MANAGING OUR EFFLUENTS AND WASTE

Harmony’s mining and processing operations generate mineral and non-mineral waste. The effective management of waste is a priority as this can reduce our environmental impacts and mitigate our environmental liabilities.

We understand the actual cost of waste management, and this assists us in planning for new projects and mine closure. As part of this process, we maximise recycling and waste reduction during the life of a mine, while design for waste minimisation and planning to reclaim mineral waste such as waste rock dump as aggregate.

Internally developed mineral, non-mineral and hazardous waste materials guidelines are included in the environmental management systems which are implemented at all Harmony operations. At Harmony, we understand that waste management begins with waste’s initial generation and encompasses its handling, storage and transport as well as its recycling, treatment and/or disposal.

Our primary sources of mineral and non-mineral waste are:

• The tailings accumulated in tailings storage facilities, which may be active or dormant. These facilities are large areas usually located in a natural hollow, valley or an embankment used to provide safe, permanent storage of tailings material. In the tailings storage facilities, the finely ground rock and water that together make up tailings will separate. About 35% of tailings are solids that will settle. The balance is water that accumulates on the surface to form a tailings pond. Tailings ponds provide an important water source for mine operations. Tailings water is usually pumped back to the mill to be re-used in the milling process. Tailings consist of overburden rock which is made up of soil, gravel and other loose materials that cover the surface of a mine site, ore which is rock that contains high concentrations of minerals such as gold, molybdenum and silver and mine rock which is solid material removed from an open pit. The design and management of tailings storage facilities is subject to rigorous regulation and is factored into our environmental management plans. A large number of our dormant tailings storage facilities were acquired as part of various transactions by Harmony over many years, and were not necessarily established by Harmony
• Material accumulated in waste rock dumps. Overburden or waste rocks are a product of drilling and blasting, and are transported to these dumps. The waste rock dumps are man-made surface dumps located near a mine, where no-value development rock which had to be removed from the mine has been deposited. Waste rock dumps may be re-used as construction material, subject to the approval of the National Nuclear Regulator – this approval is necessary specifically for road construction
• Scrap steel – this steel has been reclaimed in the rehabilitation exercise being undertaken at the shafts which have been decommissioned in the Free State and at Deelkraal. Decontaminated steel is sold for recycling to scrap dealers authorised by the National Nuclear Regulator and in accordance with its procedures regarding decontamination, the monitoring of radioactivity and the final release of the material
• Scrap timber – this originates from timber that has been in use as support in the underground stopes. All timber supplied to Harmony is certified by the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) which assures forest rotation in South Africa. As part of our bioenergy programme, we will be looking into introducing the timber and wood chips into our bioenergy plant

1. ⁽¹⁾ Data for FY11 and FY10 for Papua New Guinea only
2. ⁽²⁾ New reporting indicator for South Africa from FY12, FY13 onwards with consolidated group data being reported

MINERAL WASTE

Tailings are made up of crushed rock and process water emitted from the gold elution process in the form of a slurry once the gold has been extracted. The composition, size and consistency of tailings vary by operation, with the open-cast operations producing greater volumes of tailings in general than the underground operations. Tailings and waste rock are usually inert, but rock close to the ore body may be associated with radiation or salts if these are characteristic of the ore body.

Since tailings do contain impurities or pollutants, in terms of our water management programme, they are placed on an engineered tailings dam to contain the slime. The fines are also collected and deposited on the tailings. Water is collected from the toe drains and penstocks and channelled to the return water dam where it is available to be re-used by the plant.

In the process, the cyanide present is destroyed – it self-destructs on the tailings when exposed to light – but salts and heavy metals can enter into ground water and create a pollution plume. We monitor our groundwater to ensure that such pollution plumes are contained. The public safety assessments have illustrated that such plumes (radionuclide contaminant plumes) will in all likelihood be contained in the tailings storage or water management facilities for hundreds to thousands of years and that the potential polluted plumes originating from the tailings storage facilities will only travel between 10m and 100m from these facilities in a 10 000-year period.

Effective mineral waste management not only reduces the aesthetic and land use challenges of mining, particularly during closure, but also reduces the potential for water and air pollution as well as maximising the recovery of ore, minerals and metals. Improved mineral waste management can result in significant savings and a reduction in energy consumption. Residual economic value can be generated from projects such as our Phoenix reclamation initiative.

Mineral waste has a significant impact on land. At Harmony, all chemically reactive or radioactive waste is appropriately handled so as to protect employees, communities and the environment.

Harmony manages the environmental impacts of mineral waste by:

• Minimising the quantity of material stored so as to limit the extent of the footprint of land disturbed
• Ensuring storage sites are physically and chemically safe, and well-engineered
• Undertaking progressive rehabilitation – returning affected land to productive use after mining

A waste rock management plan was submitted to the Department of Environment and Conservation in Papua New Guinea for review and approval. This plan includes acid rock drainage management strategies. This plan was to be reviewed and discussed at the Morobe Mining Joint Venture’s meeting with the Department of Environment and Conservation in July 2014.

Hidden Valley’s advanced waste management systems have generated positive feedback from stakeholders particularly the tailings storage facility which is the first large tailings storage facility to be successfully operated in Papua New Guinea. While there has been no further progress made regarding the review of mining laws on the management and disposal of tailings, once finalised, it is expected to have minimal impact on our processes at Hidden Valley.

In FY14, 33.5Mt of mineral waste were generated from gold production (FY13: 32.8Mt), comprising 12.8Mt of waste rock and 20.7Mt of tailings.

NON-MINERAL WASTE

Non-mineral waste, such as plastics, steel, paper and timber is generated by processing operations and is produced in smaller volumes than mineral waste. This waste is managed by recycling, off-site treatments, disposal or on-site landfills. The impacts of non-mineral waste can be reduced by recycling and reusing where possible. Harmony ensures the responsible storage, treatment and disposal of non-mineral waste.

Group environmental standards for non-mineral waste management have been rolled out throughout the group and are currently being integrated into existing ISO 14001 systems.

In FY14, 7 892 tonnes of waste (plastic, steel, wood and paper) were recycled (FY13: 7 677 tonnes), generating R8.3 million (FY13: R2.6 million).

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION EXPENDITURE AND INVESTMENT

Total expenditure by Harmony on its environmental portfolio in FY14 was R68 millions of which R34 million was spent in South Africa and R34 million in Papua New Guinea (FY13: R76 million; R42 million in South Africa and R34 million in Papua New Guinea). In addition, R45 million has been committed to the implementation of the bioenergy initiative over the next two years.