Sustainability

Our Approach

We exist to provide essential mineral resources to the world.  These resources are used to promote economic development and increased standards of living across the globe.  This purpose, together with our objective of being a responsible & sustainable company, drives us to try and have as positive an impact on the economy, society and our environment as we can.

This is not only the right thing to do, it makes good business sense.  We believe this approach will yield a range of long term benefits which include:

• increased returns for our shareholders;
• improved governance and management of risks;
• innovation, efficiency gains and reduced operating costs;
• opportunities for growth and access to capital;
• attraction and retention of talented employees;
• increased product value with less impact on the environment; and
• continued development of relationships with our local communities.

We intend to set our sustainability agenda in an open, transparent and inclusive way.  This will involve engaging with our stakeholders to ensure that we identify our material issues, understand what they mean for us and respond to them by openly reporting on our performance.

Our Progress So Far
Earlier this year, we engaged the sustainability consultants Net Balance to help us with our journey Towards Sustainability.  They are currently taking us through a systematic process which will guide the development of our sustainability policies and programs as well as data collection and stakeholder engagement.

This process is guided by the best practice elements of Accountabilities AA1000 Assurance Standard and the principles of the Global Reporting Initiative.  At the end of this process we aim to have created a robust but evolving sustainability agenda and performance reporting that is open and transparent.

With the assistance of Net Balance, we have already undertaken an assessment of our material issues and have undertaken a stakeholder mapping exercise to ensure we understand the impacts of our operations and who we currently engage with.  The results of these two exercises will feed into our sustainability agenda and strategy, and will shape where we focus our attention and efforts into the future.