Environmental

Environmental stewardship: our commitment to zero harm.

Being a responsible custodian of the environment is crucial to maintaining our legal and social licence to operate and ensuring a positive legacy. As the first pillar in our ESG framework, environmental stewardship thus focuses on three priorities: climate risk management, land stewardship and biodiversity, and efficient use of resources.

Climate risk management

We are dedicated to proactively measuring, understanding, and managing our climate risks. We support global climate goals by reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030 and to net zero by 2050. 

We believe in the importance of emission reduction technologies and being open about climate risks.

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Land stewardship and biodiversity

We strive for no net loss of biodiversity through responsible mine closure and sustainable land use.

Our efforts include restoring wetlands, treating mine water for local use, and managing regional biodiversity.

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Efficient use of resources

We are dedicated to using natural resources efficiently, minimising waste, and improving air quality. Our goals include increasing water reuse to 75%, reducing freshwater use by 20%, and cutting waste sent to landfills by 50% by 2030.

We also strive to enhance energy efficiency and adopt industry-leading standards for air quality.

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Environmental compliance

In building this purpose, we express our unwavering commitment to achieving excellence in Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) management.

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Read our ESG Report to see how we integrate environmental stewardship into our operational DNA.

Case studies
Thungela launches fish breeding facility in mpumalanga

Today, Thungela celebrates an innovative fish breeding facility at the Loskop Dam Nature Reserve in Mpumalanga, commissioned to restore aquatic life in the Wilge-Olifants river catchment following the unfortunate uncontrolled release of mine-impacted water from Khwezela Colliery’s Kromdraai site on 14 February 2022.

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Thungela Kromdraai rehabilitation project

We are uncompromising in our commitment to safety and hold ourselves accountable to best-practice governance principles throughout our business. We carefully manage the impact we have on both people and the environment – and will continue to do so at both active mining sites and operations that reach their end of life in the future.

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Thungela receives recognition at Coalsafe awards

Thungela has been recognised with six awards at the 2023 CoalSAFE Conference hosted by the South African Colliery Managers’ Association in Johannesburg on 10 May 2023, under the theme “Responsible Coal Mining Stewards”. These accolades serve as a testament to our unwavering commitment to the well-being and security of our employees, as well as the communities in which we operate.

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