Some scientists suggest that the reason why these plants contain cyanide, which can be toxic, is that evolution has designed them to discourage insects from feasting on them.
Workshop participants were almost 40 representatives of such diverse organizations as the Worldwide Fund for Nature, the Mineral Policy Center (now Earthworks), the Sierra Club, and the World Gold Council, along with representation from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the governments of Australia, France, Hungary, Romania, and the world's leading gold producers and cyanide producers.
[17] As a result of the workshop, a multi-stakeholder steering committee was established to oversee development of a code of best practice for the management of cyanide used for gold recovery.
The committee met five times over a 13-month period starting in late 2000, and each successive draft of the best practice document it produced was made available to the public on the UNEP web site with an open invitation for comments.
The committee also solicited comments directly from 140 groups and individuals, including governments, NGOs, academics, consultants, industry, and financial institutions, and received 68 written responses and 15 stakeholder presentations at its meetings.
Further, although the program is voluntary, the Cyanide Code includes a process by which its implementation at gold mines and other facilities is verified by independent third-party professional auditors and audit results are made available to the public.
The Institute solicited input from stakeholders on the proposal, including its advisability, policy or technical issues, and any other related matters.
Following receipt of stakeholder comments, all of which were supportive of the change, ICMI's Board of Directors approved the program's expansion, effective January 1, 2017.
The Cyanide Code is supported by a suite of documents that provide guidance and instructions to participating operations in preparing for certification and to auditors in assessing compliance.
In 2019, ICMI initiated a process to undertake a comprehensive review and updating of the Cyanide Code's supporting documents following a public consultation.
The objective of the review was four-fold: 1) accounting for changes in industry practices since initial development of the Cyanide Code and its supporting documents; 2) addressing gaps and "soft spots" in requirements for auditing and compliance; 3) clarification of procedures and guidance for compliance auditing and certification; and 4) making documents more "user friendly" by eliminating duplicate materials and discrepancies.
This revisions process has also included consolidation of selected documents to reduce duplication and discrepancies and make materials easier to locate.
Documents used by operations in preparing for certification and used by auditors in evaluating compliance have been revised to account for ICMI's experience with Cyanide Code implementation, compliance issues, and evaluating audit reports over the past 14 years, as well as changes in industry practices since initial development of the Cyanide Code.
[24] The Cyanide Code has been recognized by the Group of Eight ("G8") as one of several certification systems that are suitable instruments for "increasing transparency and good governance in the extraction and processing of mineral raw materials."
Article 85 of the G8's Summit Declaration, issued during its 2007 annual meeting, states the following: "Certification systems can be a suitable instrument in appropriate cases for increasing transparency and good governance in the extraction and processing of mineral raw materials and to reduce environmental impacts, support the compliance with minimum social standards and resolutely counter illegal resource extraction.
Therefore, we reaffirm our support for existing initiatives such as ... the International Cyanide Management Code, and encourage the adaptation of the respective principles of corporate social responsibility by those involved in the extraction and processing of mineral resources,"[25]The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a part of the World Bank that provides funding for mining projects, applies the Cyanide Code in lieu of its own requirements in its Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Guidelines for Mining.
"[28] The Australian National Industrial Chemicals' Notification and Assessment Scheme's 2010 evaluation of the risks posed by sodium cyanide characterizes the Cyanide Code as "It is an excellent initiative to lift international standards and demonstrate the environmental commitment of an operator, complementing state/territory legislative requirements.."[29] In a 2015 report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the research firm Profundo noted that "The International Cyanide Management Code, to which all respectable mining companies subscribe, therefore governs not only the uses and storage of the chemical, but also its transport to a mine.
"[30] According to Benchmark Study of Environmental and Social Standards in Industrialised Precious Metals Mining[31] produced by Solidaridad,[32] an international network organization with more than 20 years of experience in creating fair and sustainable supply chains from producer to consumer the Cyanide Code offers "a good level of transparency as all of the Code's implementing documents are available to the public on the ICMI website."
[34] In an article in the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum May, 2015 magazine Kinross Gold Corporation's Vice President of Environmental Affairs, Dean Williams, concurred saying that the Cyanide Code has become the new industry standard.
[36] It has been observed that globally there have been no major environmental incidents at a gold mining operation certified as compliant with the Cyanide Code.
[37] The Responsible Jewellery Council, an international standards-setting and certification organization for the jewelry supply chain, requires its gold mining members to have applicable sites certified in compliance with the Cyanide Code.
[39] By adopting standards and practices that exceed state-imposed regulations and laws, the mining industry and financing institutions, provide an additional source of protection for indigenous and local communities.
As a result, their institutional policies may strengthen the ability of developing nations to demand higher standards which would benefit these communities.
The report, Best Management Practices for Cyanide Use in the Small-Scale Gold Mining Sector, was produced for planetGOLD program, a GEF funded, UNEP-implemented initiative.
The Spanish language manual focuses on the particular challenges facing small-scale mining operations including the potential environmental and occupational health impacts caused by the cyanidation process if applied inappropriately.