Corporate Social Responsibility

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?
It is broadly assumed that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is beyond the scope of small mining companies. Target takes a different view. The company operates in one of the poorest countries in the world, which only emerged from conflict five years ago, and regards its social and environmental responsibilities in that country as a necessary part of good business practice. For this reason, Target Resources aims to be a driver of local and national sustainable development and has policies for operating responsibly.

Target’s Policies for Good Practice
Target’s policies broadly fit into 4 areas: labour rights, gender equality, environmental responsibility, and community development.

	Labour rights: Target makes every effort to ensure that its workers are among the best-paid mineworkers in Sierra Leone, and currently they receive about twice the national average wage. Target employs and develops the skills of local people wherever possible, and operates according to South African standards of health and safety in its mines, which are superior to local regulations. Target also ensures that its workers are well looked after by endorsing the United Mineworkers Union of Sierra Leone, encouraging workers to join the Union, and routinely facilitating the dissemination of written materials to employees.
	Gender equality: Target believes in equal opportunities and equal wages for women and implements this policy whenever possible, while remaining sensitive to respecting cultural norms.
	Environmental responsibility: In Sierra Leone it is common practice among foreign companies to mine and leave. Target has a different policy. Mining pits are an environmental hazard and economically unproductive. Accidents and drowning happen frequently, and the water-filled pits provide breeding grounds for malaria and typhoid. Target backfills its pits and works with the local communities to reclaim the land for productive, agricultural uses.
	Community development: Before Target begins mining, company representatives sit down with members of the local community and their leaders to discuss the terms of engagement. As a result, Target pays 11% of gross revenue to the local community in Sandoh Chiefdom and has built a school and a covered market, and rehabilitated roads. In addition, Target is committed to dedicating a proportion of its profits to long-term development projects, in partnership with NGOs and the local community.

Continual Improvement
Target Resources plc is expanding its operations, which means expanding social and environmental impacts. Target wants to be prepared for this so that it can plan for any eventuality, be it social, environmental, political, economic, or commercial. In 2007, Target conducted a baseline social and environmental survey in Sierra Leone in order to assess its impact to date and produce a CSR management plan. This plan outlined priorities for action in the areas of risk management, negative-impact prevention and mitigation, constructive community investment, and positive-impact optimization; indicators for ongoing assessment; and internal and external systems for ongoing monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, and thus improvement. Target Resources plc has contracted Maplecroft Consultants, the sustainability consultants to help develop this plan. Target aims to be the model for responsible alluvial diamond mining.

Good Business Sense
Target Resources plc takes its CSR seriously not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it makes business sense. By ensuring that its operations meet the stringent requirements of any major investor’s Performance Standards and the Equator Principles, by managing risk proactively, and by improving its social and environmental performance, Target makes itself more competitive in its bid for financing, acquiring productive concessions, and assuring buyers of the ethical status of its operations and, by association, its diamonds. Ultimately this should make Target more profitable, to the benefit of shareholders and stakeholders alike.

Target is recognized as a fair and responsible employer in Sierra Leone. Since its inception, Target has also been a leader in changing the standard model for mining in Sierra Leone. The following environmental and working conditions are policies currently in force:

	Target pays an entry-level daily wage of US$2.40 per day per worker.
	Target gives equal consideration to women for jobs and pays them salaries equal to those received by their male counterparts.
	Target is fully committed to exceeding its government mandate concerning rehabilitating its open pits and seeks to minimize ecosystem damage in its river-dredging operation.
	Target is committed to further enhancing the wellbeing of the region by agreeing and completing community-based projects.
	The Group has formally completed the following community-based projects:
	Built and handed over 3 primary school in the Kono district; Built a covered open market; Supplied several local villages with home and away sports uniforms; Target assists the St Georges Foundation Orphanage in Freetown with its annual budget of tuition fees, transportation, uniforms and school materials.