auditors at Emperor

Fiji’s first environment auditors at Emperor

EMPEROR Gold Mining

Company Limited has become the first commer cial organisation in the

Fiji Islands to employ internationally

qualified local environment auditors.

The company’s environment man ager, Navin Chandra, and

environment officer, Arvind Kumar, have returned to Fiji after successfully complet ing examinations in techni cal environmental and envi ronmental management sys tem auditing at the Centre for Professional Develop ment (CPD) in Sydney, Aus tralia.

CPD is one of five train

ing institutes which provide

professional environment audit training in Australia recognised by the Quality Society of Australasia. It is one of the world’s largest

training, publishing and

information institutes. Chan

dra and Kumar now qualify for environment auditor certification and have applied to be registered by the Quality Society of Australasia. They will become the first locals to be certi fied.

Both employees hold professional environmental qualifications. Chandra has a Master of Science Degree in Environmental Systems from Califor nia State University - Humboldt and a Bachelor of Science Degreee in Envi ronmental Science from the University of the South Pacific. Kumar has a Bachelor of Environmental Science Degree from the University of Waika to.

General manager of Emperor Gold

Mining Company, Martin Jacobsen, said: “This is a specialist qualification that they have now attained. We are proud to have them on our team and pleased that we don’t need to look to overseas con sultants for environment audit skills.”

He added; “The training we’ve organ-

ised is all part of the company’s vision to be the leader in environment manage ment in the Fiji Islands”.

“Despite the fall in gold prices, the company aims to achieve good perfor mance levels in all aspects of its opera tions including the way it manages the environment,” he said.

“In accordance with its Environmen tal Policy and as part of its vision for the new millennium, Emperor is committed to achieving sustainable economic devel opment.”

He said the company began to focus greater attention on the environmental impact of mining at Vatukoula with the establishment of an Environmental Pro

tection Unit (EPU) in January 1997 followed by the appointments of Chan dra and Kumar. It had since taken a methodical approach to environmental management. Training in sound envi ronmental practices for all employees was of top priority.

“An important objective of creating the EPU was to establish an Environ mental Management System (EMS) based on the international certification standard, ISO 4001 series. That’s now well underway and should be ready for implementation by December,’’ Jacob sen said.

One of the first projects for the EPU was the development of Emperor’s Envi ronmental Policy in September 1997. The policy, the basis for establishing the Environmental Management Sys tem, is a statement of the company’s overall aims and principles of action regarding the environment.

Jacobsen said an Environment Man

agement Commit tee of senior and middle managers had also been formed to assist the EPU in setting up the Environmental Manage ment System. Initiatives developed by the EPU and the committee include an Environmental Management Plan out lining objectives and set targets and a comprehensive emergency control manual.

He concluded that work at Emper or’s Tuvatu exploration site near Sabeto was being carried out in close consultation with landowners and the mineral resources department. It is intended that when the site is devel oped, it will adopt environmental best practice policies and measures. ■

Emperor's environment manager, Navin Chandra, and environment officer, Arvind Kumar, ran the company's environmental auditing section