Health
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COVID-19
We prioritize the health and well being of our workforce
We are doing what we can to prevent or help stop the spread of COVID-19 – at our operations, at home with our customers, partners, and host communities. We know we will get through this difficult time – because we are all in this together. Across our business as a whole, our approach is to take measures to help safeguard our people from the spread of COVID-19, while ensuring we can continue the day-to-day business of Raw East Africa.
Doing What We Can to Keep Our Communities Safe
We have planned to focus on several preventative measures within the company and community in collaboration with local government and provincial structures. Measures that are being rolled out include hand washing, distribution of hand sanitizers to employees and face masks, decontamination of employee conveyances, and education of the workforce.
In these difficult times, we aim to keep our communities safe by doing what we can to not put them at risk. We have funded the supply of masks and protective equipment to support energy and health professionals and donated to national and local communities and hospitals.
Safety & Wellbeing
Nothing is more important than safety. We believe that every employee should go home safely, every single day.
We believe that all occupational illnesses are preventable and we are committed to addressing the challenges of access to quality and affordable healthcare for our people. Our approach to safety and the journey to achieve our goal of zero harm is an ongoing process. To achieve our goal, every employee and contractor must be empowered and enabled to act safely. We also expect employees to take ownership of health and safety, comply with standards and procedures, and immediately report any unhealthy or dangerous situation. That is why we are committed to ensuring that everyone working in our facilities has the appropriate resources, training and personal protective equipment to work safely.
We strive to maintain the safety and health of our employees through the identification, monitoring, and reduction of exposure risks that can lead to occupational diseases such as heat, radiation, noise, and dust. At our sites, the focus is on the reduction of exposure to health hazards at the source through good mining practices and rigorous maintenance of controls. Our standards go beyond legal compliance but compliance with the law will always be the minimum standard.
We also provide individualized care including access to occupational health resources that assess health risks and fitness to work, shaft clinics close to the workplace, primary healthcare clinics, hospital networks offering specialized care, and medical aid that protects our employees from the financial risk of high medical costs.
Environment
Our environment approach
Our approach to environmental management is based on the robust identification, assessment, and control of material risks across all phases of our business, from exploration to development, operation, and closure. We engage with stakeholders and take their perspectives and knowledge into account in our decision making.
We aim to avoid or, where this is not possible, minimize our impacts while contributing to lasting environmental benefits across the regions where we operate. Where unacceptable impacts remain, we focus on implementing compensatory actions to address residual impacts on the environment. In addition to our direct environmental management actions, we pursue opportunities, such as conservation, to deliver lasting environmental benefits.
Avoiding environmental impacts
We are committed to our environmental obligations. We do not explore or extract resources listed under environment protection or cultural heritage sites. encroach upon for their mining exploits. We do not operate where there is a risk of direct impacts on ecosystems that could result in the extinction of anIUCN Red ListThreatened Species in the wild. We do not dispose of mined waste rock or tailings into a river or marine environment.
We acknowledge that majority of the local miners use artisanal methods and use mercury in the process, which has proven to have such adverse effects on the environment and human health. We have set up education camps and meetups to educate local miners on the dangers of using mercury.
We have built wells for the local communities to provide safe water for all in places where piped water is inaccessible. We have also teamed up with the authorities to put a limit on rivers and springs that some local artisan miners were misusing.
We have started campaigns or rehabilitation of old mine sites by planting trees and using ambitious waste cleanup in rivers.