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Local Compliance or Global Best Practice? Understanding the Consultant's Role
One of the more difficult situations consultants encounter is when a client asks for a design or assessment that complies only with local regulations, rather than international guidance or industry best practice.
This often raises an uncomfortable question:
Should the consultant simply follow the client's instruction, or should they insist on a higher standard?
The answer is not as straightforward as many people think.
Compliance Depends on the Objective
It is easy to assume that every tailings facility should be designed and operated in accordance with international best practice. However, this is not always the client's objective.
Many operations are legally required to comply only with the regulations of the country in which they operate. If those regulations have been satisfied, the client has met their legal obligations.
From a legal perspective, there is nothing inherently wrong with this.
The consultant's role is not to override the client's business decisions, but to ensure those decisions are made with a full understanding of their implications.
Compliance Is Not a Single Standard
Tailings projects are often influenced by several layers of requirements:
- Local legislation and regulatory approvals
- Company engineering standards
- Industry guidance such as ANCOLD, CDA or ICOLD
- International frameworks such as the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management (GISTM)
These are not necessarily interchangeable. One may exceed another in certain areas, while being less prescriptive in others.
The important point is that the consultant and the client clearly understand which standard is being applied and why.
The Future Cost of Today's Decision
A decision to comply only with local regulations may satisfy today's project requirements, but it can create additional work later.
Mining companies frequently change ownership, seek international investment, join organisations with higher governance expectations, or commit to GISTM conformance after a facility has already been designed or constructed.
At that point, additional work may be required, including:
- Additional investigations
- Upgraded monitoring systems
- Enhanced governance documentation
- Independent reviews
- Operational changes
- Design modifications
In many cases, incorporating elements of international best practice during the original design would have been significantly easier and less expensive than retrofitting them later.
The Consultant's Responsibility
The consultant should not decide the client's risk appetite.
Nor should they automatically apply standards that the client has not requested.
Instead, the consultant's responsibility is to:
- Explain the available standards.
- Describe the differences between them.
- Highlight the technical, operational and commercial implications.
- Clearly document the agreed basis of design.
Once the client has been fully informed, the final decision rests with them.
Good Engineering Is About Informed Decisions
There is a tendency within the industry to treat discussions about standards as though there is only one acceptable answer.
In reality, engineering is rarely that simple.
Local compliance is not necessarily poor engineering, just as international best practice is not always necessary for every project.
What matters is that the chosen standard is appropriate for the project's objectives, the client understands the consequences of that choice, and the consultant provides independent, objective advice throughout the process.
Ultimately, the consultant's role is not to make the decision for the client—it is to ensure the client makes an informed one.
Closing Question
Should consultants simply deliver the level of compliance requested by the client, or do they have a responsibility to advocate for higher standards when they believe it is in the client's long-term interest?
-Yoshlin Govender (CEO & Tailings Expert)
