Environmental Officer - North West at Tharisa

Purpose of Role

To provide support in the day-to-day coordination of the mine environmental management, by identifying and reviewing any potential environmental compliance issues arising from any environmental analysis, to monitor and mitigate all key environmental indicators and their adherence to the relevant legislation and/or regulatory requirements. To manage and mitigate the environmental impact of mining operations, by ensuring compliance with environmental regulations, to develop and implement environmental policies and promote sustainable mining practices.

The Environmental Officer (EO) is regarded as an Environmental Control Officer (ECO) as required by the Department of Environmental Affairs and the Department of Water and Sanitation for the purpose of overseeing the control of the mining environmental management as far as water, waste, energy, emissions, biodiversity, land/soil, rehabilitation issues are concerned.

Role Context

Environmental Management

• Accompany legal auditors during audits, ensuring no significant disruptions during audits processes and obtaining feedback from auditors, to ensure a smooth audit process and provision of required information.
• Take action on obtaining and tracking environmental approvals and authorisations as required, to ensure all the necessary approvals are obtained within specified timelines with minimal delays.
• Manage greenhouse gas (GHG) data collection and calculations, including liaising with consultants on GHG-related matters and monitoring the reduction of GHG emissions, to ensure accurate GHG data management and alignment between reduction targets and the approved reduction strategies.
• Conduct audits and inspections of sister sites to ensure environmental compliance, to reduce violations and improve adherence to environmental standards within all sister sites.
• Conduct regular environmental monitoring on sister sites and report on findings, to identify environmental issues and monitor the actions taken to address these issues.
• Draft and review environmental presentations for various purposes, ensuring their accuracy and clarity by obtaining feedback on the quality and clarity of the presentations, to deliver effective and informative environmental presentations.
• Maintain regular communication and engagement with relevant authorities, by monitoring all regulatory violations and obtaining feedback from authorities, to ensure compliance with environmental regulations.
• Maintain and update monthly Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for presentation purposes, including updating graphs and charts, to ensure the availability of the latest KPIs for accurate monitoring and informed decision-making.
• Manage and monitor regular site inspections and environmental sampling and analysis are carried out, so as to monitor environmental conditions and compliance, and improve the overall environmental conditions and compliance.
• Prepare environmental reports and track department performance against environmental key performance indicators and targets, to ensure the effective tracking of environmental performance.
• Provide support in maintaining the ISO14001 standard by effectively monitoring key areas and conducting regular audits, to monitor ISO14001 certification maintenance, with audit reports showing compliance.
• Demonstrate flexibility in handling changing environmental requirements and tasks, in order to adapt to evolving environmental needs, handling all change requirements with minimal disruptions.
• Coordinate all aspects of pollution control, waste management, water management, greenhouse gas management, recycling, conservation, and renewable energy initiatives, by managing all environmental initiatives to improve pollution control, waste reduction, energy conservation, and sustainability.
• Lead the implementation of environmental policies and practices within Tharisa Minerals (TM), by adopting policies, practices and obtaining feedback from employees, to ensure the successful integration of environmental policies.
• Raise awareness, at all levels of the organisation, about the impact of emerging environmental issues, whether legislative or best practice, on corporate, ethical, and social responsibility, to improve environmental consciousness with TM.
• Conduct impact assessments to identify, assess and reduce the TM's environmental risks and financial costs, to mitigate the identified risks and implement cost savings tactics.
• Carry out inspections, investigations, resolve conflicts, and take appropriate action to address environmental issues, to ensure the timely resolution of conflicts and environmental issues.
• Review and assess environmental reports/proposals to make recommendations based on environmental findings.
• Provide technical advice on pollution and contaminant treatment and control technologies, to improve TM’s pollution treatment and control.
• Identify, interpret and advise on environmental concerns and issues, to recommend alternatives for their mitigation and resolution.
• Control and manage all aspects of mining environmental management related to water, waste, energy, emissions, biodiversity, land/soil, and rehabilitation issues, by ensuring comprehensive environmental management, to monitor and deliver on all specified environmental aspects with minimal issues.

Data Analysis and Reporting

• Collaborate with environmental consultants to ensure timely and high-quality delivery of environmental monitoring reports.
• Interpret environmental reports to understand trends and implications for decision-making, to ensure informed decisions made based on insights from environmental reports.
• Prepare and submit monthly reports for sister sites to track and communicate environmental performance, evaluating their performance against the approved key performance indicators and action plans, to monitor their overall environmental performance.
• Collect and consolidate data for annual sustainability reporting, including but not limited to environmental and social performance data, to submit comprehensive and accurate sustainability reports.
• Gather and submit data on all required legal online platforms as per specified intervals to meet regulatory requirements, to ensure timely and accurate data and documentation submissions to meet legal requirements.
• Maintain an effective administration system to record all environmental information and keep records in line with environmental system requirements, to ensure records kept up to date and readily available for reference.
• Effectively manage work schedules to meet reporting and task completion deadlines, to ensure the timely completion of tasks and reports.
• Utilise environmental monitoring techniques, including computer modeling, digital mapping, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for effective data analysis and decision-making, to improve decision-making based on data analysis.
• Collect, analyse, and interpret environmental data to inform decision-making and compliance, to enhance decisions based on data analysis and improve compliance with environmental standards.

Compliance Management

• Schedule legal audits and provide all requested documentation for compliance purposes, to track and address action items resulting from legal audits, to ensure well-organised legal audits with action items addressed and the resolution of identified compliance issues.
• Update the quarterly compliance report for the head office legal department, to ensure the reports are submitted on time with minimal discrepancies.
• Enforce compliance with environmental regulations and standards on all sister sites, to ensure fewer instances of non-compliance and improved adherence, driving high compliance levels across sister sites.
• Monitor compliance with environmental legislation, by staying up to date with relevant South African and international regulations related to mining and environmental management, to ensure full compliance with environmental regulations.
• Conduct monitoring projects to support environmental studies and programs to develop guidelines and standards that will continuously drive environmental compliance within TM.

Stakeholder Relations

• Engage with all relevant Departments on issues of the area of specialisation, as directed by the Manager.
• Communicate with internal and/or external stakeholders, where required, to achieve work objectives and to maintain relationships.
• Organise stakeholder engagement meetings in coordination with the Social and Labor Plan (SLP) and attend these meetings, to ensure active participation while obtaining stakeholder feedback.
• Present approved environmental content, that is clear and informative, during stakeholder engagements and other relevant forums, to obtain feedback and comprehension of environmental content by stakeholders.
• Coordinate public participation and consultations on environmental matters, by facilitating engagement with stakeholders, to ensure public participation and obtain stakeholder feedback.
• Communicate with, and represent the environmental department with various stakeholders, including local government officials, external government agencies, industry representatives, consultants, non-governmental organisations, department staff, and the public, to ensure positive department representation and stakeholder engagement.

 Resource Management

• Determine resource needs within own area of responsibility to achieve individual role outcomes.
• Request required assets and resources for the fulfilment of work duties to attain quality work outputs.
• Use assets and resources optimally within own area of responsibility.

Requirements

Qualifications:

• National Diploma (NQF6)/BSc in Environmental Science, Environmental Management or equivalent within the mining or other relevant industry

Certifications:

• Environmental short course certification (i.e., ISO 14001 Management System, Environmental Law for Environmental Managers)
• Registered as an Environmental Scientist with the South African Counsil for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP) (Advantageous)

Job-specific experience:

• Minimum of 3-5 years’ environmental health and safety experience within the mining or similar industry
• Knowledge and experience on the application and implementation of south African legislative regulations and laws.
• Computer Literacy