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Highlights |
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Disappointments |
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- Water and energy conservation and efficiency strategy for implementation in FY2011 is being finalised. This includes the Group’s response to climate change
- Good levels of legal compliance reported
- New and expanded air quality abatement equipment at the smelter in Rustenburg reduced direct SO2 emissions by 74% due to a combination of lower production and emission control
- Fresh water consumption reduced by 1%
- Impala Rustenburg, Impala Springs, Zimplats
and Mimosa retained ISO14001 certification. Preparation for certification at Marula well advanced
- Emissions inventory nearing completion at Impala Rustenburg
Completion of stormwater control dams at Impala Rustenburg tailings dam and UG2 concentrator
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- ISO14001-based environmental management system being implemented at Marula, but certification has not been attained
- Energy consumption up by 4%
- Increase in SO2 emissions at Zimplats by 92%
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Management approach
Implats acknowledges the impact of mining in every form – from prospecting to closure – on the environment. The strategies and processes required to minimise this impact are in place at all stages of every operation’s lifecycle. The Group also plays a significant role in recycling its primary products.
As a minimum Implats ensures compliance with environmental legislation, with significant environmental issues reported and considered at executive meetings. At Board level the SHEQ Audit Committee oversees environmental matters and pays regular site visits. The Group corporate environmental team conducts regular audits. The Group environmental policy was revised and approved in November 2008, and is being fully implemented at operational level.
In the mining context, we believe it is possible to achieve zero ‘net’ environmental harm by applying sustainability principles through social and environmental offsets that produce a net benefit. Environmental harm is avoided or mitigated as far as practical throughout the lifecycle of mining operations by operational control and embedding sound environmental principles and practices, including:
- Legal compliance
- Pollution prevention
- Implementation of precautionary approach and duty of care
- Continual improvement in environmental performance
- Ongoing rehabilitation
Open and transparent communication with stakeholders is fostered by close liaison between the environmental teams and stakeholder engagement unit. Hotlines, open days, newsletters and community liaison forums form an integral part of communicating with stakeholders
(page 33).
Performance in FY2010
Given the varying nature of mining, processing and refining operations and environmental circumstances across the Group, environmental priorities and risks vary from site to site. Generally, Implats’ environmental priorities include:
- Improving resource use (water and energy)
- Reducing the Group’s carbon footprint
- Preventing pollution (air, water and land)
- Instilling and ensuring good practice in waste management
- Responsibly conserving land under management
Substantial work has been completed on continually improving our management of environmental issues across the Group. During the review period, this included:
- A water and energy conservation and efficiency strategy which is in the process of being formulated and will incorporate:
– Risk and resource security
– Awareness
– Consideration of alternatives (resources, technologies, external initiatives)
– Development and implementation of conservation and efficiency programmes
– Efficiency and reduction targets
– Monitoring and reporting
- Conducting a waste management activity gap analysis to better understand our waste sources and related activities, as well as licensing requirements
- A biodiversity action plan to determine our current biodiversity is being developed at Impala Rustenburg and Marula, and will be rolled out across the Group in due course
- A project was initiated to quantify the Group’s total carbon footprint, including CO2 equivalents and scope three activities, which did not form part of the carbon disclosure in previous annual reports. This project was based on FY2009 data, and included the customisation of a carbon calculator which will be regularly updated
- Participating in the Carbon Disclosure Project 7 survey
Water management
Water is a scarce and valuable resource in southern Africa, and this situation is likely to escalate in future owing to the effects of climate change. The carbon disclosure project (CDP) launched the water disclosure initiative in 2010 which seeks to give investors a clear understanding of business risks and opportunities associated with water scarcity and availability. Implats will participate in this project and continue to evaluate water availability across the Group’s operations to mitigate potential risk.
The Group’s water management strategy involves reducing fresh water consumption where possible, increasing recycling and mitigating any negative impacts of operations on local and regional water resources (e.g. prevention of pollution of water sources).
Implats representatives actively participate in several joint water forums and associated technical task teams have been established in the Rustenburg, Brits and Burgersfort areas. These teams include mining companies, municipalities, Department of Water Affairs (DWA) and local government.
Impala Springs is represented on the Blesbokspruit Forum that meets quarterly, and the Grootvallei Blesbokspruit Trust that meets each month.
Water use-reduction initiatives
Numerous water-reduction projects have already been implemented, with a number still to be evaluated. The main emphasis is on reducing potable water consumption and optimising industrial water use, as well as recycling water.
The following initiatives have been implemented to improve water-use efficiency at Impala Rustenburg:
- Containing run-off water at processing operations, preventing contamination of immediate groundwater and channelling run-off to specific holding sumps
- Installing larger penstock return-water sumps and pumping systems at the tailings dam
- Upgrading the Rockwall Dam return pumping system
- Rerouting treated effluent to the processing operation
- Installing Evapco towers at central and 7 Shaft compressor stations to replace evaporative cooling water ponds on compressor plants
- Treating both precious and base metals refineries’ effluent to produce boiler water quality for re-use in the process
During the year, Impala Springs received a draft of its integrated water use licence. Other operations are still in discussions with the DWA, and are awaiting draft licences.
At Impala Springs, the water management plan has been reviewed. The containment of run-off water at this operation has achieved the target of zero effluent run-off. In 2010 the acid regeneration plant in the precious metal refinery (PMR) was successfully commissioned.
Marula’s water management strategy is being implemented. A water balance has been drawn up and an action plan implemented to install flow meters that will enable the team to adequately monitor water use. Design plans for lining the return-water dam have been finalised to minimise seepage from the tailings dam.
Measures in place to optimise water use at Zimplats include:
- Recycling water from tailings dam into the plant
- Stormwater retention dam captures all water from the SMC plant area and channels it to the plant
- Run-off mine water is recycled from settling dams at the three underground mines at Ngezi
The Mimosa water management strategy focuses on using recycled water for both mining and plant operations to reduce fresh water consumption from the Ngezi River. Accordingly, the mine has installed density gauges and variable-speed drives on thickeners, installed dewatering cyclones, and maintains its pipelines to reduce losses through leakage. Mimosa has constructed a second return-water dam at a cost of $1 million to optimise the use of return water decanted from the active tailings dam, and will upgrade the pumping system to increase consumption of return water and reduce fresh water uptake from the weir. The mine also plans to treat effluent from the new 240m3/day sewage plant under construction through chlorination and pump this to the tailings dam for re-use in the plant process.
Water consumption
Total water consumption by the Group in FY2010 was
37 million kl, a decrease of 1% on the prior year. Total water withdrawn increased by 5% to 27 million kl. The major contributor to this result was Zimplats, where the first phase of expansion has been completed.
Preventing pollution
Given the nature of mining operations, the primary concern with water pollution is the potential release of process water containing sulphates, chlorides and nitrates into receiving water bodies. None of the Implats operations is associated with acid mine drainage or the use of cyanide.
Regular surface and groundwater sampling takes places at all operations. At Impala Rustenburg groundwater data is fed into a regional model, which is used as a management tool for identifying and addressing groundwater problems.
Capital expenditure of R68.5 million has been allocated for water-related projects at the Rustenburg operations between FY2009 and FY2012. Total expenditure to date is R37.1 million (R30 million in FY2009).
In addition to new and improved control dams across Group operations, various projects to prevent and mitigate groundwater pollution were finalised in FY2010. These include constructing cut-off trenches at 14 Shaft waste-rock dump and sludge ponds; and formalising an environmental standard for the construction, operation and closure of waste-rock dumps. |
