WHAT PROGRESS HAVE YOU MADE IN TERMS OF CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVES IN 2022?

Considerable progress has been made in 2022 on the advancement of our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) adoption strategy and in determining our decarbonisation strategy and goals. The TCFD Adoption Steering Committee, now in its second year, oversees more frequent and detailed reporting on climate and energy-related initiatives and decarbonisation challenges, assisting in our planning and scenario analysis. An internal carbon-pricing model was developed and adopted by the Board in July 2022. In November 2022, we held a decarbonisation workshop with the participation and commitment of the full Gem Diamonds Board and senior management. We also agreed on and committed to our decarbonisation targets in early 2023, which aim to reduce carbon emissions by 30% by 2030.

In November 2022, we formed the Energy and Decarbonisation Committee (EDC), comprising senior leadership from across the organisation, to drive implementation and maintain oversight of progress in executing our decarbonisation strategy. Gem Diamonds also became a member of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which informs how we effectively integrate our six adopted UN Sustainable Development Goals into our business planning and strategy in alignment with global best practice.

PLEASE DESCRIBE THE HEADWAY GEM DIAMONDS HAS MADE ON ITS TCFD ROADMAP

This past year, we established the requisite governance and regulatory structures to plan for and support on-site implementation of our TCFD strategy. The TCFD adoption process and its reporting requirements have driven a heightened level of understanding in the organisation regarding the risks, opportunities and complexity of energy, climate change and decarbonisation matters. We held departmental workshops focusing on understanding the impact of climate change and energy-related risks, constraints, costs and opportunities. In particular, we focused on:

• the unreliable and unstable South African electricity grid and its impact on our operations;
• the opportunities available for renewable energy and carbon emissions reduction; and
• how we prepare our business for climate-related transition risks.

Each department presented strategies aimed at improving energy efficiency, reducing carbon emissions and managing costs for consideration by the EDC.

We are committed to responding in a focused, responsible and appropriate manner to our environmental, social and governance (ESG) and decarbonisation responsibilities, and we recognise that social, environmental, operational and financial drivers are interlinked. We won the Best Climate-Related Reporting (Small Cap) award at the ESG Investing Awards 2022 for our first full-year 2021 climate change report, highlighting that we are on the right track in our response to climate change matters and their measurement, mitigation and reporting.

WHAT WERE SOME OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT ESG ISSUES GEM DIAMONDS FACED IN 2022?

The glaring challenge in 2022, which we anticipate will persist in 2023 and beyond, is the increasing shortage and ever-rising cost of grid and diesel energy. We improved our energy consumption efficiencies during the year by implementing shorter haulage routes, reducing mineral waste volumes; piloting an energy usage prioritisation schedule, further improving our blasting practices (reducing consumption of explosives); and installing technology to manage energy demand peaks.

The analysis and studies completed during the first two phases of our TCFD adoption strategy clearly indicated that our first priority for effective decarbonisation was to improve our energy consumption efficiencies, thereby reducing our energy requirements. Accordingly, we focused on exploiting energy efficiencies to minimise energy consumption while we assess renewable energy alternatives. This will ensure that we derive the maximum benefit of reduced consumption and decarbonisation at an appropriate cost. Energy efficiencies, alternative energy sources and decarbonisation have been integrated into our overall business strategy and prioritised as crucial workstreams. These will be driven and coordinated by our EDC.

All our stakeholders expect us to continue to prioritise matters relating to sustainability, including energy usage and decarbonisation. This approach has been evident in our work on sustainability for many years, and has become increasingly integral to the way we do business. The Board, Executive Management and the workforce support and are aligned on the importance of deriving maximum value from our energy efficiencies and our commitment to reducing carbon emissions through the effective implementation of our decarbonisation strategy.