BISICHI MINING PLC ANNUAL REPORT 2017

STRATEGIC REPORT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
• Empowering partners, through Broad-Based
Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and
Joint Ventures with Historically Disadvantaged
South African (HDSA) new mining entrants and
enterprises.
• The company engages in on going consultation
with its stakeholders to develop strong
company-employee relationships, strong
company-community relationships and strong
company-HDSA enterprise relationships.
The key focus areas in terms of the detailed
SLP programmes were updated as follows:
• Implementation of new action plans, projects,
targets and budgets were established through
regular workshops with all stakeholders.
• A comprehensive desktop socio-economic
assessment was undertaken on baseline data
of the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality (STLM)
and Nkangala District Municipality (NDM).
• Black Wattle has drawn up a new SLP Plan
for the next five years (2017 – 2021).
• The current Black Wattle Colliery Local
Economic Development (LED) programmes
were upgraded, and new LED projects were
selected in consultation with the key
stakeholders from the STLM.
• An appropriate forum was established on the
mine and a process initiated for the
consultation, empowerment and participation
of the employee representatives in the Black
Wattle Colliery SLP process.
• Included within the new SLP Plan is a new
LED project which includes the upgrading of
Phumelele Secondary School in the Rockdale
Township. The primary focus is to build
additional facilities, including classrooms to
cater for the growing population in the area.
• Black Wattle Colliery has concluded
extensive work on various Agricultural
projects as well as the E-Bag Recycling
projects. The E-Bag Recycling project aims
to minimize the environmental impact of
post-consumer Polyethylene Terephthalate
plastic (PET) on the South African landscape.
The project was awarded the PET
Entrepreneur award for 2013. To date in
2017, the E-Bag recycling project has
initiated up to 70 local community jobs in the
region. Black Wattle Colliery has entered into
a joint venture project with Enviroserve Waste
Management to further develop and ensure
the future sustainability of this project.
• Various upgrades were initiated at the
Evergreen School nearby to Black Wattle
including the erection of new toilet facilities
for the boys and girls, which formed part of
the mines portable skills development
programme for our employees.
Social, community and human
rights issues
The group believes that it is in the shareholders’
interests to consider social and human rights
issues when conducting business activities
both in the UK and South Africa.
Environment & Environment
Management Programme
South Africa
Under the terms of the mine’s Environmental
Management Programme approved by the
Department of Mineral Resource (“DMR”),
Black Wattle undertakes a host of environmental
protection activities to ensure that the approved
Environmental Management Plan is fully
implemented. In addition to these routine
activities, Black Wattle regularly carries out
environmental monitoring activities on and
around the mine, including evaluation of ground
water quality, air quality, noise and lighting
levels, ground vibrations, air blast monitoring,
and assessment of visual impacts. In addition
to this Black Wattle also does quarterly
monitoring of all boreholes around the mine to
ensure that no contaminated water filters
through to the surrounding communities.
Black Wattle is fully compliant with the
regulatory requirements of the Department of
Water Affairs and Forestry and has an approved
water use licence.
Black Wattle Colliery has substantially improved
its water management by erecting and
upgrading all its pollution control dams in
consultation with the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry.
A performance assessment audit was
conducted to verify compliance to our
Environmental Management Programme
and no significant deviations were found.
United Kingdom
The group’s UK activities are principally property
investment whereby we provide premises which
are rented to retail businesses. We seek to
provide those tenants with good quality
premises from which they can operate in an
efficient and environmentally sound manner.
Procurement
Black Wattle is a level 7 contributor to B-BBEE
and has achieved a 50% BEE procurement
recognition level. In compliance with the Mining
Charter and the Mineral and Petroleum Resource
Development Act, Black Wattle has implemented
a BBBEE-focussed procurement policy which
strongly encourages our suppliers to establish
and maintain BBBEE credentials. At present,
BBBEE companies provide approximately 88
percent of Black Wattle’s equipment and services.
We closely monitor our monthly expenditure and
welcome potential BBBEE suppliers to compete for
equipment and service contracts at Black Wattle.
Bisichi Mining PLC
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