Focused on Health, Safety, Environment and Community
Frontera Resources Corporation operates its business in a way that demonstrates a strong commitment to ensuring the health and safety of our employees, responsible stewardship of the natural environment and the importance of the communities in which we operate.
To view Frontera’s Health, Safety, Environment and Community Policy, click here.
To view Frontera’s 2009 Health, Safety, Environment and Community Annual Report, click here.
Health, Safety and Environment Management System
Frontera has developed a management system in alignment with global conventions that serves as the foundation of the company’s approach to managing health, safety and environmental issues. Frontera management undertakes regular assessments of implementation and performance in key areas related to these issues.
Safety
Throughout all of its operations, Frontera provides extensive operational training, supplies appropriate personal protective equipment, performs risk assessments on work to be performed, and steadfastly keeps attention focused on a vision of zero harm to people.
Waste Management
Frontera has developed waste management and treatment facilities at two of its major business units (Shallow Fields Production Unit and the Taribani Field Unit) to responsibly handle operational waste. Plans for these facilities were reviewed and approved by appropriate state agencies in Georgia, and the sites are operated according to international standards and specifically provide land treatment, temporary liquid waste storage and inert-waste disposal. Groundwater quality monitoring is conducted at both of these facilities.
To learn more about Frontera’s Waste Management Program, click here.
Environmental Studies
Since 2005, Frontera has conducted a comprehensive hydrology program at each of its major business units in order to establish baselines for assessing groundwater quality before and after execution of the company’s ongoing work programs. With the support of experts from Pennsylvania State University in the United States and the Georgian Geologic Institute of Tbilisi in Georgia, extensive sampling of groundwater quality has been conducted through more than 100 shallow wells.
To learn more about Frontera’s Hydrogeology Program, click here.
Contractors
Frontera ensures that contractors are aligned with the company’s standards related to health, safety, environment and community, reflecting a commitment to safe and environmentally responsible operations.
Community Meetings
Frontera regularly engages in dialogue with the surrounding communities and landowners regarding its operations, including periodic updates to community leaders about planned operations.
NGO and Government Interaction
Frontera is closely aligned with the non-governmental organization (NGO) community, including semi-annual meetings with leading NGOs to discuss current and planned company operations. In addition, Frontera has extensive communication with the appropriate state agencies within the Georgian government regarding its activities, including technical presentations related to permit applications and environmental impact assessments, as a regular part of its operations.
COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Safe Motherhood Program
In response to an expressed need from the Gudushauri Medical Center in Tbilisi, Frontera joined an effort in 2006 to address the high infant mortality rate in rural Georgia, which today stands at approximately 60 deaths per 1,000 live births, or six times that of the industrialized world. As part of this effort, Frontera provided the Gudushauri Medical Center with a specially equipped mobile medical unit that allows teams of medical professionals (OB-GYNs, midwives and radiation technologists) to reach out and provide care to expectant mothers in the Dedoplistskaro region of eastern Georgia, which has a population of approximately 30,000 and is home to a large percentage of Frontera’s employees.
The functioning unit is supervised by a medical team from the Gudushauri Medical Center who received additional training during the summer of 2006 at The University of Texas Medical School in Houston, Texas, U.S.A. The mobile unit services 13 villages in Dedoplistskaro and is equipped with examination and work-up rooms and ultrasound technology that allow the medical team to triage pregnancies, provide guidance for women with normal pregnancies and facilitate continuing care for high-risk groups.
This effort reached approximately 300 expectant mothers in the first year and it is hoped that it will be a successful model for expansion throughout the country.
MedShare International
Working with the leading nonprofit organization MedShare International, Frontera arranged for the donation and shipment of more than six tons of medical supplies and equipment to Dedoplistskaro Regional Hospital. These supplies (including items such as hospital beds, syringes and other items) have significantly upgraded the facilities at the hospital, and will directly benefit the community and its residents.