TECHNOLOGY
HOW IMPORTANT CAN governance , risk and compliance ( GRC ) be to a mining company ? If handled with an open mind and leaning towards innovation , important enough to save around $ 800 thousand in less than 12 months . That has certainly been the case for Exxaro , one of the largest black-owned , South African based diversified resources company . The company predominantly mines through a number of operations in the Mhlanga province of South Africa .
In 2010 , following a major restructuring , the company began to look at and reassess its GRC processes . For Saret Van Loggerenberg , Manager , Risk and Compliance at Exxaro , this was more about shifting the way in which mining companies including Exxaro conducted those GRC processes .
“ Up until the restructure , what bothered me the most was that people seemed to treat governance and corporate compliance as something of a box ticking exercise ,” she says .
Loggerenberg believes that for many mining organisations , GRC was completed for the sake of simple GRC . Through the implementation of SAP Process control , Loggerenberg and Exxaro has been able to prove a demonstrable increase in value to shareholders through a more streamlined and open minded approach to GRC
This mindset and approach was born out of a time in the industry where each and every department and business unit within a mining company was fighting for survival and proving that each departmental business process would be of value to and enhance the company .
“ My focus was to turn governance risk and compliance upside down ,” says Loggerenberg .
“ To really prove to people that the only reason you should be doing this [ GRC ] is because it creates business value and a more resilient company that is more sustainable and adds money to the bottom line .”
At the start of this process back in 2010 Loggerenberg discovered that Exxaro , as with almost all mining companies , contained separate risk management processes in separate functional areas . For example , people in the safety department ran their own processes , the operational teams ran their own processes .
16 December 2016