Our approach

Closure planning starts at design. A landform that cannot be stabilised, a drainage arrangement that requires perpetual treatment, or an access road that leaves a community without a route are all cheaper to avoid at design than to remediate at the end. Our closure planning covers landform stabilisation and revegetation, decommissioning, post-closure monitoring of water and ground conditions, and the social transition of the communities affected. We develop it with those communities rather than present it to them.

Environmental matters are subject to board oversight and are considered within strategy, risk and performance oversight. Responsibility for environmental strategy and for implementation of our Environmental Sustainability Policy rests with executive management. Monitoring of adherence, auditing, incident investigation and training are assigned within the Group and named in the governing policy. Environmental controls are applied in daily activity by those conducting it, together with the monitoring the activity requires, and our environmental standards are applied to suppliers through procurement.

We conduct environmental audits and site inspections on the cycle stated in the governing policy, and executive management reviews environmental strategy and performance on that cycle, revising objectives, metrics and action plans in the light of audit results, stakeholder feedback and regulatory change. We record and monitor environmental incidents, each with a root cause analysis and a corrective action. We escalate systemic or unresolved issues to executive management and, where appropriate, to regulators, providers of finance or affected communities. We structure our environmental management arrangements against ISO 14001 and hold no ISO 14001 certification.