Environment

We are committed to sound environmental practice and aim to minimise our impact in the areas in which we operate. We recognise the importance of lessening our consumption of natural resources and reducing the generation of waste.

While we strictly adhere to the environmental policies and standards our host mines have in place, we are developing our own more stringent environmental framework and are working towards ISO 14001 certification at all our sites. Our original intention was to achieve this goal by 2011; however, we now aim to obtain certification by March 2012. Benicon and Geosearch have already been awarded certification and a number of our other subsidiaries are well on the way to achieving this goal. 

It is our responsibility to comply with all environmental legislation to build a clean and credible reputation as the mining services provider of choice. We therefore cooperatewith and support local, regional and national authorities in achieving their own environmental goals. We are currently developing operating policies to include the integration of pollution control, waste management and rehabilitation activities into our operating procedures.

We have a comprehensive SHE Policy and intend reporting more regularly on our SHE performance. Regular audits are conducted to ensure compliance to the environmental standards we have in place and, where applicable, our subsidiaries make use of the ‘Red Card Incident Identification System’. Employees are issued with a red card which they are encouraged to use to indicate situations contrary to proper environmental practice. Site supervisors are responsible for the recording of these occurrences.

Resource management

We fully recognise the importance of responsible water usage and are committed to protecting, managing and conserving water resources, both at our own mines and at our client sites.