Safe, Inclusive and Innovative Operations
People are at the core of our business. By keeping our people safe, providing well-paid jobs and fostering inclusivity and diversity in our workforce, our operations contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in which we work.
Occupational Health and Safety
Protecting the health and safety of our employees, contractors, suppliers and communities is our first priority and a cornerstone of our operating philosophy. We are focused on driving an engaged safety-first culture, as part of our commitment to eliminating fatalities, serious injuries and occupational diseases.
High-risk and safety-sensitive activities are identified in Eldorado’s Golden Rules, which provides requirements for health and safety risk identification and management. Every person entering an Eldorado site – employees, contractors, visitors or otherwise – is required to carry a copy of the Golden Rules Health & Safety Handbook to facilitate on-field discussions and engagement around critical controls.
Health and safety risks that may cause disease and injury related to work activities are addressed in our health and safety risk register. We continue to use our Golden Rules Health & Safety Handbook as a tool that provides access to critical health and safety hazard identification and risk management information for all workers.
Strengthening Our Safety Culture
We continuously look to strengthen our safety culture by taking a holistic view towards safety leadership. A culture of safety means that each individual values their safety and the safety of those around them; having this culture allows for our policies, procedures and systems to be implemented effectively and leads to safety-conscious behaviour.
We continues to foster engagements between site management teams and front-line workers targeted toward priority safety topics, such as proper use of tools and equipment. We focus on strengthening our safety culture by continuing engagement with front-line workers. Our Health and Safety Policy reflects our commitments to foster a strong safety culture, through promoting greater awareness and ownership of safety objectives and performance across all levels of the organization. In demonstration of this sense of shared responsibility, phase one of our Global Inclusion Survey previously conducted across operations in Canada and Türkiye indicated that 91% of our employees feel comfortable voicing concerns or making suggestions about workplace health and safety. In 2023, we conducted a Health and Safety Perception Survey, from which we learned that our employees want to see more visible leadership commitment to health and safety and demonstrated consideration of feedback on health and safety from all workers. We will be taking steps to apply these lessons in 2024 and beyond.
Technology and Innovation to Improve Health and Safety
As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we study the use of new technologies that can help our workers accomplish tasks more safely and reduce the risk of harm to people and the environment. In our underground mines at Efemçukuru, Olympias and Lamaque, innovations in underground-communications technology have allowed us to implement tagging and tracking technology for our equipment and our workers. Employees are provided with transmitters to ensure everyone can be accounted for, even when working in areas of restricted visibility. This technology reduces the risk of collisions and helps our workers avoid mobile machinery.
Building and maintaining a culture of safety starts with raising awareness and talking about it openly and candidly.
Under the Safety and Sustainability pillar of our corporate strategy, we seek to use the best available innovative technology throughout operations to keep our people safe and mine responsibly.
Contractor Safety
Eldorado holds employees and contractors working on our sites to the same standards for safety and health. We communicate our expectations regarding contractor health and safety rules as a component of the tender notice and project assignments at our mining facilities. These expectations form an integral part of the agreements Eldorado signs with each contractor; they educate contractors to carry out work safely and in line with Eldorado’s standards, aim to prevent incidents among their staff, our staff or third parties; and aim to avoid damage or harm to facilities and equipment belonging to the contractor, Eldorado or third parties. If contractors do not follow safe practices, we require them to cease work until remedial actions have been taken. This may include implementing written procedures for high-risk tasks within the contractor’s scope; documenting training for all personnel; conducting fit-for-purpose audits of machinery, tools, materials, PPE and emergency equipment used by the contractor; and re-inducting their employees to Eldorado’s site safety requirements and the Golden Rules Health & Safety Handbook. In 2023, we adopted a Supplier Code of Conduct that sets out Eldorado’s expectations of suppliers doing work on our behalf, including compliance with our minimum standards for health and safety and fostering a culture of safety toward eliminating fatalities, serious injuries and occupational diseases.
Health and Safety Beyond the Mine
We consider local stakeholders’ health and safety in our activities. As we transport materials to and from mine sites, the safety of our workers relates directly to the safety of local communities and neighbours. We require our workers and contractors to adhere to all local transportation laws and regulations. An important part of being a responsible operator and a good neighbour is respecting common areas outside of our mining sites (such as roadways), and Eldorado is committed to transportation safety.
To promote health and safety in the communities near our operations, health programs at our sites provide basic medical treatments and services for employees and contractors, including immunizations and medical checkups. At some sites, like Efemçukuru, local community members are welcome to visit our physicians to receive checkups free of charge, while we support access to healthcare off site across our operating regions.
Emergency Preparedness
By planning for emergencies, we identify, prioritize and implement controls for potential hazards at our sites. Emergency plans help to safeguard our people, the environment and local communities. Emergency response programs are in place across our operations. Our emergency response teams comprise employees with additional training in emergency protocols, procedures and equipment. The emergency response programs include extensive emergency drills and training, such as mine rescue drills, fire drills, CPR first-aid training, and training in the use of hazardous materials suits and other safety equipment. Our operating regions also have crisis management plans in place and are working to ensure consistency with Mining Association of Canada’s TSM Crisis Management and Communications Planning Protocol.
Our emergency response teams also maintain close working relationships with community-based emergency responders, and provide additional support and resources to local responders in the event of a serious off-site incident. In cases of natural disaster and irregular weather events, such as floods and forest fires, which may become more frequent due to climate change, our emergency responders are prepared to assist community- based response teams to protect our workers, assets and neighbours. On February 6, 2023, a series of earthquakes devastated vast regions in Türkiye and Syria, the effects of which are still felt by thousands of people. The Efemçukuru Mine Search and Rescue Team and the Kışladağ Gold Mine Fire Rescue Team were dispatched immediately to support search and rescue efforts and provide relief in the hardest hit areas. These teams worked together tirelessly to apply their training and equipment to help save lives.
Safety is non-negotiable in our day-to-day operations, and that includes being ready to manage emergency situations.
Inclusive Diversity
We believe diverse and inclusive teams are a competitive advantage for Eldorado. We recognize and seek to foster diversity of identity and cognitive diversity across our organization. This includes gender, race, ethnicity, language, sexual preference, geography, religion, disability, age, and any other demographic characteristic that, in combination, define our sense of individual identity.
Cognitive diversity is also essential in mining, which often requires specialized skills and expertise; this form of diversity includes our background, acquired skills, knowledge, experiences and other attributes that influence our thinking, decision making and performance. Actively including diverse people, perspectives and ideas is critical to our business and our ability to create shared value.
Diversity in Leadership
Eldorado’s Diversity Policy was updated in late 2023, including aspirational targets to:
- Maintain a minimum of 30% women directors on our Board;
- Maintain a minimum of 30% women on our senior management team;
- Maintain at least an additional 10% of directors on our Board be represented by one or more designated groups (beyond women) as defined in the policy; and
- Maintain at least an additional 10% of our senior management team be represented by one or more designated groups (beyond women) as defined in the policy.
Eldorado defines designated groups as women, Indigenous peoples (First Nations, Inuit and Métis), visible minorities, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+. As of April 2023, we have exceeded our aspirational targets at the Board level.
Supporting Opportunities for Women and Other Designated Groups
Everywhere we operate, we seek to provide opportunities for people of diverse ages, genders and cultural backgrounds.
We are a proud sponsor of Artemis Project, an organization that brings together women-led businesses related to mining to accelerate collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship for better business outcomes.
Eldorado is proud to be an International Women in Mining (IWiM) Advocate, as part of our commitment to foster career and leadership opportunities for women in our workforce.
Eldorado once again was a proud partner of the Artemis Project in 2023, a network that aims to break barriers for historically underrepresented women and women-owned businesses.
A research project launched in 2023 by the organization Women on Top and supported by our Greek subsidiary, Hellas Gold, conducted a large field survey of women from small towns and rural areas of Greece, including the Municipality of Aristotelis surrounding the Kassandra Mines. The study aimed to investigate the particular needs, challenges, obstacles and opportunities women have to manage during their educational and professional careers.