Section 2: In these Regulations unless the context otherwise requires

: Short title. Application. Interpretation. “Act” means the Environment Protection Agency Act, 2008; “adverse environmental impact” means a negative effect on, or change in, the environmental quality resulting from mining activities; “Agency” means the Environment Protection Agency of Sierra Leone established by section 2 of the Environment Protection Agency Act, 2008; “applicant” means an individual or organization that has submitted, or is in the process of submitting an application to the Board for an environmental licence or other form of approval in relation to these Regulations; “area of influence” means an area surrounding the project site that, through an environmental impact assessment, is determined to be affected by the project; “Audit Report” means a report from an environmental auditing firm summarizing the results and findings of an environmental audit to a mining operation; “Authorised Officer” means an employee of the Agency duly authorised by the Board or Executive Chairman for a specified purpose; “Board” means the Board of Directors of the Environment Protection Agency; “Community Development Agreement” (or CDA) means any Community Development Agreement entered into pursuant to Section 140 of the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009 designed to promote sustainable development and to enhance the general welfare and quality of life of the inhabitants; “community entitlement” means any legitimate claim from a member of the Primary Host Community to the holder of mining permit for the implementation of any activities relating to the community development issues; “Community Liaison Committee” means the committee mutually established by the applicant or holder of a mineral right and local communities to serve as the main consultation body between the applicant, the holder of a mineral right and local communities for social issues; “compensatory measures” means measures to be taken when mitigation is not feasible, cost effective or sufficient; “corporate social responsibility” means a form of corporate self-regulation and management whereby companies take responsibility for the environmental and social impact of their operations; “Director of Mines” means the authorised officer assigned responsibilities under the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009; “displaced persons” mean persons living in the project area that must move to another location and who- (a) have legal rights to the land they occupy; (b) have a claim to land that is recognized or recognizable by law; or (c) are experiencing loss of asset, access to income whether of temporary or permanent nature due to the land acquisition process regardless of whether they are physically displaced or relocated or not; 2 3 “environmental best practice” means the application of internationally recognised standards and practices for the protection of the environment in mining activities; “Environmental Impact Assessment” (or EIA) consists of an environmental impact assessment study and an environmental impact assessment report that focuses on environmental issues and describes the impacts that the proposed project is predicted to have on bio-physical conditions if implemented, together with proposals for avoiding, mitigation or compensation for adverse effects, and includes an ESIA(as the context may require); “Environmental Management Plan” (or EMP) means an Environmental Management Plan produced as a result of an environmental impact assessment which shall describe how the applicant will implement all recommendations, commitments and obligations designed to avoid, minimise, ameliorate or compensate for adverse environmental impacts identified in the relevant Environmental Impact Assessment; “environment” means land, air, water and all plants, animals and human beings living therein and the inter-relationship which exists among these or any of them; “environmental assessment” means, the systematic identification, prediction and evaluation of a proposal including the mitigation and management of those effects; the process extends from the initial concept of the proposal through implementation to completion and where appropriate decommissioning. “environmental audit” means the process of examining, documenting and verifying that a mining operation is complying with environmental laws and regulations, as well as with the EIA goals and requirements; “environmental impact” means the direct or indirect consequences of reconnaissance, exploration, smallscale and large scale operations on the environment including water, air, climate, land, land use and natural resources, geology, topography, soils, vegetation, wildlife that affects life in general, wellbeing , health, personal safety, cultural heritage or legitimate means of livelihood and any cumulative effects on the above; “environmental licence” means an Environmental Impact Assessment Licence issued under the Act; “Environmental and Social Impact Assessment” (or ESIA) means a simplified or limited Environmental Impact Assessment which incorporates sections on social impacts and is appropriate for projects that require more limited environmental and social analysis than an Environmental Impact Assessment as their negative effects on the environment and the community can be eliminated or minimized by simple and easy to implement measures; “Environmental and Social Management Plan” (or ESMP) means environmental and social management plan provided as part of an application for artisanal mining; “environmental offence” means an act that has directly or indirectly harmed the environment or an infringement or violation of an obligation imposed by the Act or these Regulations; 4 5 “Executive Chairman” means the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Agency; “exploration” means operations carried out to search for minerals and mineral deposits and includes operations to test the mineral bearing qualities of the land, define the extent and determine the economic value of mineral deposits; “force majeure” means floods, landslides, riots and civil insurrection which prevent the holder of a mining right from performing its obligations under a contract as long as such event or circumstance was neither foreseen nor foreseeable at the commencement of the holder of the mining right’s mining activities and are out of its control and the holder of a mining right has taken reasonable care and diligence to mitigate such event or circumstance; “frivolous or vexatious claims” means any claim as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction, which has been instituted maliciously or repetitively and without probable cause or has been lodged by a party or its attorney which are knowingly aware that such claim lacks merit, proper due diligence, legal argument and/or a sound factual justification; “Government” means the Government of Sierra Leone; “grievance mechanism” means a mechanism – (a) to receive and facilitate resolution of concerns and grievances about the holder of a mineral right’s environmental and social performance, (b) for workers (and their organizations, where they exist) to raise reasonable workplace concerns, and (c) to receive and address specific concerns about compensation and relocation that are raised by displaced persons or members of local communities and host communities; “holder of a mining permit” means a person or body corporate who has been granted a permit for dredging or developing radioactive mineral activities issued under the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009; “holder of a mineral right” means a person or body corporate who has been granted a licence under the Mines and Minerals Act 2009; “inspection” means the process of entering land or buildings in order to examine, investigate, test, compare, analyse and duplicate documents, materials and data for the purpose of verifying compliance with these regulations and gather evidence; “large-scale mining” means the intentional mining of minerals in mechanised operations exceeding twenty metres in depth or involving the sinking of shafts, drilling of adits or other various underground opening exceeding twenty meters; “life cycle of the project” means all the phases of mining activity including reconnaissance, exploration, development, exploitation, beneficiation, and closure; “local community” means any community of the local population within the project’s general area of influence who are likely to be affected by the project and shall also include local populations who are either directly or indirectly affected by the project; 6 7 “Mine Closure Plan” means a plan comprising proposals for managing the progressive restoration (where practicable) of worked-out mine areas and the ultimate closure and restoration or rehabilitation of the mine site upon cessation of mining operations; “Minerals Advisory Board” means the Board established by section 11 of the Mines and Minerals “mineral rights” means a right to explore for or to mine minerals by the hold of a valid reconnaissance licence, exploration licence, artisanal mining licence, small scale mining licence, or large scale mining licence, issued under the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009; “mining right holder obligation” means a commitment, condition or undertaking to act, or an agreement to omit from acting imposed upon the holder of a mining permit pursuant to these Regulations, the Act or the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009, which shall include any community entitlement” which has been agreed between the Primary Host Community and the holder of a mining permit; “mining activities” mean those activities undertaken by a mineral right holder and in accordance with the restrictions and obligations of the various licences including but not be limited to the following – (a) mining, quarrying, extraction of sand, gravel, salt; (b) the establishment and operation of industrial plant used in mineral processing, power plants, smelting plants, and refineries; (c) construction of mineral export ports, maritime facilities and associated mineral transportation system from mine site or in-land deposits; and (d) construction of mineral concentrate depots or other facilities outside the licence area; “monitoring” means the continuous or periodical procedures implemented by the holder of a mineral right, the Board, the Executive Chairman or Authorized Officer to monitor, measure, sample, record and analyse all environmental and social aspects of mining activities including dynamic mechanisms, such as inspections and audits, where relevant, to verify compliance and progress toward the desired outcomes adjusted according to performance experience and feedback; “primary host community” means community as defined in subsection (2) of section 139 of the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009; “project area” means the area covered by the mining right licence; “reconnaissance licence” means a reconnaissance licence granted by the Minister of Mines under section 58 of the Mines and Minerals Act 2009, that does not exceed ten thousand square kilometers; “Resettlement Action Plan” (or RAP) means the comprehensive plan as further defined in any law relating to the resettlement of local communities; “Resettlement Committee” means an intergovernmental committee established pursuant to any law relating to the resettlement of local communities designed to review, approve, monitor and evaluate resettlement activities in Sierra Leone; 8 9 “Resettlement Management Plan” (or RMP) means the framework broadly identifying the objectives, principles, policies, procedures, organizational arrangements and the timeframe and cost for dealing with resettlement, as further described in any law relating to the resettlement of local communities; “Resettlement Policy Framework” means the broad principles by which the applicant sets forth its proposals for managing all stages of resettlement as further described in any law relating to the resettlement of local communities; “screening” means the process carried out by the Executive Chairman in consultation with the Board by which a decision is taken on whether or not an EIA is required, and what type of EIA is appropriate for a particular project; “scoping or scoping study” means the process of identifying the content and extent of the environmental information to be included in an Environmental and Social Impact Statement; “scoping report” means a report containing the findings and recommendations of a scoping study; “Strategic Environmental and Social Assessment” (or SESA) means a strategic environmental and social assessment for mining districts within which artisanal mining is a major activity; “small-scale mining” means the intentional mining of minerals in mechanised operations not exceeding twenty metres in depth or involving the sinking of shafts, drilling of adits, or other various underground openings; “social assessment” means in respect to a mining project, the process of undertaking a Social Impact Assessment in accordance with the Act, the Mines and Minerals Act, 2009 and these Regulations; “Social Impact Assessment” (or SIA) means a social impact assessment study and social impact assessment report which describes the full range of social, economic and health issues affecting local communities, predicts significant adverse social impacts and sets out proposals for avoiding, mitigating or compensating for adverse effects; “Social Management Plan” (or SMP) means a social management plan which describes how the applicant will implement all recommendations, commitments and obligations to avoid, minimise, ameliorate or compensate for adverse social impacts identified in the relevant social assessment instrument; “social impact” means the consequences of exploration, small-scale, and large-scale operations in the way people organize their economic system, the way they live, work, relate to one another, organize themselves, and the way they develop and share values, attitudes, beliefs, institutions, and perceptions of their surroundings, including other people and the biophysical environment; “stakeholder” means any persons or groups that are directly or indirectly affected by a project as well as those that may have interests in a project or the ability to influence its outcome either positively or negatively and the term “stakeholders” include locally affected communities and individuals and their formal and informal representatives, government, politicians, religious leaders, civic organisations, and other groups with special interests, the academic community, employees, their families and employee representatives, other businesses, financiers, shareholders and joint venture partners; 10 11 “sustainable development” means the pattern of use of natural resources that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. PART II - PRINCIPLES AND ACCOUNTABILITY