Our Commitment
Health & Safety
At RUA GOLD, our commitment to workplace health and safety serves as the foundation for our operations. We prioritize the wellbeing of our workforce, and of the communities in which we live and work. To ensure consistent safety performance, we have established internal standards and procedures that we implement across all our locations, also in compliance with domestic workplace health and safety legislation and regulation. These guidelines outline our risk identification and management processes, work execution protocols, incident reporting and investigation methods, and knowledge-sharing practices to foster continuous improvement on workplace health and safety.
Our internal health and safety standards align with internationally recognized frameworks, such as the ISO 45001 Occupational Health and Safety Management System Standard 2018, and the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) Mining Principles 4 – Risk Management, and 5 – Health and Safety. These alignments create a workplace health and safety management system that is demonstrably robust. We believe in setting minimum performance requirements to promote a safe, secure and healthy environment for our employees, contractors and the community.
Our Commitment
Environmental Management
RUA GOLD is committed to protecting natural and historic resources, including water, air, land forms, and surrounding indigenous ecosystems.
We work hard to be responsible stewards of the environment, and treat natural resources with care so that they are available for future generations. We engage with iwi / hapū and stakeholders to help achieve these aims.
From exploration through to the closure of our operations and beyond, the protection and rehabilitation of surrounding landscapes are front of mind.
Our Commitment
Engagement with iwi, hapū, and communities
Ngāti Waewae is the iwi or tribe holding ancestral connection with the areas in which RUA GOLD operates. The iwi falls within the larger umbrella of Ngāi Tahu iwi whose takiwā (ancestral land area) covers much of New Zealand’s South Island / Te Waipounamu.
We acknowledge the cultural, environmental, economic and other associations Ngāti Waewae hold as tangata whenua (people of the land) in respect of our project area. As such, we seek to work in partnership with Ngāti Waewae on matters of mutual interest, including environmental management, cultural landscapes, potential employment opportunities, and the protection of archaeological sites and heritage.
Residents of Reefton and the surrounding goldfield have a strong association with the area’s gold mining past, present and future – as the name Reefton implies. Today activities in the area include post-closure mine site rehabilitation, the development of a new underground mine, and gold exploration in which we play an active role.
Besides the economic potential of RUA GOLD’s activities, the community in which we live and work has strong interests in the environmental and social impacts of exploration. We proactively engage with the community to identify common interests and initiatives that we can support, and to keep the community up to date on, and involved with our projects. This includes active engagement with regulators under several pieces of legislation, and the contracting of local service providers to support exploration.
Our goal is for the community to benefit from our activities, and for us to leave a net positive legacy for the Reefton and neighbouring communities. Engagement is core to achieving our goal, and to earning and retaining our licence to operate.
Iwi and hapū & Stakeholder
Engagement Policy
Guidance for iwi
Engagement Reporting
Our Commitment
Archeology & Heritage
At RUA GOLD, we are responsible and ethical in our management of archeological sites and heritage. We have gone to great lengths to understand the historic and cultural resources present in the areas in which we operate.
We take pride in avoiding or minimizing any disturbance to recorded and unrecorded archeological and heritage resources, and to ensure compliance with heritage legislation.
Our project area has connections with traditional Māori travel and trading routes (ara tawhito), and with the Reefton goldfield’s history of gold exploration and mining since 1870.
We are committed to working with regulators, stakeholders and iwi / hapū, to protect and preserve significant archeological sites and heritage in our project area.
Our Commitment
Sustainability & ESG
RUA GOLD takes a long view of our business, in terms of the wellbeing of our people and the company, our communities, and the environment – this is our view of “sustainability”.
A modern approach to sustainability is ESG – which stands for environmental, social and corporate governance. It is one we are bringing into our operations.
ESG provides a formal structure for understanding our material impacts on people and the environment, and measuring and reporting on them. It provides anyone with an interest or concern in our business accessible information on how we deliver on our commitments to sustainability.
ESG also provides a framework for continuous improvement in what we do, at all of our operations.
Ultimately, this is about doing the right thing, by our people, by the community and our regulators, by iwi and hapū in whose ancestral lands we live and work, and by the environment.
