Environment

The Company has a long-term vision of environmental stewardship, particularly as an operator in Africa and has set up an Environmental Management Program that ensures the Company operates in line with local legislation. This means prioritising environmental risk mitigation before any initial exploration spanning through to a period after the closure of mining activities. We mitigate the impact of our operations through detailed mine closure and reclamation plans.

We believe that moving towards self-sufficiency is a long-term process but starts with the adoption of best practices amongst our employees. We continually improve and regularly monitor, audit and review our environmental performance, including the reduction and prevention of impacts and more efficient use of resources. We recognise the need to be transparent and accountable about our approach and are working to strengthen our commitments in this area. We believe a strong culture of environmental stewardship is best complemented with a self-monitoring review. We seek to exceed the minimum regulatory standards for our industry and set higher and stricter standards of our own which we continue to strive towards.

We seek to progressively develop and maintain environmental management systems that are consistent with internationally recognised standards. These processes and systems are adopted internally by senior management across all employee levels. We are striving to increase our self-sufficiency in food management through internal growing practices and the consumption of foods (produce and meats) grown from local villages. We are striving to limit our waste impact through practices including composting and recycling. We work tirelessly to reduce the impacts of our operations on the environment – whether, through best-in-class Tailings Storage Facilities (“TSF”), community-focused water stewardship programmes or a shift towards the use of lower-carbon power sources in our operations. We routinely monitor water, air, and soil quality.

In Tanzania, we report on our environmental performance at New Luika in an Annual Environmental Monitoring Report which is submitted to the National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) in Dar Es Salaam. This is completed in accordance with the Tanzanian Mining Act 2010 and our Mining Licences which require that accurate records are kept, and annual reports submitted which contain results of monitoring activities, instances whereby limits have been exceeded according to the Environmental Management Act (EMA) together with remedial action and responses taken, and details of emissions, discharges, and wastes.

In Kenya, we adhere to the Constitution of Kenya 2010 and the Environmental Management and Coordination Act (EMCA) 1999 (Amendment 2015) and we have an Environmental Rehabilitation and Restoration Plan that outlines the process for the rehabilitation and restoration of sites where exploration activities have been undertaken.