Land rehabilitation

Rehabilitation strategy

FY23 focus areas and Performance

The undiscounted value of land rehabilitation liabilities amounted to R7.6 billion (US$403 million) in FY23 (FY22: R7.1 billion/US$437.9 million). The increase was due to higher diesel prices, rising inflation, and accommodating the footprint of the Eva Copper acquisition.

Cost-effective rehabilitation of our TSFs aligns with our decarbonisation strategy. By planting trees on TSFs to mitigate nuisance dust fallout and the risk of dam failure, we also offset residual GHG emissions from our operations.

Land rehabilitation liabilities (Rm)	FY23	FY22	FY21	FY20	FY19
South Africa	6 104	5 752	5 5591	3 038	2 884
Papua New Guinea	1 474	1 374	1 306	1 378	1 039
Total Rm	7 583	7 126	6 865	4 416	3 923
Total US$m	402.8	438	438	244	278

1. Following acquisition of Mponeng and related assets

SOUTH AFRICA

Harmony’s total environmental liability for its mining operations in FY23 was R7.6 billion, with our total environmental liability in SA including surface operations being R6.1 billion, as determined by the closure cost assessment completed in June 2023. We are fully funded as it relates to our environmental obligations in terms of the Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

The total land under our management is 88 157ha. Of this, 13 259ha is impacted by our mining-related infrastructure, services and activities, and as such, only 117ha was available for rehabilitation. In FY23, we successfully rehabilitated 72ha of the 117ha.

For more than a decade, we have decommissioned and sealed shafts, removed headgear and demolished hostels. In FY23, we demolished buildings and concrete bases at the Deelkraal plant and hostel and the security arracks in Gauteng and North West respectively. Once the demolition work was completed, the area was then profiled to ensure that it blended into the surrounding topography.

The closure and rehabilitation of our mine shafts have emerged as key to a crucial strategy in the ongoing battle against illegal mining activities in the regions we operate. To date, we have demolished 46 shafts while rehabilitating broader footprints (former plants and ancillary service infrastructure). After a methane explosion, we restated the number of closed shafts to 45 in FY23. In a further effort to prevent illegal access to our underground workings, two shafts in the Free State have been sealed by a mass concrete cap. With the closure of these shafts, we don’t only gain the benefit of protecting the environment from further degradation, we also safeguard our host communities from the criminal elements associated with illegal mining. Through security patrols and arrests made since 2019, it became evident that illegal mining underground has decreased as a result of our rehabilitation efforts. It is, however, important to note that despite his progress, dealing with illegal mining requires a concerted on-going effort between the South African Police Service (SAPS), government authorities, and local communities to ensure success.

In addition,  as part of our decarbonisation strategy,  we are continuously rehabilitating our decommissioned TSFs in the North West and Free State. To date, we have planted 84 835 trees at the toes and top of the  SFs whilst indigenous vegetation which includes turf and Rhodes grass was also planted at the top surface. The vegetating of TSFs is vital to prevent water pollution and wind erosion and should allow for the creation of sustainable basal cover that prevents both water and wind erosion.

Additionally, vegetation and planting of trees also have a variety of other benefits such as the sequestration of carbon, improved visual impact, dust suppression, the potential removal of metals from the tailings material and biodiversity enhancement. Our mission remains to rehabilitate land and reduce our emissions by 2045, through the repurposing of mining land into tree plantations to sequester carbon emissions.

In South Africa, we integrate our environmental stewardship and socioeconomic development imperatives in rehabilitating and reclaiming land, TSFs and waste rock dumps by:

• Seeking opportunities for entrepreneurs to use waste rock dumps after relevant radiation clearances
• Donating waste rock dumps with commercial quantities of recoverable gold to local communities
• Conducting extensive due diligence of community partners and providing protection against criminal groups involved in illegal mining
• Ensuring the success of these small businesses by assisting in building their technical and financial capacity

It remains incumbent on us to contain our impacted footprint and seek responsible practices that avoid, mitigate and remediate negative impacts to create healthy ecosystems and societies. Our rehabilitation programme has already created 256 jobs, supported numerous local small businesses and decreased illegal mining activity.

Socio-economic development projects underway on rehabilitated land include:

• Labour-intensive removal of 6 655ha of invasive alien vegetation near Kusasalethu, Moab Khotsong, Kalgold and Mine Waste Solutions
• Establishing commercially viable agri-businesses as well as subsistence agriculture on rehabilitated mine-impacted land in our host provinces, focusing on small-scale and commercial production in Welkom (Free State) and Orkney (North West).

Harmony has established an innovation platform in collaboration with the Institute for Technology and Society (ITS) to identify sustainable socio-economic development projects at scale that will unlock the full economic value of Harmony’s land, water and redundant infrastructure. The projects aim to address Harmony’s challenges associated with contaminated land and excess fissure water while creating socio-economic benefits for host communities, including opportunities for local farmers. The institute, through its network of innovation, land rehabilitation and management continued academic and business partners, gives Harmony access to a unique suite of innovative solutions and possible external partnerships and funding. In addition to the projects already initiated, our main focus remains on expanding the feasibility of these pilot projects to a scale that can significantly offset the financial impact of Harmony’s expensive fissure water pumping costs, albeit through the agriculture and food production initiative for further development on beneficiation of biomass from rehabilitation.

We also continue to support local communities generating income from waste rock reclamation near our Kusasalethu, Doornkop, Moab Khotsong and Free State operations – including a growing number of entrants to this sector in Welkom and Klerksdorp (North West).

Our approach to repurposing infrastructure and land considers:

• Sale of land for sustainable human settlement and social and enterprise development purposes
• Applications for purchase of land or non-residential properties from entities or organisations (not individuals) registered in South Africa with majority black ownership of not less than 51%
• Assessments of land and non-residential properties earmarked for sale or donation for possible contamination and, where required, rehabilitation prior to the sale transaction or donation
• Donations primarily for land redistribution purposes to the relevant national, provincial or local government department.

We also provide social responsibility property leasing at nominal rates for our host community establishments, (church groups, schools, daycare centres, welfare organisations and recreational facilities), with measures that prevent theft and vandalism and minimise security and maintenance costs.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

We have always driven mine closure as an iterative and dynamic process that considers the environmental and social conditions as well as the economic well-being of the community. The Hidden Valley Mine closure-planning project progressed according to schedule in support of the submission of a final rehabilitation and mine closure plan to the state of Papua New Guinea, per statutory obligations. We pride ourselves on our efforts to engage all stakeholders and in building an understanding of our intent and design for closure. These communications lend to heightened trust between ourselves and landowners, earning us our licence to operate.

In developing our closure plan, we strive to remediate our impacts and leave a productive and sustainable afteruse of the land.

Our progress during FY23 included:

• Completing geotechnical drilling campaign and site investigations to support feasibility-level biophysical closure design.
• Conducting a series of workshops, including a site visit, with the Mineral Resources Authority and Conservation and Environmental Protection Authority to consider biophysical closure risks and issues, and the associated work programmes underway to address these.
• Engaging an independent peer reviewer to support the programme.
• Holding the first round of engagements with landowner, local level government, district administration and provincial government representatives.
• Undertaking a socio-economic survey of mine landowner villages for critical insights into closure risks and issues and community aspirations.

In Papua New Guinea, the most disturbed areas at the Hidden Valley mine remain in active use to support ongoing operations. Progressive rehabilitation activities are, therefore, predominantly intended to stabilise exposed areas to prevent ground movement near critical infrastructure and to limit off-site sediment transportation.