sponsors and partners
The York Timber Organisation Limited ("York") sponsored the seed funding to get this exciting project underway. York is an environmentally sustainable, integrated forest products company headquartered in Sabie, Mpumalanga. The company was incorporated in 1916 and has been listed on the JSE since 1946.
York provides strategic, administrative and technical management to its subsidiaries. Its main operating subsidiary, York Timbers Limited, operates in various markets, domestic and overseas, and in various sectors of the timber trade and industry.
The core business of the group is sawmilling. Their log mills convert round softwood into a wide range of sawn lumber products such as structural timber, scaffolding, furniture components, wood laminates, kitchen cupboard parts, brush and broom handles as well as wood chips for pulp and paper. York markets sawn lumber to the construction, furniture, packaging and other industries, as well as to timber merchants generally, partly through a network of independent timber agents.
York achieved Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification from SGS Qualifor for all of it plantations and chain-of-custody certification for all its processing operations. This ensures that all of its products are produced in a manner that is economically, environmentally and sociologically sustainable and strives to serve today's needs while protecting its resources for future generations.
York owns and manages:
- 61,000 planted hectares of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified plantation forests of which 56,000ha are pine and 5,000ha are eucalyptus.
- 8 sawmills, located in Sabie, Graskop, Jessievale, White River, Amsterdam, Lothair and Acornhoek.
- A plywood plant in Sabie
In addition, the company owns 28,000ha of unplanted land reserved for conservation, streams, natural heritage sites, roads and access routes.
For more information visit www.york.co.za
Simmer & Jack Mines Limited (Simmers) is an emerging South African resources company with significant gold and uranium assets.
Simmers is committed to the management of its core business in a manner were care of the environment is perceived and acknowledged as vital for social and economic growth and sustainability.
In order to ensure that the Simmers group conducts its operations responsibly and with due care and regard to the impact on the environment, the Company has adopted an Environmental Policy to attempt to eliminate the adverse environmental effects of its activities and to raise environmetnal awareness among employees, suppliers, contractors and customers.
In places such as TGME in Pilgrims Rest, Simmers has gone one step further and is actively enganged in redressing the environmental damage caused by over a century of mining in the area.
For more information, visit www.simmers.co.za
Xstrata is a global mining group, listed on the London and Swiss Stock Exchanges. Xstrata Alloys, headquartered in Rustenburg, is the world's largest producer of ferrochrome. Xstrata are committed to the goal of sustainable development and balance social, environmental and economic considerations in how they manage their business. Xstrata believes that operating to leading standards of health, safety and environmental management, contributing to the development of sustainable communities and engaging with stakeholders enhances corporate reputation and is a source of competitive advantage.
For more information, visit www.xstrata.com