Our material issues

FOCUSING OUR EFFORT

The sustainable development agenda generally is broad and there is a risk that we could focus our efforts on too many issues at any given time, thereby eroding the effectiveness of what we do. We need to focus our efforts by ensuring we have effective internal risk management and consultative processes with our stakeholders; which include, among others government, investors, employees and people from the communities surrounding our operations.

William Taylor, general manager at Union Mine, was nominated separately by numerous mine employees as a ‘company hero’ for his leadership and dedication to improving safety. Union Mine has achieved 6.5 million fatality free shifts which is an industry record.
 

These include our response to the global financial crises; improvement of employee safety to ensure zero harm; our interaction with communities and how we deal with issues raised by them; reducing energy consumption and the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change and improving water efficiency and how we address water scarcity.

OVERVIEW

This section of our report describes our most material sustainable development issues in order of priority, while every effort is made to mitigate these risks, the consequences and likelihood can not always be irridicated. It examines what is being done to mitigate the risks associated with these issues, management processes and systems. The methods used to determine these risks, and a description of the overall approach to risk management, are described in the previous section.