SUSTAINABILITY
Water Management
Water Stewardship
Introduction
Issues of sustainability have long been part of Gold Fields’ way of doing business, the importance of these areas to our business has increased. We have entrenched ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) as a business imperative at our mines and have elevated it to one of our three strategic pillars.
One of the pillars is “Building on our leading commitment to ESG” and has six priorities:
- Safety, health, wellbeing, and the environment
- Gender and diversity
- Stakeholder value creation
- Decarbonisation
- Tailings Management
- Water Stewardship
Access to water is a fundamental human right and a vital resource for Gold Fields’ mining and ore processing activities and we share it with communities, the environment, and other industries in the catchment areas in which we operate. Managing our impacts on water users and resources is essential to maintaining our license to operate and we are committed to responsible water stewardship.
Impact
Three of the countries in which we operate, South Africa, Australia and Chile, are considered water stressed. Climate change impacts our operations and communities in a number of ways — severe rainfall, shifts in rainfall patterns and prolonged droughts, among others – and responsible and effective water management is increasingly critical to Gold Fields.
Not only will water scarcity or excessive rainfall adversely impact operations, as water is a vital resource for our mining and ore processing activities, it is also an essential need for our host communities – particularly where agriculture is an important economic activity. Managing our impacts on water catchment areas - by ensuring that we do not denude the quality or reduce the volume of water in areas around out mines - is therefore key to maintaining our social license to operate.
Gold Fields Policies and Commitments
Our Water Stewardship Policy Statement was updated in 2022 and forms an integral part of our Sustainable Development framework and commits us to the following objectives:
- Implementing a Group Water Stewardship Strategy to ensure proactive, holistic and long-term management of water
- Complying with all applicable regulatory requirements and obligations contained in the industry rules, codes and standards to which we subscribe
- Adhering to our commitment to zero water related environmental incidents
- Applying strong and transparent corporate water governance by:
- allocating clear responsibilities and accountabilities for water, from the board and corporate to site levels
- integrating water into the full mining lifecycle, including new Projects, major expansions, business planning, including company strategy, investment planning and integrated mine closure planning
- publicly reporting water performance, material risks, opportunities and management responses using industry metrics and recognised approaches
- Regularly updating our water security risk register, including those related to climate change, for all operations, with long-term operational plans to mitigate them
- Preparing operations to manage extreme climatic events and, where applicable, supporting host communities with similar challenges
- Effectively managing water at our operations by:
- ensuring consistent security of water supply for our operations without compromising catchment users and the environment
- investing in innovation and technology to improve water management performance at our operations
- maintaining appropriate employee awareness and training
- setting long-term context-relevant water performance targets at each
- reducing, managing and mitigating our impacts on water quality and stakeholders in the catchment, including preventing pollution
- preventing uncontrolled discharges of contaminated water to the environment
- Ensuring all employees have access to clean drinking water, gender-appropriate sanitation facilities and hygiene at their workplace
- Collaborating to achieve responsible and sustainable water use through:
- engaging proactively and inclusively with stakeholders, especially those in our host communities who may influence or be affected by our water use and discharges
- supporting water stewardship initiatives that promote better water use, effective catchment management and contribute to improved water security and sanitation.
Everyone working for, on behalf of, and third parties to Gold Fields’ operations play an active role in achieving these commitments
The following internal guidelines support our work in this area (they are not in the public domain):
- Group Sustainable Development Policy
- Group Environmental Policy
- Group Climate Change Policy
- Group ESG Charter
- Group Water Strategy
- Group Water Management Guideline
- Environmental Incident Reporting and Classification Guideline
- Gold Fields Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guideline
We work with various local, national and international organisations and programmes to support improvements in water stewardship across the industry:
- International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM): A global industry association that represents leading international mining and metals companies who are required to implement the ICMM 10 Principles, including Principle 6 (6.2—Water Stewardship) on environmental performance; we use the ICMM water reporting definitions and guidance for all water-related metrics
- World Gold Council (WGC): A leading organisation in the gold industry, committed to shaping the conversation around gold that represents gold companies who are required to implement Responsible Gold Mining Principles, including Principle 10 ( 10.1&10.2 – Water efficiency and Water access & quality).
- UN Global Compact Water Action Platform (CEO Water Mandate) - through the ICMM: A commitment to adopt and implement the mandate’s strategic framework and its six core elements for water stewardship.
- International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) 14001: All our operations are certified to ISO 14001 for their environmental management systems.
- Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): An independent standards organisation that helps businesses and other organisations understand and communicate their impacts on ESG issues.
- Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): An independent organisation responsible for global disclosure systems for organisations to manage environmental impacts. We use this platform to disclose water stewardship initiatives.
Management Actions
Our approach is guided by the 2030 Water Stewardship Framework, which we developed following a bottom-up approach. All operations have updated their water stewardship strategies to 2030, supported by three-year tactical plans. Our strategy focuses on proactive water management and efficiency while enhancing engagement with catchment stakeholders to create enduring value beyond mining. It consists of the following pillars:
- Climate adaptation and preparedness: identifying and understanding our vulnerability to drought and flooding, as well as ensuring that our mines are addressing all issues that could potentially disrupt the supply of water to the operations
- Water efficiency: continuously reducing demand for freshwater and optimising water use to prepare for potential supply shortfalls and ensure sufficient supply to the areas in which we operate
- Protecting water quality: minimising pollution discharge into natural environments to safeguard human and environmental health
- Catchment management: managing the impact of our operations on host communities in the catchment and collaborating with stakeholders to address common challenges and identify opportunities, including Shared Value water projects
As part of our 2030 ESG targets launched in 2021, we set two overriding water management targets: reducing our freshwater usage by 45% from a 2018 baseline and recycling and reusing at least 80% of the water we use. These long-term targets have been translated into annual targets.
Our Stakeholders and Partners
- As per the Water Management Plan, a water stakeholder register is established at each operation, to effectively engage with water stakeholders. The frequency of the engagement, type of medium used and location is decided based on the context.
- A record of all engagement is kept along with the committed actions/outcomes of the engagement.
- Proactive and effective disclosure on water management to stakeholders is done. These communications are tailored to the audience and allow for recording of the stakeholder response.
Measurement, Evaluation, Assurance and Assessment
Each site is responsible for measuring and reporting on both site-specific water performance and the key Group water performance indicators, as specified in the Gold Fields Global Reporting Initiative Sustainability Reporting Guideline (the GRI Guideline). The Group reporting includes:
- Reporting in accordance with the GRI Guideline and definitions. The performance indicators are captured monthly onto the non-financial data management portal.
- A robust and regular water quality monitoring and reporting programme that is supported by laboratory information management systems and secure database management protocols.
- Water quality and volume analysis are interpreted against set performance criterion. This includes water trend analysis that is reviewed quarterly by the site leadership teams.
- Water performance against targets is reported to the Regional and Corporate Management on a quarterly and annual basis.
- Water performance is reported internally and externally to relevant stakeholders on a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual basis, depending on the objectives of the monitoring program, permit requirements and other considerations defined in other binding document (i.e. contractual agreements).
Setting, capturing, and monitoring progress against agreed targets is the responsibility of each operation and region. The Corporate Office is responsible for providing guidance, tools and assimilation of this information for the Group. Progress against targets is reported quarterly to the Safety, Health and Sustainable Development (SHSD) Committee of the Gold Fields Board.
Annual assurance is provided by a competent independent external assurance provider (as recommended by management and approved by the relevant sub-committee of the Gold Fields Board)
on the key Group water performance indicators that are selected for inclusion in the Integrated Annual Report
The annual external assurance engagement is managed by the corporate office and findings from the work is reported to the regions as well as the relevant sub-committees of the Gold Fields Board, including, but not limited to the Audit Committee.
Reporting and Disclosure
Company water performance, material risks, opportunities, management responses are monitored, reported and transparently disclosed using consistent industry metrics, and recognized approaches. This includes but is not limited to:
- GRI parameters currently used, although reporting is not limited to these
- Metrics as per the ICMM Water Reporting Guideline
- Regulatory reporting protocols in each region
- Annual corporate sustainability reporting as per listing requirements
- Local, regional and international selected stakeholder platforms.