rock and processed rock materials that are moved, stored, processed and managed at the mine site;
  
• This material is safely contained in managed facilities at the site, e.g. rock stockpiles, heap leach pads and tailing impoundments; and
  
• Because these management activities are defined as “releases” and metals mines must move, store, process and manage substantial quantities of rock, the reports for gold mines will show very high quantities of naturally occurring listed substances that remain in low concentrations in the material managed by the company. The mining process does not increase the level of naturally occurring listed substances in the rock around the mine. The volumes reported under TRI may make some gold mines among the highest reporting facilities in the states where they operate, due to the way that reporting requirements specifically apply to gold mining.

Gold mines will also report releases of cyanide from open tanks, heap leach areas and the surface of processed rock waste (tailing) impoundment facilities. In general, these releases are confined to the workplace environment, where employees and facilities are monitored to ensure safe operations. Cyanide is the chemical of choice for the recovery of gold from ores. It has been used in metal extraction since 1887, and is safely used and managed in gold recovery around the world.

The gold industry supports the public's right-to-know information contained in its reports. Since its passage in 1986, the public has demonstrated that it values the information provided under the Community Right-to-Know Act, and gold mining companies will ensure that the public receives timely and comprehensive information regarding their reports, including information on how they safely and effectively manage the reported materials.

The U.S. gold industry continually strives to operate in an environmentally responsible manner - protecting wildlife, reclaiming land and exploring new technologies to make operations safer. Its voluntary actions coupled with government requirements ensure environmentally responsible practices which are the highest in the global mining industry.

Gold is an important commodity for the United States. The United States is the 2nd largest miner of gold in the world, producing nearly 12 million ounces of gold in 1998, or 14 percent of the world's total gold output. Today, the U.S. can meet all of its domestic gold needs while making over a third of U.S. production available for export to our trading partners.

Gold plays a key role in a wide range of rapidly developing technologies that are important to the nation's economic health. Billions of gold-coated electrical connectors are used throughout the computer, telecommunications and home appliance industries. Weather and communications satellites depend on gold-plated shields and reflective apparatus for protection from solar heat and electrical interference while in space. Advanced lasers used in a variety of industrial and medical applications employ interior gold coatings to concentrate powerful light energy. The automobile industry depends on gold coated contacts for sensors that activate automobile air bag systems. And modern medicine relies on gold in a wide variety of procedures ranging from the monitoring of heart functions to the chemistry related to diagnosis and treatment of cancer, viral and bacterial diseases and allergies.

For more information about the mining industry's Community Right-to-Know reports, visit the National Mining Association's website at http://www.nma.org/. For information about a particular company's facility reports, please contact the company directly.