Environment

We harness and steward natural resources – water, air, biodiversity and land – so that people can share the value of these assets for greater good.

We conserve natural resources and reduce the burden of pollutants on the environment by

• Ensuring all mining and related activities are appropriately authorised
• Complying with all statutory environmental requirements as a minimum
• Using energy and water as efficiently as possible
• Operating responsibly from the twin perspectives of compliance and natural resource use
• Actively participating in voluntary benchmarks such as the global carbon and water disclosure projects
• Developing innovative policies and programmes to address environmental impacts and the use of natural resources.

We have comprehensive group standards in place, which ensure that we comply with legal requirements and use natural resources responsibly, including management standards for air quality, water, energy, rehabilitation and mine closure, as well as environmental incident management and reporting. Furthermore, all our business units have ISO 14001 certification, which sets out the requirements for an effective environmental management system.

Our operations in South Africa all have environmental management programmes (EMPs), as required by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) and the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA), which ensure our long-term sustainability. We also adopt the precautionary principle entrenched in the National Environmental Management Act in evaluating the environmental impacts of current activities and business opportunities. In addition, all our operations have integrated water use licences (most Exxaro business units need more than one licence).

Outlook

The challenges we face in environmental management include the implementation of legislation, regulated by the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy in South Africa, which presents compliance risks and project delays as permits, including water use licences aligned with mineral rights and environmental licensing procedures, are not issued timeously. We also await the integration of complex proposed laws dealing with climate change, pollution prevention and carbon tax.