Diamond recovery at Jwaneng mine, Botswana.
The Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM), a body representing employers in the country, has praised Marsh Botswana’s initiative to sensitise the mining sector about risk management in their operations. The insurance solution company held its second annual Mining Insurance Breakfast Seminar in Gaborone where it sensitised the industry on the importance of embracing risk management.
Chief Executive Officer of BOCCIM, Maria Machailo-Ellis said at the seminar that the event is of immense value and benefit, not just to the mining sector, but, rather the entire economy of Botswana.
“We applaud the efforts of Marsh Botswana (Pty) Limited, the world’s largest mining risks consultancy and insurance brokerage firm, for organising this seminar, whose key objectives I am told, is to provide a forum, where mining executives and other stakeholders share ideas and experiences in mine risk identification, mitigation and management thereof,” she said.
“I am informed that this event is a permanent and annual fixture of the Marsh Botswana calendar, and as such I look forward to meeting and interacting with yourselves yet again, at the 2015 breakfast seminar.”
Marsh held the first seminar in Francistown last year and its Chief Executive Officer, Fritzgerald Dube revealed the objective is to provide forum to discuss risk exposure in the mining industry.
He highlighted that mining industry is dynamic and keeps on revolving, which warrants consideration of risk for various perspectives and advised that risk managers should always consider risk management at the workplace.
“It is a must have and it should be culture in our organisations,” stated Dube. Marsh provides insurance broking to over 70% of miners globally. According to Mining Industry Risk Analysis by Marsh’s Mining Practice, the mining industry now faces an even wider range of challenges on top of traditional risk factors.
“Factors such as climate change, new technologies, economic uncertainties and secure supply of key consumables like electricity, water, gas and other fuels are all difficult to predict and bring additional complications to securing appropriate balance sheet protection,” stated Andrew Chester, Head of Marsh’s Global Mining Practice in the report.
However, the report pointed out that mining companies have an impressive track record for delivering continuous improvements in safety and risk governance standards. “We have no doubt that the professionalism and expertise present within the industry will ensure that any new and emerging risk challenges are dealt with in an equally determined fashion”.
The report said the insurers have recognised the approach and achievements of mining companies in identifying, mitigating and retaining their risks. “Many mining companies have close and long standing relationships with their insurers built through regular dialogue with mining company executives and visits to mining sites and processing facilities,” it stated.
BOCCIM as the voice of the private sector including mining, the organisation has acknowledged that mining owners and operators face many significant and complex environmental risks throughout the mining cycle including ground work, handling hazardous substances, waste disposal and control.
“These include risks arising from more onerous regulations on liability for environmental damage and growing pressure from shareholders to disclose environmental performance,” said Machailo-Ellis, adding that in the last 36 months, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods have had a real impact on mining companies, as have climate change and water scarcity issues.
“Factoring the potential effects of climate change is of particular relevance to the mining industry when undertaking environmental risk assessments as well as integrating them within Enterprise Risk Management programmes.”
