Assmang needed access to an updated online register for 3 separate sites across South Africa. They also wanted to be kept up to date whenever their relevant law changed and give their Head Office overall compliance visibility.
The challenge
Assmang (a subsidiary of African Rainbow Minerals) is a mining company owning three operations in South Africa. They mine a mixture of iron ore and manganese. Each mining operation acts as a separate entity, so it was important to find a solution that could also be broken down in such a way.
Each site was finding it difficult to keep up with the pace of regulatory change within their industry and knowing exactly what applied to their operations.
They wanted a solution that could clarify what their environmental, health & safety legal requirements were and technology that would keep them informed of any new law or legal updates relevant to their operations.
A system that was easy to use and understand was also paramount. With so many laws to understand and comply with, a quick summary telling them what to do would help them act quicker and enable non-legally trained employees to also understand their obligations.
The solution
Head Office (African Rainbow Minerals) recommended Libryo for each of the three operations. Libryo would unify the company’s systems and processes, enabling Head Office to log in and see the current compliance at each site whenever they wanted to. Not only was this solution cheaper than their current service provider, but it was also very user-friendly.
Three individual Libryo Streams was configured for each entity covering their site-specific health & safety and environmental legal requirements. Libryo Streams consider the location, jurisdiction and business activities for each individual site to determine what legal requirements are applicable. Each site can produce its own reports and subscribes separately to the platform and modules required.
Each operation utilises Libryo’s requirements and updates modules. This enables them to view their relevant law and be informed whenever something changes via email notification or on the platform. Users can view the full legislation or just the sections that apply to their business. Libryo also provides a quick highlight of the section of law making it simple and quick to understand and significantly reduces the need for legal research.
Assmang Beeshoek also subscribes to Libryo Actions - a self-assessment tool that shows the organisation their current compliance status and risk level against each of the legal requirements.
Training sessions were given to the users at each location and ongoing bi-annual Libryo check-in calls. Free refresher training sessions are provided for any new users of the platform.
Most departments within Assmang need to be compliant with some level of regulation and can make use of Libryo to access their requirements and ensure compliance is achieved.
The benefits
One of the biggest impacts and benefits of the solution is the ability to access current legislation and see only the sections of law that apply to that specific mine. It saves the Assmang team a huge amount of time and knowing that they will be notified of any legal updates also puts everyone’s minds at ease that we will remain compliant.
Access to the latest updated legislation at our fingertips is a huge benefit to us. The ability to search for related topics is also very helpful. For me personally, seeing that I am the one managing the system, the ability to register new users and remove users no longer with the company is an added benefit. I believe for the rest of the company, just to have access to the latest updated legislation is a benefit itself.
Users also have the ability to store documentation related to legal compliance within the system, tag it and message others using the Drives and Tasks module with any actions. This especially comes in handy during audits to help evidence their compliance. Libryo also encourages collaboration within teams enabling individuals to assign, follow and watch tasks. Users can keep on top of their to-do lists and ensure compliance.
John Louw, Superintendent of Management Systems at Assmang Mining, says: “I do see the platform as very user friendly, with the latest updated legislation readily available. The support services we recieved, at all times, is also of immense value.
“With reference to the recent pandemic, COVID-19, there was a tremendous update of regulations in the industry. The updates module on Libryo helped our employees to stay informed and keep documentation relating to this. Email update notifications helped the organisation significantly. Assmang were fortunate not to have any DMR section 54/55 notifications relating to any legal non-compliances and the readily available legislation updates on the platform definitely contributed to this.”
