Environment: ISO 14001
De Beers Canada's Environmental Management System (EMS) is an operational system, which is registered with BSI and is certified to the International Standards Organization 14001 standard. It contains the various sections required to comply with accepted international standards for managing the environmental aspects of our business. Our EMS identifies how we will manage our environmental responsibilities, and defines specific procedures and instructions that will be followed when performing certain tasks. External auditors conduct periodic audits of the EMS every year to ensure that the company is operating the EMS in the manner the company has committed to.
In order to become ISO 14001 certified major commitments are required by an organization. Compliance with all applicable legislation, prevention of pollution and continual improvement processes must be established. Other commitments include creating environmental awareness within the workforce, including contractors, and the provision of specific training with respect to environmental issues and incident response.
De Beers has taken the position globally that all of its operations are to be ISO 14001 compliant. All of its mines in southern Africa are now compliant. In Canada, the Snap Lake Project is also ISO 14001 certified. As individual projects move forward from the exploration stage to development and operations, they will migrate from an exploration EMS to an EMS specifically tailored to the particular requirements of the project. Currently, the Victor Project is in the process of moving from an exploration certificate to a project specific EMS.
Protection of the environment and of the safety and health of its employees are important to De Beers, which is why the commitment to ISO 14001 standard for all De Beers EMS' had been made at the corporate level. Currently De Beers Canada is adopting the OHSAS 18001 standard, which, although not currently an ISO standard, meets all 17 system elements created for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. The International Standards Organization is striving to implement OHSAS 18001 as the ISO standard for Safety and Health Management Systems across the more than 200 countries. De Beers Canada is thus working to ensure that both its environmental and safety management systems are in line with current industry "best practices", and that both management systems are committed to continual improvement in their respective disciplines, for the betterment of all De Beers projects, operations and mines.
De Beers is proud to be one of the few mining companies around the world to have successfully achieved ISO 14001 certification. It is also one of a very few mineral resource companies to have such a registration in Canada, let alone one that includes its exploration activities.
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