Incidents with environmental consequences
In keeping with our Corporate Guideline for the Recording, Classification and Investigation of Incidents with Environmental Consequences, we try to take the necessary steps to manage any environmental incidents generated by our activity. Through this instrument, we recorded and classified the degree of severity of incidents according to their duration -by class and type-, quantity of substance and place affected.
An incident with environmental consequence is an undesired Total incidents 2011 event that has a negative impact in the air, water, land, plants and animals, and/or population center. It can comprise spills, air emissions, fires, or others. In 2011, we had 38 incidents with environmental consequences, most of them of “moderate” category.
No incidents with environmental consequences were registered in the Radomiro Tomic or Ministro Hales divisions.
Total incidents 2011
SIGNIFICANT SPILLS
(EN23) Total number and volume of significant spills. Spills are the dumping of a substance outside of its established form of confinement, and are a type of incident with environmental consequences whose impact varies according to the amount and type of substance spilled. In 2011, three spills labeled as “very serious” incidents occurred. Two of them, in the Chuquicamata and Salvador divisions, corresponded to the spills of acidic solutions which did not affect bodies of water or exceed 30 m3, and one, in the Andina Division, involved 20 tons of copper concentrate, of which about 5% slightly affected the slope next to a river. In all three cases, all necessary measures were taken to control these incidents, clean the affected areas and reduce their effects
