Air quality

Air quality management is a top priority for operational sustainability, community safety and regulatory compliance. Pollutants such as dust and particulate matter (PM), including PM₁₀ and PM_2.5, emanate from opencast mining activities such as drilling, blasting, crushing, screening, transportation, materials handling, windswept storage piles and exposed areas. These activities unavoidably generate dust, and therefore pose health and safety risks. We are responsible to our employees and host communities to minimise and avoid this impact on air quality and the environment.

A pollution-free environment is favourable to our business, people who live near our operations and the environment.

Our approach

Exxaro's air quality management approach aims to reduce our impact through:

• Proactive risk-based planning and risk management
• Monitoring, measuring and reporting
• Implementing mitigation measures such as dust suppression

BUs use air quality management plans and systematic risk-based planning to ensure effective application of mitigation measures, regulatory compliance and stakeholder satisfaction. We consider future mine development in these plans, and regularly reassess measures and plans with detailed reviews.

Our preventive and mitigation measures uphold our licence to operate, considering our host communities and compliance with environmental legislation, particularly the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004 (Act 39 of 2004) and associated regulations. We comply with the conditions stipulated in our atmospheric emission licences, dust fallout limits, air quality monitoring and management, and report quantitative data on the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory System.

Although the Grootegeluk Reductants plant has an atmospheric emissions licence, it does not report on air emissions as it is currently not operational. Cennergi's windfarms are exempt from monitoring, measuring and reporting as they do not create dust and air pollution emissions.

We assess dust fallout rates monitored at our operations in terms of residential and non-residential limits outlined in the National Dust Control Regulations. These regulations allow two non‒residential and residential exceedances per operation in a year (not within sequential months). As some of our activities are close to residential areas or sensitive receptors, we aim to minimise our impact on nearby residents by intensifying dust fallout mitigation efforts through chemical suppression for mining sources such as unpaved roads, which contribute significantly to our dust emissions. We also contribute to air quality management efforts in priority areas, such as the Highveld and Waterberg-Bojanala priority areas, to reduce the cumulative impacts of pollutants on the environment and health of communities, especially given that ambient monitored data for criteria pollutants such as PM, sulphur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) continue to be exceeded in some parts of Mpumalanga due to various sources. The cumulative air quality data for the priority areas is monitored by the DFFE. We check this data regularly to assess the air quality impacts in the priority areas and provide inputs on our mitigation measures during workshops.

Air quality management plans and collaboration with our peers, through the Coaltech Research Association and the National Association for Clean Air, support our goal to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions. We also collaborate with government through multi-stakeholder meetings on air quality management in priority areas.

Accountability and responsibility

Our executive head: sustainability approves air quality policies, procedures and mechanisms. Mine managers allocate capital, implement projects and monitor our impact.

Initiatives and goals

Initiatives this year included installing a multi-pollutant ambient air quality monitor at Grootegeluk to continuously monitor air pollutants and design appropriate mitigation measures. We have intensified our dust suppression measures to address fugitive emissions, particularly in winter, due to the high wind speeds which result in an increase in fugitive dust emissions.

We allocated substantial resources to managing waste dumps at Grootegeluk to reduce air pollution and have reviewed our dust monitoring networks in the operations to ensure effective air quality management and compliance to the allowable number of exceedances for the residential and non-residential limits per year (two non-sequential exceedances). Our dust monitoring networks for the majority of our operations did not require changes, except for Leeuwpan. We reviewed Leeuwpan's air quality management system based on changes in mining operations. The objective was to avoid source monitoring and ensure a comprehensive and representative monitoring network.

We invested in an advanced digital solution for real-time emissions monitoring. From 2023, we will be able to monitor a broad spectrum of emissions, including methane (CH₄), SO₂ and NOx.

Goals

Continuous dust fallout monitoring Target: All operations

Continuous PM10 monitoring Target: All operations

Meteorological monitoring to ensure availability of surface data for temperature, wind direction and wind speed (critical for dispersion modelling, baseline characterisation, ambient monitoring design, dust fallout monitoring and reporting, among others) Target: All operations

Ensuring compliance with dust fallout limits and air quality standards Target: Level below regulated limits

Air quality awareness and education campaigns for various stakeholders Target: Quarterly

			Highest recorded
Maximum allowance		Limits	2022	2021	2020
Dust fallout rate	Coal: 300mg/m2/day	m2/day	166	197	197
Non-residential dust fallout exceedances	Two exceedances per BU per year (within sequential months)	1 200	0	0	9 across 6 BUs
Residential dust fallout exceedances	Two exceedances per BU per year (within sequential months)	600	2 at Matla	0	0