ENVIRONMENT IN FOCUS
QSA SPENDS THE DAY WITH THE
ASPASA ABOUT FACE
ENVIRONMENTAL AUDITORS
By Eamonn Ryan
QSA recently joined the ASPASA About Face auditors, Alan and Colleen Cluett, of Cluett Consulting,
on an audit of a member operation in North West Province.
A
SPASA is a mining association
that represents the collective
interests of surface miners in
southern Africa, including
aggregate, sand, dimension stone, salt,
clay and ash. A condition of membership
of ASPASA is that all members must
subscribe to the Association’s Code of
Ethics, the Association’s Environmental
and Health and Safety policy objectives
and to participate in the Association’s
Environmental and Health and Safety
Management programmes – ASPASA
About Face and ASPASA ISHE,
respectively.
Leaving Randburg at 05:30, we
travelled two hours northwest arriving at
the offices of the auditee shortly before
07:30. There we were introduced to the
quarry management team and underwent
induction that covered health and safety
aspects and requirements including
the issue, by the mine, of any necessary
personal protective equipment (PPE).
From the outset it is clear that the
ASPASA audits are not typical audits
as defined in standard definitions of
audits. The ASPASA About Face audit
is in-fact more an environmental
assessment than a pure audit. This is
because in a true audit, the auditor is
required to assess conformance with
the identified requirements only and
38_QUARRY SA| NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018