Abridged corporate responsibility report

• Chief executive officer’s statement
• Independent statement of assurance
• Implats’ approach to sustainable development
• Stakeholder engagement
• Economic performance
• Social performance
  • Human capital
  • Safety
  • Health
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Socio-economic development
• Environmental performance
• GRI application levels
• GRI content index
• Compliance with the Mining Charter Scorecard

Implats’ approach to sustainable development

Implats’ responsibility towards its stakeholders is taken seriously by the group and is an integral part of its functioning. Specialist staff are in place at an operational level in various disciplines to support line management in ensuring the company is both aware of and responsive to the needs of its employees and communities.

Governance

Issues relating to safety, health, environment, and HIV/AIDS are considered by operation-based management and the Executive Committee. A board committee, the Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Audit Committee, has been designated by the board to guide group policies and monitor performance and progress. This committee meets on a quarterly basis and is chaired by a non-executive director.

The group’s Transformation Committee oversees the group’s policies and practices relating to the Mining Charter and compliance with the Mining Charter Scorecard. The company’s Response to the Mining Charter is on the website. Following the findings and recommendations made by the independent assurer, the group will develop group-wide definitions and reporting structures to ensure the accuracy of information provided to stakeholders. A comprehensive discussion on corporate governance may be found in the corporate governance section.

Reporting in line with GRI

Implats is committed to incremental reporting in terms of GRI. Implats has self-declared a C+ level of reporting for FY2007. The company has requested that its external assurer, Trialogue Assurance Services, offer an opinion on this self declaration (see the website) and will request that GRI confirm the self-declaration once the company’s web-based report has been completed. Cognisance has been taken of GRI’s reporting principles regarding:

Report content

• All material issues known to the company have been reported.
• The views and needs of stakeholders have been taken into account in preparing this report. Implats recognises, however, that a more formal approach to stakeholder engagement must be embarked upon and the company has set this as an objective for FY2008.
• Where necessary and relevant, the broader sustainability context has been provided. Additional information and, particularly, additional and historical information by operation may be found on the website.
• The report is complete in that it provides a comprehensive picture of the company’s operations and impacts. There is an intrinsic bias in reporting on South Africa as this comprises the bulk of operations and employment and, consequently, the area of greatest impact.

Quality

• Wherever possible comparison has been made with data from the previous financial year and additional historical information has been provided where appropriate to support the principle of comparability.
• The company has endeavoured to ensure that the information is accurate and the primary indicators have been assured by independent assurer.
• The report is timely in that it is provided at the same time as the annual report.
• Effort has been made to ensure that the report is understandable. Terminology that may be unfamiliar to some stakeholders has been explained or included in the glossary in the report.
• The report has been reviewed by the board and the independent assurer, and is thus deemed to be reliable.