Our purpose is to create a better future. We accomplish this through the metals we produce, the way we do business and through our superior performance.
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Implats has the advantage of geographical diversification and exploits platiniferous horizons within the Bushveld Complex in South Africa, the Great Dyke in Zimbabwe and the palladium-dominant orebody located in the Lac des Iles Intrusive Complex in Canada. The Bushveld Complex and Great Dyke layered intrusions are unique in terms of size and geological continuity.
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Decarbonisation is an urgent global challenge. There are increasing opportunities to use platinum-catalysed fuel cells to provide zero-emitting, carbon-free energy, in electricity and mobile applications.
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Employee accommodation and living conditions remain key strategic issues for improving the wellbeing of our employees and host communities in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Our focus remains on facilitating the creation of sustainable human settlements and access to decent accommodation for employees who are residing in informal structures.
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The increasing evidence globally of physical climate impacts – wildfires, floods, rising temperatures – is driving a greater sense of urgency in building adaptive capacity and resilience to climate.
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Safe production is non-negotiable. Ensuring the safety of our employees and contractors underpins all that we do and remains key to delivering on our commitment to zero harm. Our safety strategy strives to foster a safe operational culture and achieve our vision of zero harm. The strategy is informed by external and internal reviews of our safety systems and culture, and by a continual analysis of the root causes of all fatal, reportable and lost-time incidents.
The principal safety risks facing our employees and contractors relate to falls of ground, moving machinery, transportation, working at heights, electrical or release of stored energy incidents and isolation/lock-out. Fatigue and stress management is also a focus area.
Our approach
Against the backdrop of Covid-19 and an increasing burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, we strive to promote employee wellbeing and optimal levels of health and to ensure effective control of occupational health risks.
Covid-19 has remained the foremost health challenge facing Implats employees and their families and communities. In all the jurisdictions in which we operate, we maintain comprehensive response plans to safeguard and support employees and host communities. We ensure regulatory compliance through approved Covid-19 code of practices and standard operating procedures. Implats’ leading response to Covid-19 has been commended by several external industry and government bodies.
The major occupational health risk associated with our mining activities is noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Every employee undergoes a medical screening examination at least once a year. Any abnormalities detected are referred for further diagnostic investigation and treatment. Any potential disability is referred to independent third parties for assessment and possible compensation.
Our strategy on non-occupational health focuses on ensuring that all employees have access to affordable healthcare so that all health stressors can be identified, managed and treated. Implats has extended its shared responsibility to include the health of dependents of employees, as well as broader investments in community healthcare projects.
Our approach is informed by occupational health milestones set for the South African mining industry. The 2024 health milestones include targets for HIV, TB, silicosis and NIHL.
We are also placing greater emphasis across the Group on supporting employees in managing mental health-related issues. All our operations facilitate access to professional support through an employee assistance programme and various other resources aimed at encouraging wellbeing. This support has been critical in helping to mitigate the mental health effects associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our approach
Covid-19 support to communities – healthcare intervention highlights
The Implats purpose is to create a better future by, among others, bringing long-term growth and opportunity for all stakeholders. We do this through sustaining industry leading business and financial performances through the commodity cycle. We also recognise the impact that our stakeholders have on our ability to create, retain and deplete value. We therefore invest in developing and maintaining constructive relationships with the stakeholders and communities around our operations. Strong stakeholder relations advance goal 17 of the United Nation’s Global Sustainability, Partnerships for the Goals, which emphasises collaboration, a critical catalyst for achieving the other SDGs.
Stakeholders are defined as those people or groups who are interested and affected by our business, as well as those who have a material influence on our ability to create value. The priority level (zoning) of our stakeholder groups is based on the level of influence these stakeholders have on the business, the assessed effectiveness of existing engagement processes, and the level of alignment/change required in the relationship to meet our value-creation goals.
Our inclusive stakeholder review process includes:
Implats’ board-approved stakeholder engagement strategy was developed with particular cognisance of King IV, and the overarching AA1000 Assurance Standard principles of materiality, completeness and responsiveness.
We strive to foster a culture of delivery, accountability, teamwork, development and care through an organisational structure that is fit for purpose, resourcing this structure with the best capability and empowering our people to deliver results. Our human resource (HR) strategy guides our progress in creating our desired organisational culture - a culture of continuous improvement, underpinned by a commitment to learning. Our approach is to instil organisational discipline, enhance people engagement and people management capabilities, empower our line managers to take responsibility for people management, and ensure effective performance management to deliver on objectives. We are committed to implementing sound and consistent policies and practices to ensure that Implats is a fair, equitable and transparent employer, with a compelling employee value proposition.
In adapting to the Covid-19 era, we escalated our use of mobile technology to enable direct communication with employees
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Employee accommodation and living conditions remain key strategic issues for improving the wellbeing of our employees and host communities in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Read our latest storiesEngagement with host community stakeholders takes place through formalised structures to strengthen our relationships and foster greater collaboration. We work with our social partners to address community concerns as best we can, and in accordance with our financial means. Implats develops and implements fit-for-context community engagement plans to deepen our relations with host communities and seek collaborations for sustainable initiatives that benefit both host communities and our operations.
We strive to play a strong integrating role with all affected community stakeholders – including traditional leadership structures, local, provincial and national governments, community representative organisations, and youth movements.
The challenging socio-economic contexts in which we operate, particularly in South Africa and Zimbabwe, highlight the need for sustainable community development as a commercial and social imperative. Our mines represent a centre of socio-economic activity and an important source of welfare. In southern Africa, our operations are in rural areas characterised by limited formal economic activity, high levels of youth unemployment, inadequate provision of infrastructure and poor service delivery. Our social interventions are designed as far as possible to address these issues and are delivered in partnership with governments, development agencies, communities and non-governmental organisations. Each of our operations also facilitates organised volunteering activities for our employees to support host communities.
In Canada, we are dedicated to nurturing healthy, positive, forward-looking partnerships with Indigenous communities. Impala Canada adheres to all Federal and Provincial requirements for engagement with Indigenous communities, which includes, but is not limited to, fulfilling all foundational requirements for Duty to Consult (Federal), as well as specific engagement and consultation requirements for exploration, environmental stewardship and monitoring, permitting, etc (Provincial level). In addition, Impala Canada has established regular two-way communication channels with all Indigenous partners and works to ensure that relevant or significant agreements between Impala Canada and a specific Indigenous community are formalised. We proactively seek out opportunities to partner with Indigenous-owned businesses and invest in programming that supports and is meaningful to Indigenous communities
Implats strives to avoid resettlement wherever possible. When unavoidable, we follow the principles of relevant legislation, including South Africa’s Mine Community Resettlement Guidelines 2022. We seek to ensure affected stakeholders are fully involved throughout the resettlement process and that impacted communities are able to maintain productive livelihoods following completion of the process.
Zimplats is investing in several initiatives designed to upskill and provide sustainable employment or income generation for community members, with a focus on promoting food security.
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To address a deficit in host community medical response measures to Covid-19, in FY2021 Impala donated critical medical equipment worth R1.37 million to Rustenburg communities.
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