Conserving natural resources and mitigating impacts
Land management and biodiversity

Our approach to land stewardship focuses on rehabilitation, while ensuring the responsible management of water, biodiversity, mineral waste and hazardous substances. Rehabilitation is a key regulatory and financial risk for Implats and is linked to annual closure liabilities, which are reviewed and updated annually in line with regulations. An important input towards the annual liability update is our assessment of our ground water impacts and associated mitigation processes. Our rehabilitation activities adhere to a defined Implats mine closure methodology and our South African operations follow the prescribed norms and standards for the remediation of contaminated land in terms of the Waste Act.

Developments in 2014

Rehabilitation activities this year focused on maintaining previously rehabilitated side slopes as well as grassing new risings. Both Marula and Refineries completed their contaminated land assessments and remediation plans. At our Rustenburg operations, the last of the opencast pits has been rehabilitated. A total of 46.6ha was rehabilitated over the reporting period. Following the identification of certain sites that were struggling to rehabilitate unassisted, appropriate intervention, for example erosion controls and chemical amelioration, is being undertaken where required, to ensure that these sites are sustainably rehabilitated. The current cost estimate for Rustenburg closure, amounted to R962.5 million; financial provisions for this amount are in place as per DMR requirements.

Following the cessation of all opencast mining at Zimplats in 2008, an opencast rehabilitation programme has been in progress since 2011. To date, 1 382 891m3 of waste rock material has been backfilled and the project reached 55% completion by year end. We aim to backfill all the voids with waste rock and re-establish indigenous grass and tree species by 2016 at a cost of US$7.9 million.

At Refineries, the Aurora mineshaft has been decommissioned and closed. Rehabilitation obligations and closure of the shaft are being investigated with the DMR. A formal rehabilitation plan for the tailings dam is awaiting confirmation.

Biodiversity

Given the potential of mining activities to affect habitats through land disturbance, land-use change and pollution, basic biodiversity management is a requirement within all our operational ISO 14001 management systems. All operations have site-specific procedures and standards to manage the impacts associated with their activities. Formal biodiversity management plans, which incorporate the revised guidelines from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and Minister and Members of the Executive Council (MINMEC Biodiversity), are being implemented at both the Rustenburg and Marula operations.

A formal biodiversity monitoring programme was also implemented at the Rustenburg operations during the year. This is aimed at evaluating the current management approach and allow for adjustment where necessary.

Only Zimplats and Refineries operate within close proximity to areas of high biodiversity. The refining operation is near the Cowles dam that feeds into the Blesbokspruit, which is deemed an ecosystem under threat and appears on the Montreux record. Although Refineries is deemed to have no direct impact on this ecosystem, it is represented on the Blesbokspruit forum and is involved with environmental education and conservation at the Blesbokspruit Grootvlei Trust. In Zimbabwe, a total of 276ha of the Zimplats operation is located within the Ngezi National Park. This area, which was associated with historic opencast mining, has subsequently been rehabilitated and is thus deemed non-operational.