Compliance

Compliance

Compliance and Professional Standards
For MSA compliance means much more than adhering to technical international best practice and regulatory authority guidelines.

MSA believes that to be compliant we have to comply with best practice and regulations governing all aspects of our service including technical, health and safety, the physical and social environment, financial and, in the South African context, employment equity.

Technical
MSA believes that quality of any work undertaken is paramount. Most of the work undertaken by MSA is for listed companies who raise money through security exchanges for the development of their mineral projects.

For a listed company to raise funds, the quality of the work undertaken must be at a level acceptable to the relevant security exchange or financial institution where funds will be sourced.

MSA participated in the drafting of the South African Mineral Reporting Code (SAMREC). This code is the South African equivalent to the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) JORC code and the Canadian National Instrument 43-101, and has been incorporated into the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) Section 12 requirements for listed companies. MSA geologists sit on the sub-committees that review changes to the SAMREC Code.

MSA adheres to the fundamentals and guidelines of all three codes, and is thus in a position to conduct work to the level required by the Canadian Securities Exchanges (TSE and VSE), the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), the London Securities Exchanges (LSE and AIM) as well as the JSE.

Health and Safety
All MSA field based personnel are trained in first aid, incident management and offensive and defensive driving techniques, both on and off-road.
MSA employs full time high-level paramedics to ensure that all offices and workplaces are compliant with the Occupational Health and Safety Act. In addition MSA provides Health and Safety consultation and management services and related equipment to a number of companies including Phalabora Mining Company, Sasol Coal, First Quantum Minerals, Barrick Gold, Foskor, Lonmin Platinum and Anglo Platinum. MSA is accredited with the Emergency Care and Safety Institute, and international training authority underwritten by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Heart Association. In turn our Instructors are individually accredited/listed with this institution.

Social and Physical Environment
MSA and its geologists are aware of the impact their work may have on local communities and the sensitive physical environments in which we operate. MSA’s policy is to work in an informative and cooperative manner with local people and to employ local personnel wherever appropriate. Care is taken not to disturb the physical environment and MSA records the state of an area before and after it is subjected to disruptive activity such as drilling or trenching.

Financial Compliance and Best Practice
MSA subscribes to and is fully compliant with South African Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and has since inception received unqualified audit reports. MSA bills clients with sufficient detail to enable them to comply with International Financial Reporting Standards. Records of all processes and charges are retained in sufficient detail to allow them to be audited at any time should the need arise.

Employment Equity
MSA Geoservices is the only company in its sector to be fully compliant with South African employment equity legislation. An employment equity plan was voluntarily submitted to and accepted by the Department of Labour in 2004 and agreed targets for 2005 have been exceeded. MSA endeavours to employ and train local people wherever appropriate.

Memberships and Affiliations
It is a requirement of MSA that its professional staff are registered with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions (SACNASP), a pre-requisite for acting as a competent or qualified person. In certain cases registration with equivalent international bodies is also required (for example AusIMM), which allows for the competent or qualified person to sign off under JORC and CIM codes as well as SAMREC, under the recognised OVERSEAS professional ORGANISATIONS agreements (ROPO).

MSA has individual and company membership of the AusIMM, affiliation to the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (SAIMM), membership of the Society of Economic Geologists (SEG) as well as individual memberships of the Geological Society of South Africa (GSSA).

MSA is accredited with the Emergency Care and Safety Institute, and international training authority underwritten by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Heart Association. In turn our Instructors are individually accredited/listed with this institution.