INDEPENDENCE GROUP NL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017

IGO also acknowledges the shortfall of students choosing to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and we are committed to identifying opportunities to encourage participation and develop excellence in students of all ages, gender and ethnicity in these fields. In FY17, we established an Independence Group Scholarship, in conjunction with Curtin University, which is to be awarded annually to a second-year student who demonstrates academic achievement and financial need. We also participated in the ‘Get into Resources’ program for secondary students and hosted primary students to our mine sites to introduce them to the range of possibilities for career choices in the mining sector. In FY18, IGO intends to expand the program in the belief that these programs are essential to building our succession plans and the resilience of our organisation, along with the sustainability of the resources sector more broadly. Similarly, in FY17 we have continued our partnership with the Western Australian Mining Club (WAMC), to provide support for tertiary students in the form of a Geology Scholarship and an Indigenous Scholarship to assist a Geology student and an Aboriginal student in the completion of their degree and entry into Mining, Resources and STEM disciplines. the succession planning and performance feedback programs we began in FY16, and we plan to continue the very successful in- house courses that we have run from our South Perth office. They have proven to be a fantastic catalyst bringing our people together to learn and build new networks. IGO has been proudly supporting future generations of professionals for many years. We know that this support makes good commercial sense and we believe it can also fundamentally change the lives of people in the communities in which we work. Our Graduate, Vacation and Apprenticeship programs continue to receive strong support with a record number of applicants across all disciplines. In FY17, we employed graduates in the disciplines of geology, mining engineering, finance, occupational health and safety, and environmental science. In FY18, we plan to increase the number of new graduates to eight and the number of vacation students to fourteen. These students will join our growing alumni of graduates in the organisation and vacation students in the broader community. Graduates provide significant opportunity for succession planning in our industry, enabling organisations to identify leaders at an early stage in their career and ensure successful development and growth of young professionals to create the leaders of tomorrow. IGO’s graduate employee, Jade Pratt, joined the Occupational Health and Safety team as part of IGO’s graduate program during the project development phase. Jade was able to observe first-hand the completion of the processing facility construction before experiencing commissioning and handover of the plant. Together with our mining contractor Barminco, a rare opportunity evolved for Jade to operate a dump truck as she continued her journey into experiencing underground mining operations. During the course of their graduate program, all graduates complete a project within given milestones to demonstrate their practical application of project management in their discipline. Jade’s first project was hearing conservation, which subsequently led to a broader-scale project across the organisation resulting in a consistent approach to the management of hearing loss prevention for IGO. Jade was also exposed to other facets of mining and exploration operations including hydro-drilling and maintenance shutdowns. Jade also took the opportunity to complete a majority of her Certificate III in Public Safety. For the team at Nova, it was a privilege and a great responsibility to coach and guide a young professional in becoming a leader of tomorrow during Jade’s time at Nova, enabling her to realise her potential and add value to the Nova Operation and the IGO business as a whole. CASE STUDY / SAFETY THE NEXT GENERATION OF SAFETY LEADERS IGO SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017— 61