Mining operations negatively impact the environment and, as a result, South African legislation requires that, as part of an Environmental Impact Assessment, an Environmental Management Programme (EMPRs) be developed and implemented to manage all the impacts identified. The Coal Mining Sector was selected for this research because of the important role it plays within the South African economy. In this research, the quality of Environmental Management Programmes within the Coal Mining Sector of South Africa was reviewed. Based on Lee and Colley’s method for reviewing the quality of Environmental Impact Reports, a review package was developed and used for the evaluation of the quality of the Environmental Management Programmes. According to the results, 62% of the Environmental Management Programmes achieved satisfactory quality grades despite omissions and inadequacies still being present. Distinct areas of weaknesses were found, such as confusion about what is required from an EMPR according to the guidelines and regulations of Department of Mineral Resources. Some EMPRs were generic documents with action plans presented that could not practically manage the impacts identified, and in some cases the Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) did not possess the technical knowledge of the mining operation to develop effective action plans to manage the impact identified. All these factors influenced the outcome of the quality evaluation of the EMPRs reviewed. / Master of Environmental Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Mining operations negatively impact the environment and, as a result, South African legislation requires that, as part of an Environmental Impact Assessment, an Environmental Management Programme (EMPRs) be developed and implemented to manage all the impacts identified. The Coal Mining Sector was selected for this research because of the important role it plays within the South African economy. In this research, the quality of Environmental Management Programmes within the Coal Mining Sector of South Africa was reviewed. Based on Lee and Colley’s method for reviewing the quality of Environmental Impact Reports, a review package was developed and used for the evaluation of the quality of the Environmental Management Programmes. According to the results, 62% of the Environmental Management Programmes achieved satisfactory quality grades despite omissions and inadequacies still being present. Distinct areas of weaknesses were found, such as confusion about what is required from an EMPR according to the guidelines and regulations of Department of Mineral Resources. Some EMPRs were generic documents with action plans presented that could not practically manage the impacts identified, and in some cases the Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) did not possess the technical knowledge of the mining operation to develop effective action plans to manage the impact identified. All these factors influenced the outcome of the quality evaluation of the EMPRs reviewed. / Master of Environmental Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:26:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 426906.pdf: 1069649 bytes, checksum: c58f8372d4b9e5e3a4ca19d5be8af44f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-29 / Esta disserta??o prop?e-se a analisar o impacto do microcr?dito junto aos pequenos empreendedores beneficiados pela Institui??o Comunit?ria de Cr?dito Portosol de Porto Alegre. A pesquisa discute primeiramente a import?ncia do desenvolvimento financeiro para o crescimento econ?mico, evidenciando que h? uma rela??o de causalidade entre eles. Na sequ?ncia, apresentam-se o contexto nacional das microfinan?as, que surge como uma alternativa auxiliar na democratiza??o do acesso ao cr?dito, e o panorama brasileiro no que se refere ? quest?o. Finalizando e para atingir o objetivo proposto quanto ? an?lise do impacto econ?mico e social do cr?dito em pequenos empreendimentos atendidos pela Portosol, analisam-se os dados coletados na mesma e os de seus clientes. Isso permite fazerem-se infer?ncias econ?micas baseadas no desempenho operacional desses empreendimentos, concluindo-se que a atua??o da Portosol ? socialmente relevante, pois s?o percept?veis as mudan?as em termos de eleva??o de faturamento e renda dos seus beneficiados. A partir da disponibiliza??o de uma maior quantidade de recursos financeiros, os empreendimentos passam a usufruir de melhores condi??es para continuar exercendo a sua atividade-fim e para ampli?-la. A Institui??o, ao atender ao p?blico carente de oportunidades de cr?dito, gera impactos econ?micos e sociais positivos, fato que merece destaque ? medida que o acesso ao cr?dito cumpre seu papel social ao ofertar aos beneficiados a inclus?o social.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:33:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Guilherme_Arevalo_Leal.pdf: 867348 bytes, checksum: 54a59ca7b3f8a507c316893086a7d458 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-15 / The work aims to verifythe determinants oftrade creditof listed companies in Brazil'sStock Exchange overthe period from 2003 to2013, considereda credit expansion period for our economy. International studieshave testeddataincross sectionandshort-periodpanel, with significant resultsin explainingthe volume of non-financialcompanies trade credit (measured by accounts receivable and accounts payable). International andlocalliterature on this matteranalyzed theimpactsofvariablessuchthatsize, leverage, liquidity accounts andcyclicalprofitability.This study analyzed84non-financiallisted companieswith available data for the whole period. For the Accounts Receivable Model,thevolume of credit grantedisnegatively related tofirm size, the volume of highliquidityresourcesin other accounts(cash andstock), indicating that the greater amount invested in other high liquidityaccounts is inversely related tothe credit supply to customers.The variables ofaccounts payable,debt andoperating profitshowed positive andsignificant coefficient with the volume oftrade credittakenby companies.The companytends togivemorecreditto their customersas theytakemorecreditfrom their suppliersand obtainbank financing.In addition, ahigher generation ofoperating incomeis relatedto increasedlending.ForAccounts Payablemodel, thefirm sizevariablewas found to benegativeandsignificant coefficient.This resultis supported by thepositive and significantcoefficient of thevariableaccountsreceivablepresent in the model. Inventories,however,had a positiveand significantsignal on thepanelspecification, indicating that companies withhigher inventoriestend to gethigher volume ofcredit fromsuppliers. / O objetivo deste trabalho ?? analisar os fatores determinantes do trade credit das empresas listadas na bolsa de valores do Brasil ao longo do per??odo de 2003 a 2013, considerado macroeconomicamente como intervalo de expans??o do cr??dito brasileiro. Estudos internacionais j?? testaram dados em cross section e per??odos curtos em painel, apresentando resultados significantes na explica????o da concess??o e da tomada de cr??dito de empresas n??o financeiras. A literatura internacional e nacional sobre o tema j?? analisaram os impactos de vari??veis tais quais tamanho, endividamento, contas c??clicas e rentabilidade. Este estudo analisou 84 empresas n??o financeiras listadas que apresentaram seus dados anualmente entre 2003 e 2013, evidenciando a capacidade explicativa das vari??veis j?? utilizadas tanto para modelos cuja vari??vel dependente ?? tanto o volume de contas a receber quanto o volume de contas a pagar.Para o modelo de Contas a Receber, o volume de cr??dito concedido ?? negativamente relacionado com o tamanho da empresa, o volume de recursos de alta liquidez em outras contas (caixa e estoques), indicando que maior a presen??a de liquidez imediata est?? inversamente relacionada com a oferta de financiamento aos seus clientes, por meio de concess??o de prazo de pagamento. As vari??veis de contas a pagar, endividamento e rentabilidade operacional apresentaram rela????o positiva e significante com o volume de trade credit tomado pelas empresas. A empresa tende a conceder mais cr??dito aos seus clientes ?? medida em que toma mais cr??dito de seus fornecedores e obt??m financiamento banc??rio. Al??m disso, uma maior gera????o de resultado operacional est?? relacionada a uma maior concess??o de cr??dito. Para o modelo de Contas a Pagar, a vari??vel de tamanho da empresa mostrou-se com coeficiente negativo e significante, indicando que empresas de maior tamanho tendem a apresentar menores volumes tanto de cr??dito concedido aos clientes como tamb??m de cr??dito tomado de fornecedores. Este resultado ?? corroborado pelo coeficiente positivo e significante da vari??vel de contas a receber presente no modelo. A vari??vel de estoques, no entanto, apresentou sinal positivo e significante na especifica????o de painel, indicando que empresas com estoques tendem a obter maior volume de cr??dito concedido por fornecedores.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-14T14:27:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 438881.pdf: 3090442 bytes, checksum: e1afa5b812d3a913bc077dad1885a315 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-29 / The present study aimed to examine the existence and relevance of the credit channel, the channel being divided between bank lending and balance sheet channel, the transmission of monetary policy in Brazil from January 2001 to July 2011, for this was used IPCA and IGP-DI. The methodology analyzes the Vector Auto-Regressive (VAR), as Granger causality tests, impulse function and response, variance decomposition analysis and speeds, and this, coming from the test Vector Error Correction (VECM .) The results show the credit channel, bank loans in the segment, important and relevant to raise economic growth, but with greater significance using the IGP-DI, and sustainable over time and an auxiliary channel to channel the money. Since the channel of the balance sheet, despite showing that increases the production of the economy, a channel is negligible, but significant, even if a channel has little development, and most influential currency, securities and exchange. Can not correspond to say that an auxiliary channel of the coin. And that use of the IPCA collaborates with the results of the IGP-DI increasing the production of the Brazilian economy to its potential level. The research concludes that there is in the Brazilian economy during this period, the four transmission channels of monetary policy. / O presente estudo teve como objetivo examinar a exist?ncia e a relev?ncia do canal de cr?dito, sendo dividido entre o canal dos empr?stimos banc?rios e o canal do balan?o patrimonial, na transmiss?o da pol?tica monet?ria no Brasil no per?odo de janeiro de 2001 a julho de 2011, para isso foi usado o IGP-DI e o IPCA. A metodologia utilizada foi as an?lises de Vetores Auto-Regressivo (VAR), como os testes de causalidade de Granger, fun??o impulso e resposta, decomposi??o da vari?ncia e an?lise das velocidades, sendo este, oriundo do teste de Vetor de Corre??o de Erros (VECM). Os resultados encontrados mostram o canal de cr?dito, no segmento empr?stimos banc?rio, importante e relevante para elevar o crescimento econ?mico, mas com maior signific?ncia com o uso do IGP-DI, sendo sustent?vel ao longo prazo e um canal auxiliar ao canal da moeda. J? o canal do balan?o patrimonial, apesar de mostrar que eleva a produ??o da economia, ? um canal pouco significativo, mas relevante, mesmo sendo um canal ainda pouco desenvolvimento, sendo mais influente a moeda, os t?tulos e o c?mbio. N?o podendo dizer que correspondem a um canal auxiliar ao da moeda. E que o uso do IPCA colabora com os resultados do IGP-DI elevando a produ??o da economia brasileira ao seu n?vel potencial. A pesquisa conclui que existem na economia brasileira, neste per?odo, os quatro canais de transmiss?o da pol?tica monet?ria.

This research is on mines that struggle to obtain closure from the state departments. The closure process at the footprints of five Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) of a South African gold mine was investigated. They are situated in the Germiston, Brakpan, Springs and Nigel suburbs of the East Rand region of Johannesburg. Very limited scientific research has been done in South Africa on the management of mine closure. The most recent performed research was completed at Coal mines and only one was at an underground gold mine. The history of the case studies at a surface gold mine revealed similar problems, as confirmed in previous research, during the interviews with mine management and the review of operational documents. There is a whole array of causes giving rise to the struggle to obtain closure by a mine, that will be subsequently discussed. Major causes are the lack of estimation of closure costs and the lack of a proper Project Life Cycle (PLC) process for closure by mine management. Previous investigations indicated a general shortfall in estimated closure costs, mining operations that are not planned with closure in mind, closure objectives that are not set at all management levels, final land use after mine closure that is not defined properly, residual and latent impacts that are not dealt with, the post-closure period when the final impact will occur that is not defined and a proper risk assessment based on detailed information that is not properly done and communicated. Another cause is that the integrated process of making closure part of the Environmental Management Programme Report (EMPR) process is not followed. The result of not following the correct process is that mines do not obtain closure. Another reason why mines do not obtain closure is because of an underdeveloped mine infrastructure, e.g. tailings facilities, waste rock dumps, shafts and plants that are not constructed in an environmentally friendly way during the operational phases to facilitate closure. Therefore, these structures need to be changed in terms of their topography and growth medium to ensure an improvement in environmental parameters. This will assist in obtaining sustainability and final closure. Significantly more trust fund money than initially estimated during operations needs to be spent to ensure the above change. Specific issues defined from the case studies were the adaptation of the administration of the closure process, the management of risks, especially the differences in opinions, the management of the mine life cycle for closure and involvement of the land owners and Interested and Affected Parties (l&APs). This research was necessary because companies are uncertain and lack the competency to estimate and to correctly spend trust fund money in order to be sure of obtaining closure. This situation threatens the long-term survival of mining-companies by holding assets and profits back until closure is attained. The state departments also have to address the risks and have to rehabilitate the polluted mine sites if companies do not obtain closure. A proper PLC to facilitate closure was compiled from the above-mentioned data. An important fact to bear in mind is that the activities within the life cycle depend on one another. Therefore, when one activity is disregarded or not properly performed, it will influence the outcome of the remaining activities. The methodology of the research was as follows: Categories to evaluate the closure process of the selected case studies were determined from the project life cycle and the management principles of the literature review. Thereafter a questionnaire was developed from these categories. The questionnaire was subsequently used to guide interviews. After the interviews these categories and findings from the questionnaire were combined and summarised into key findings. The key findings of the research were: • The driving force behind obtaining closure must shift from the State Departments to the mining companies. They must realise there is an opportunity during the closure process to make money and to minimise their long-term liability. The mining company must thus drive the closure process to obtain environmental sustainability. • The gold mines do have problems in terms of cost estimation and trust fund expenditure at their TSF footprints during the closure process. The reasons were a mismanagement of the closure process and making use of a limited information system to make decisions. • A proper closure process does exist, but it can be improved to ensure all interested and affected parties have the same expectations from closure. • There are many activities in the closure process flow diagram which were not properly attended to according to the case studies. • A conceptual closure plan and a draft rehabilitation plan with broad objectives, policies and strategies with detailed descriptions were not compiled during the operational phase, because limited scientific monitoring information was gathered to do a proper risk assessment and some l&APs consultation was done mainly with the material and land owners on a one on one basis. From these key findings the following recommendations could be formulated: • Any mining operation should conduct a closure audit at least every second year and before mining activities change. • A searchable record keeping system must be established to keep track of the closure life cycle development. • Detailed conceptual and final closure plans need to capture the data from the audits and record keeping system. • A communication forum with company management and environmental specialists needs to be established. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

This research is on mines that struggle to obtain closure from the state departments. The closure process at the footprints of five Tailings Storage Facilities (TSFs) of a South African gold mine was investigated. They are situated in the Germiston, Brakpan, Springs and Nigel suburbs of the East Rand region of Johannesburg. Very limited scientific research has been done in South Africa on the management of mine closure. The most recent performed research was completed at Coal mines and only one was at an underground gold mine. The history of the case studies at a surface gold mine revealed similar problems, as confirmed in previous research, during the interviews with mine management and the review of operational documents. There is a whole array of causes giving rise to the struggle to obtain closure by a mine, that will be subsequently discussed. Major causes are the lack of estimation of closure costs and the lack of a proper Project Life Cycle (PLC) process for closure by mine management. Previous investigations indicated a general shortfall in estimated closure costs, mining operations that are not planned with closure in mind, closure objectives that are not set at all management levels, final land use after mine closure that is not defined properly, residual and latent impacts that are not dealt with, the post-closure period when the final impact will occur that is not defined and a proper risk assessment based on detailed information that is not properly done and communicated. Another cause is that the integrated process of making closure part of the Environmental Management Programme Report (EMPR) process is not followed. The result of not following the correct process is that mines do not obtain closure. Another reason why mines do not obtain closure is because of an underdeveloped mine infrastructure, e.g. tailings facilities, waste rock dumps, shafts and plants that are not constructed in an environmentally friendly way during the operational phases to facilitate closure. Therefore, these structures need to be changed in terms of their topography and growth medium to ensure an improvement in environmental parameters. This will assist in obtaining sustainability and final closure. Significantly more trust fund money than initially estimated during operations needs to be spent to ensure the above change. Specific issues defined from the case studies were the adaptation of the administration of the closure process, the management of risks, especially the differences in opinions, the management of the mine life cycle for closure and involvement of the land owners and Interested and Affected Parties (l&APs). This research was necessary because companies are uncertain and lack the competency to estimate and to correctly spend trust fund money in order to be sure of obtaining closure. This situation threatens the long-term survival of mining-companies by holding assets and profits back until closure is attained. The state departments also have to address the risks and have to rehabilitate the polluted mine sites if companies do not obtain closure. A proper PLC to facilitate closure was compiled from the above-mentioned data. An important fact to bear in mind is that the activities within the life cycle depend on one another. Therefore, when one activity is disregarded or not properly performed, it will influence the outcome of the remaining activities. The methodology of the research was as follows: Categories to evaluate the closure process of the selected case studies were determined from the project life cycle and the management principles of the literature review. Thereafter a questionnaire was developed from these categories. The questionnaire was subsequently used to guide interviews. After the interviews these categories and findings from the questionnaire were combined and summarised into key findings. The key findings of the research were: • The driving force behind obtaining closure must shift from the State Departments to the mining companies. They must realise there is an opportunity during the closure process to make money and to minimise their long-term liability. The mining company must thus drive the closure process to obtain environmental sustainability. • The gold mines do have problems in terms of cost estimation and trust fund expenditure at their TSF footprints during the closure process. The reasons were a mismanagement of the closure process and making use of a limited information system to make decisions. • A proper closure process does exist, but it can be improved to ensure all interested and affected parties have the same expectations from closure. • There are many activities in the closure process flow diagram which were not properly attended to according to the case studies. • A conceptual closure plan and a draft rehabilitation plan with broad objectives, policies and strategies with detailed descriptions were not compiled during the operational phase, because limited scientific monitoring information was gathered to do a proper risk assessment and some l&APs consultation was done mainly with the material and land owners on a one on one basis. From these key findings the following recommendations could be formulated: • Any mining operation should conduct a closure audit at least every second year and before mining activities change. • A searchable record keeping system must be established to keep track of the closure life cycle development. • Detailed conceptual and final closure plans need to capture the data from the audits and record keeping system. • A communication forum with company management and environmental specialists needs to be established. / Thesis (M. Environmental Management)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-12-03T18:35:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Erasmo_Aparecido_Piccolo.pdf: 1376633 bytes, checksum: e1caf1219ae76bbc8c1e8dd1273f1aa4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-05 / The court appointed expertise in the judicial exerts an important social function, to assist the court with explanations of technical and / or scientific, helping make decisions in the course of civil proceedings. This requires that the work of the expert, the expert report materialized accounting, is quality. The number of lawsuits related to financial institutions leads the top of the list of the Courts of Justice, which provided the opportunity to investigate the performance of professional experts in this environment. The eim of this study was to investigate the procedures used by experts appointed by the judges in the region of Bauru-SP in civil operations with overdraft. The research is descriptive, qualitative and documentary analysis. The raised the necessary procedures to work in the literature and expert in the rules of the CFC - Federal Accounting Council. In the sequel, began the field research, in an exploratory way, through the analysis documents obtained from six cases to civil courts in the region of Bauru-SP, in which we investigated the performanced of experts and sentences handed down by judges. The assessment was made by triangulation of existing procedures in the literature and in the CFC rules with the reports of the experts, accountants, administrators and economists, with the sentences handed down by judges. The model developed allowed gouge the quality of expert advice through compliance procedures and expert Degree Award of Use - GUL - by judges, with the use of keywords. The results showed that the accounting expertise is required in civil operations with overdraft and also the studies analyzed are good quality. It was found that increasing the quality and/or compliance with existing procedures in the literature and in the CFC rules are reflected in the GUL, causing its increase. The research revealed that the higher the quality of forensic work, the greater its use in their sentencing judges / A per??cia cont??bil no ??mbito judicial exerce uma fun????o social relevante, ao auxiliar o juiz com esclarecimentos de natureza t??cnica e / ou cient??fica, ajudando-o tomar decis??es no curso do processo civil. Isso requer que o trabalho do perito, materializado no laudo pericial cont??bil, seja de qualidade. A quantidade de a????es judiciais relacionadas ??s institui????es financeiras lidera o topo da lista dos Tribunais de Justi??a, o que ofereceu a oportunidade para investigar a atua????o profissional dos peritos neste ambiente. O objetivo do estudo foi investigar os procedimentos adotados por peritos nomeados pelos ju??zes na regi??o de Bauru-SP em processos c??veis de opera????es com cheque especial. A pesquisa ?? descritiva, qualitativa e com an??lise documental. Foram levantados os procedimentos necess??rios ao trabalho pericial existentes na literatura e nas normas do CFC - Conselho Federal de Contabilidade. Na sequencia, iniciou-se a pesquisa de campo, de forma explorat??ria, por meio da an??lise documental de seis processos obtidos junto ??s varas c??veis da regi??o de Bauru-SP, nos quais foram investigadas as atua????es dos peritos e as senten??as proferidas pelos ju??zes. A aprecia????o se deu pela triangula????o dos procedimentos existentes na literatura e nas normas do CFC com os laudos dos peritos, contadores, administradores e economistas, com as senten??as proferidas pelos ju??zes. O modelo elaborado permitiu aferir a qualidade do laudo pericial por meio do cumprimento dos procedimentos periciais e o Grau de Utiliza????o do Laudo - GUL - pelos ju??zes, com o uso de palavras-chave. Os resultados evidenciaram que a per??cia cont??bil ?? necess??ria nos processos c??veis de opera????es com cheque especial e, ainda, os trabalhos analisados s??o de boa qualidade. Constatou-se que o aumento da qualidade e/ou a concord??ncia dos procedimentos existentes na literatura e nas normas do CFC refletem-se no GUL, provocando seu aumento. A pesquisa revelou que, quanto maior a qualidade do trabalho pericial, maior a sua utiliza????o nas senten??as proferidas pelos ju??zes

The study was undertaken to investigate the following: limiting factors faced by the developers in complying with the EIA conditions and to determine whether the various developers comply with the conditions. The study was undertaken by use of questionnaires, site visits, meetings, photographs, group interviews. Trained fields assistants were also used to administer the questionnaires in order to collect data. Data from two sites were collected between 2012 and 2014 and were intentionally collected in order to provide information regarding the implementation of mitigation measures. The collected data was subjected to SAS (statistical software). Chi-square test for independence was performed in order to compare the differences (Snedecor & Cocharen, 1978) between the two sites. Based on the results of the study, it is therefore recommended that competent authorities should consider drafting and supplying follow-up guidelines and these guidelines should also apply to all the relevant role players involved. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)

The study was undertaken to investigate the following: limiting factors faced by the developers in complying with the EIA conditions and to determine whether the various developers comply with the conditions. The study was undertaken by use of questionnaires, site visits, meetings, photographs, group interviews. Trained fields assistants were also used to administer the questionnaires in order to collect data. Data from two sites were collected between 2012 and 2014 and were intentionally collected in order to provide information regarding the implementation of mitigation measures. The collected data was subjected to SAS (statistical software). Chi-square test for independence was performed in order to compare the differences (Snedecor & Cocharen, 1978) between the two sites. Based on the results of the study, it is therefore recommended that competent authorities should consider drafting and supplying follow-up guidelines and these guidelines should also apply to all the relevant role players involved. / Environmental Sciences / M. Sc. (Environmental Management)