The changing landscape
The tragic incident at Marikana was a devastating end to the
year. While the event itself happened at a particular mining
house in the platinum sector, it was one that reverberated
across South Africa and the world. It has had a huge impact in
how government, the mining industry and individual companies
engage to find a common solution to the underlying causes that
fuelled this incident. As the contagion spread across the mining
industry, it was important for us to act quickly to avoid similar
tragic consequences, and build partnerships in the interest of
the industry and society at large. I personally commend the
leadership shown by the management team who navigated
the South African operations through this unprecedented
event; keeping in line with our company values and showing
leadership that will set the stage for a different industrial
relations environment.
We remain committed to respecting our employees’ rights in
terms of freedom of association but had to set clear boundaries
to ensure all our people were able to come to work without
fear for their lives. We took drastic action in closing operations
in South Africa in the interests of the safety of every single
employee, and to avoid intimidation and coercion. The incident
has fundamentally changed and challenged the status quo that
had held us in good stead for the better part of the past two
decades. We understand we need to continue to work hard
to navigate the rather precarious situation and learn from it to
improve our performance, and find sustainable solutions to the
evil triplets of poverty, inequality and unemployment. We have
all learned difficult but important lessons from it. In the face
of a fragile situation, we remain committed to our employees,
industry partners, representative unions, communities and
government in finding long-term sustainable solutions.
We continue to work on our strategy for artisanal and small-
scale mining (ASM). We have learned important lessons from
the involvement with institutions such as the World Bank
and International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) on
how we tackle the issue. While the Communities and Small-
scale Mining (CASM) project with the World Bank might have
stopped, we continue with our own work as the threats are
immediate and a concerted effort needs to be made to ensure
we find sustainable solutions, such as alternative livelihoods
and supporting local skills development. Great work has been
done in some of the countries in which we have a presence,
such as Australia (with indigenous people), Brazil (with local
communities), Colombia (tackling sustainability issues around
our projects), and Argentina (in local development programmes),
and this is recognised across the group.
Looking forward
Our strategic intervention through the Technology Innovation
Consortium (TIC) demonstrates our belief that, through
effective investment in research and development and
innovative use of technology, we can unlock future potential,
both in terms of production and in the way we improve not just
the working environment and removal of people from harm
but also in skills training and improving capability. We are in
the process of testing some of the concepts that will allow
us to do the work. Our consortium is unique in the partners
it involves and how these partnerships are structured for a
win-win in the long term for all involved. We are also looking
at how this will affect our current workforce and what we have
to do to manage the situation, and work with both unions and
employees to discover potential and create future value. The
TIC clearly demonstrates that the answers will lie beyond the
mining industry.
Other challenges like water and energy, require us to make
systemic changes to the way we run our operations in the
long term. For example, we seek to minimise our demand
on resources such as water and look at alternative energy
sources so that we leave as light a footprint as we can on the
environment.
We still have a long way to go in defining appropriate metrics
for measuring our sustainability performance that will have
meaning across the group and that take into account the
different operating environments.
We continue to engage communities and governments on
broader policy developments to make sure we are part of defining
a sustainable pathway to value for both business and society.
We continue to actively support the objectives of the ICMM,
the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), and the Voluntary
Principles on Security and Human Rights (VPSHR). We are
signatories to the Cyanide Code, and are supporters of a number
of standards promoting Responsible Gold. Our online report
has been produced in accordance with the G3.0 guidelines of
the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and we continue to be an
organisational stakeholder of the GRI.
In conclusion
Finally, I would like to congratulate my colleagues for the
important strides we have made in defining our strategic
sustainable development objectives and in making the continued
improvements across the business. This is a tribute to all
65,822 employees (including contractors) across the group and
the many communities from where they come. Their diverse
experiences and circumstances give us a learning opportunity
and a challenge to use those experiences in creating robust
systems and processes that transcend change and time, and
create important links with the different communities.
Mark Cutifani
CEO
19 March 2013
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OUR APPROACH