11.   ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

11.24  

Liabilities

The identified liabilities for the various assets have been summarised in Table 11.1. The table indicates the following: the life of mine; the immediate closure liability as assessed by Kumba; the shortfall in this closure liability as assessed by SRK during this review with a low and high estimate given; trust fund balance at 30 June 2005; outstanding liability to be covered over remaining life of operation and an indication of the sensitivity contingency that should be used to determine if possible risks could affect the overall resource model.

Note that certain risks could not be given a monetary value until such time as they have been more adequately evaluated. These risks have been identified in the text above. Generally, these risks relate to uncertainties regarding need for post closure water treatment, reshaping of slopes and success of rehabilitation strategies.

The closure liabilities do not take into account the socio-economic closure liabilities such as retrenchment packages, retraining costs or ongoing community involvement. There are also a number of socio-economic risks such as degradation in infrastructure in mine dominated areas (due to lack of tax income and general community pathos) and increased social pathologies due to unemployment.

Table 11.1