MORE THAN MINING

More than mining is Royal Bafokeng Platinum’s commitment to a greater purpose for the business of platinum group metals (PGMs) extraction. Our purpose is to seek opportunities that create intrinsic value for our stakeholders, empowering and positioning them to pursue greater objectives for themselves. Therefore the development of our business will incorporate established and evolving concepts of sustainable development for our business.

RBPlat’s business case for sustainable development

In the mining context, ‘sustainable development’ refers to a pattern of resource extraction and use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the physical/natural environment, and supporting the socio-economic development interests of affected communities, so that needs can be met not only in the present, but also in the future for generations to come.

The term was first used to common understanding by the Brundtland Commission in the run-up to the 1992 Rio Summit on Sustainable Development, later followed by the 2002 Johannesburg Summit, which coined what has become the most often quoted definition of sustainable development:

“…development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

The nature of our business

Our business is to create maximum value from the extraction of PGMs. PGMs are naturally occurring and non-renewable minerals and therefore a finite resource of precious and base metals.

Our ability to develop and create stakeholder value from this resource is dependent on, inter alia, the size of PGM deposits within our mining rights areas, our methods and rate of extraction, PGM market price as well as the interaction between the conduct of the operation and the natural environment and society within which the operation exists.

Location of operations

Our operations are located approximately 30km north-west of Rustenburg on land owned by the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN). The surroundings of the operations are largely rural in nature and therefore significant reliance is placed on the development of natural resources to support the livelihood of the people living in the area.