Geo-Environmentalist
Wardell Armstrong International
Christine Blackmore BSc, MSc, CEnv, CSci, FIMMM, IRCA registered Principle Auditor (ISO 9001 and ISO 14001-2015), ICMI accredited Lead Cyanide Auditor, Associate Director at Wardell Armstrong International working as a Geo-Environmentalist and Environmental Auditor in environmental management in the international mining and metallurgical Industry. My expertise is focused in environmental auditing and due diligence work for mining operations and metallurgical processes for the protection of the environmental and human health, with many commodities from precious metals, base metals to coal. I have worked internationally for many years, and in many challenging environments, my work has taken me to countries such as: Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Armenia, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Spain, Czech Republic, Sultanate of Oman, Iran, China and many others.
I am a Registered International Auditor (IRCA) and an Accredited Lead Cyanide Auditor with the ICMI cyanide code, for the gold mining industry, having undertaken many audits for pre and operational mines and transportation of cyanide.
The safe use of cyanide in the gold mining.
The use and management of cyanide is of crucial importance to many gold and silver projects around the World, and indeed many Financial Institutions (including all Equator Principle Financial Institutions) as well as many National Environmental regulations quite rightly insist on the highest standards of cyanide management. Using the guidance of the International Cyanide Management Institute Code (the Code) is a strong and positive way to demonstrate best practice cyanide management. The easiest way for a company to accomplish this is to adopt the cyanide Code principles. The Code considers 9 General Principles for operational mining, all of which are essential for the safe management of cyanide. These comprise; Production, Transportation, Handling and Storage, Operations, Decommissioning, Worker Safety, Emergency Response, Training and Dialogue. The Code essentially consists of two parts, firstly “The Principles” which form a guide as to how to use cyanide in a safe manner and secondly, “Standards of Practice” that identify the objectives and performance goals that need to be met by an operation.