Compliance

Compliance

South African environmental legislation has been evolving. Since June 2009 several new environmental laws have been promulgated including, among others, the National Environmental Management (NEM) Waste Act, the Environment Conservation Act waste tyre regulations R149 and NEMA environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations R543. Lack of clarity remains between the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) and NEMA with regard to environmental authorisation requirements relating to listed activities on mining operations. It is unclear whether mining-related activities that are listed and occur on mining areas are subjected to the environmental assessment and approval processes contained within the MPRDA or those within the NEMA, or both.

The ISO 14001 environmental management systems at our operations provide the management framework needed to track compliance with applicable legal and other requirements, and to support the prevention of pollution and continual improvement.

No fines or non-monetary sanctions were imposed in 2010 for non-compliance with environmental regulations and permits.

All operations have access to the relevant environmental legislation, and to an environmental legal register specifically designed to address issues of importance to them. All operations are also kept informed of changes in environmental legislation.

All managed operations underwent environmental audits and internal reviews during 2010. The findings and action plans of all audits and internal reviews are managed through our EMS until close-out. Internal review findings are also reported to management at each operation and key findings are elevated to the level of executive heads where applicable.

Environmental legal compliance checks done by external service providers were undertaken at specific operations in 2010. Each review consisted of a desktop assessment using a site-specific checklist developed according to the requirements of the environmental authorisations at that operation; and a physical inspection of the operation and its peripheral areas. Conformance to previous Environmental Management Programme (EMP) performance assessment reports was also verified where applicable. 

Compliance status as per legal reviews

Each operation reviewed was identified as being fully legally compliant if all actions were complete. It was identified as a finding if progress on previous actions was less than 100% complete. Findings do not imply that action plans to address the issues were not in place, only that such plans had not been fully effected at the time of the review. 

Mining operations

At the mining operations, 688 conditions were identified during the legal compliance reviews. Of these, 430 were found to be 100% compliant, 222 to need attention, and 36 to be not applicable. Some 63% of conditions were fully adhered to in 2010, compared with 58% in 2009. Among the 2010 findings the following issues deserve special mention, owing to their potential to become issues if action plans to address the findings are not executed in the required time: 

  • The separation of clean and dirty water systems.
  • Non-mineral-waste sorting areas are incorrectly managed and the volumes of solid waste stored on sites are not appropriate. 
  • The stripping and stockpiling of available top-soil are not carried out as required at all mines.
  • Reports to the authorities as required by the records of decision/environmental authorisations are not fully submitted. 

We view these as risk areas and continue to take corrective action. A follow-up review will be conducted during 2011 to verify the progress of such corrective action against the findings. 

Process operations

Legal reviews were conducted at the Waterval Smelter, the Mototolo concentrator, Precious Metals Refiners (PMR), Rustenburg Base Metal Refiners, the Rustenburg mining area concentrators, the Union Mine concentrators, the Western Limb Tailings Re-treatment (WLTR) plant, Mortimer Smelter and the Der Brochen Project during 2010. A total of 545 conditions were identified, of which 465 were found to be 100% compliant and 80 needed attention. The following key issues deserve mention: 

  • Action plans to address water- and air-quality legal commitments need improving. Revision of the water- and air-quality management plans is under way. 
  • Full compliance in terms of adequate management of clean and dirty water needs attention.
  • Records of representative air-quality monitoring data can be improved.

Legal reviews were conducted at the Waterval Smelter, the Mototolo concentrator, Precious Metals Refiners (PMR), Rustenburg Base Metal Refiners, the Rustenburg mining area concentrators, the Union Mine concentrators, the Western Limb Tailings Re-treatment (WLTR) plant, Mortimer Smelter and the Der Brochen Project during 2010. A total of 545 conditions were identified, of which 465 were found to be 100% compliant and 80 needed attention. The following key issues deserve mention: 

We view these findings as risk areas and continually take corrective action. A follow-up review will be conducted during 2011 to verify the progress on action plans. 

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME (EMP) PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENTS 

Mining operations

In addition to the legal compliance reviews described above, internal Regulation 55 EMP performance assessments in terms of the MPRDA were completed at the Rustenburg mines; Union Mine; Dishaba Mine and Tumela Mine at Amandelbult; and Mogalakwena Mine.

A total of 2,104 conditions were assessed at the mining operations. Of these, 1,380 were in full compliance and 108 were findings. General findings include the following: 

  • Groundwater and surface water around waste rock dumps and tailings dams indicating high concentrations of nitrates, chlorides and sulphates. 
  • Alien and invasive plant species were observed.
  • Top-soil stockpiles need maintaining in some instances.
  • Clean and dirty water systems can be improved.

Process operations

Regulation 55 EMP performance assessments were completed in 2010 at WLTR, Waterval Smelter, and Mototolo concentrator.

A total of 672 conditions were assessed, of which 484 were compliant and 188 findings were raised. Typical findings include the following: 

  • The biodiversity and rehabilitation action plans have not been fully implemented at all tailings facilities. 
  • Water management plans in some instances need improving.

Assessment of compliance through internal water audits

Internal water-use-compliance audits against approved water use licences were conducted at Twickenham Mine and Mogalakwena Mine and the latter achieved a compliance of 84%. The findings were minor. Twickenham Mine achieved a compliance of 55%. The majority of the findings will be addressed in the integrated water-and-waste management plan under development for the mine.

Internal water-use-licences audits will be conducted at other operations with approved water-use licences during 2011. 

TRANSPORT

The transport of concentrates to the various smelters, and of furnace matte from the Polokwane and Mortimer smelters to Waterval Smelter, is done by road, by third-party contractors. The transport of products such as copper, nickel, sulphuric acid and sodium sulphate is effected by road and rail. Precious metals are transported to customers by road or air. The energy used by contractors' transportation of intermediate materials and final products is currently excluded from our energy totals. Any spillage from transport contractors is cleaned up by the relevant contractor to our satisfaction and the relevant authority. 

ENVIRONMENTAL EXPENDITURE AND PROVISIONS

All the environmental cost centres were analysed for 2010, with the focus on costs for waste disposal, emissions treatment, remediation, prevention and environmental management. The 2010 environmental expenditure for Anglo Platinum Limited's managed operations is approximately as follows: 

  • R53.9 million for waste disposal, emissions treatment and remediation (of which R41.5 million relates to closure liability cost contributed to the Environmental Trust Fund). 
  • R38.4 million for prevention and environmental management. 

The total expenditure for 2010 was R92.3 million, which excludes the following categories as defined in the International Federation of Accountants' document, 'International Guidance Document on Environmental Management Accounting': 

  • The costs of non-product output.
  • Fines for non-compliance with environmental regulation.

The intent for 2011 is to establish a more refined environmental management accounting system, one capable of tracking multiple categories of information. 

PROVISION FOR REHABILITATION AT CLOSURE

On an annual basis, in terms of the requirements of its approved EMPs and closure objectives, each operation estimates its expected total expenditure for the final rehabilitation and remediation of its operations. All the rehabilitation liabilities based on current assets and impacts were updated in 2010. The total undiscounted rehabilitation liability for all our managed operations at the end of 2010 was estimated to be R2,537 million.

Various trusts have been created to fund this estimated environmental closure liability. Contributions are determined on the basis of the estimated environmental obligation over the life of a mine, to a maximum of 30 years. The total amount in all the environmental rehabilitation trusts at year end was R582 million. The shortfall between this total and the undiscounted environmental rehabilitation liability for premature mine closure is funded by way of bank guarantees in favour of the Department of Mineral Resources.