Anglo American Sustainability Performance update

RNS Number : 6881D

Anglo American PLC

30 October 2020

 

30 October 2020

Anglo American reinforces sustainability commitment and pathways to decarbonisation

Anglo American plc ("Anglo American") is today presenting its annual sustainability performance update, including a clear pathway to achieve carbon neutrality across its operations by 2040.

Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: "We have long understood the inextricable link between our sustainability performance and our financial performance and ability to generate returns. A sustainable business comes from being a purposeful business: competitive, resilient and agile - a business that thrives through economic and social cycles - of course underpinned by non-negotiable values.

"Sustainability lives at the very heart of our strategy, not as an adjacent activity, but embedded in how we do our work. Much of what we are driving for, particularly in terms of our energy and water ambitions, will be achieved through the technologies we are implementing - hence the inseparable connection between our technology work and our Sustainable Mining Plan outcomes under our FutureSmart Mining™ programme. Bulk Ore Sorting alone can deliver a c.10% reduction in energy and water intensity for an operation, for example. Our Sustainable Mining Plan that we developed in 2017, and that we structured to drive environmental, social and governance performance, is part of the transformation of our business and is designed to deliver value to all our stakeholders.

"Tackling climate change is the defining challenge of our times. We have set ourselves an ambitious goal of carbon neutrality across our operations by 2040, with eight of our assets to get there by 2030. Our underlying principle is to reduce carbon going into the atmosphere and we have clear pathways. For Scope 1 and 2, these include:

· ongoing transition of our portfolio towards those metals and minerals which support a greener, cleaner, more sustainable world - thermal coal operations in South Africa planned for likely demerger;

· reducing our energy consumption and intensity through P101 performance improvements, and technologies and digitalisation - we met our 2020 target of a 22% reduction in emissions a year early;

· increased use of renewable energy - we will use 100% renewables in Chile from 2021 and Brazil from 2022, and we begin trials of our green hydrogen fuel-cell powered haul truck in South Africa in 2021; and

· use of nature-based solutions on land we manage and using resources that we control where we can show carbon reduction alongside improving local biodiversity.

"We're also taking a considered approach to tackling Scope 3 emissions. In some of the 15 categories in our published inventory, we have a high level of control or influence over the source of the emissions and so we can drive emissions down. Our customers' emissions of course make up most of our Scope 3, particularly in the steel value chain, and we have little control of, or influence over those emissions. We are evaluating the best ways for us to play our part, including through partnerships with our customers where we can build on a mutual ambition to reduce emissions through shared capabilities.

"When I look at the overall direction of our business, combined with the integrated way we consider the full breadth of sustainability, our suite of products is aligned with demand from:

· a consumer driven world with a growing population;

· an increasingly electrified and connected world as demand for higher standards of living grows and grids follow; and

· a greener world as a focus on preserving our environment leads to changing behaviour in a range of areas - increased renewables, the growing hydrogen economy, tighter emissions standards and more modern, cleaner steel making.

"Two thirds of our output will be focused on later cycle demand as thermal coal moves out of the portfolio, replaced by growth in Copper and Crop Nutrients. We are well positioned to run the business sustainably and - being disciplined with our capital - to grow the business sustainably as well."

Sustainable Mining Plan updates

Our 2020 Sustainable Mining Plan targets that relate to energy use, GHG emissions and water are unchanged and performance will be assessed at the end of the year. The time period for achieving the other 2020 targets has been extended to 2021 following the Anglo American Board's decision to allow flexibility in order to help the business focus on the priorities of keeping our people and communities safe and of sustaining our operations during the Covid-19 pandemic

Furthermore, and as detailed in Anglo American's 2019 Sustainability Report, water baseline data is to be reset in 2020 to ensure that the reporting criteria are aligned with ICMM definitions for water accounting. That work will be completed by the end of the year and we will start reporting against our 2030 targets from 2021. We will update on the delivery of our 2020 water targets early next year and have identified additional water projects to implement in the coming years to drive towards our 2030 targets. For ease of reference, our 2020 water targets are to reduce the abstraction of fresh water by 20% and increase water-recycling levels to 75%; and our 2030 target is to reduce the abstraction of fresh water in water-scarce regions by 50%.

The Sustainability Performance presentation is available on the Anglo American website and a full recording will be also available following the presentation, at the link below:

https://www.angloamerican.com/investors/investor-presentations

For further information, please contact:

Media		Investors
UK James Wyatt-Tilby [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Marcelo Esquivel [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Katie Ryall [e-mail] Tel: [phone] South Africa Sibusiso Tshabalala [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Nomonde Ndwalaza [e-mail] Tel: [phone]		UK Paul Galloway [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Robert Greenberg [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Emma Waterworth [e-mail] Tel: [phone]

Notes to editors:

Anglo American is a leading global mining company and our products are the essential ingredients in almost every aspect of modern life. Our portfolio of world-class competitive operations, development projects and undeveloped resources, provides many of the metals and minerals that enable a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that meet the fast growing consumer-driven demands of developed and maturing economies. With our people at the heart of our business, we use innovative practices and the latest technologies to mine, process, move and market our products to our customers - and to discover new resources - safely and sustainably.

As a responsible producer of diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum group metals, the steelmaking ingredients of iron ore and metallurgical coal, and nickel - with crop nutrients in development and thermal coal operations planned for divestment - we are committed to being carbon neutral across our operations by 2040. We work together with our business partners and diverse stakeholders to unlock sustainable value from precious natural resources for the benefit of the communities and countries in which we operate, for society as a whole, and for our shareholders. Anglo American is re-imagining mining to improve people's lives.

www.angloamerican.com

Forward-looking statements:

This announcement includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this announcement, including, without limitation, those regarding Anglo American's financial position, business, acquisition and divestment strategy, dividend policy, plans and objectives of management for future operations (including development plans and objectives relating to Anglo American's products, production forecasts and Ore Reserves and Mineral Resource estimates), are forward-looking statements. By their nature, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Anglo American, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Such forward-looking statements are based on numerous assumptions regarding Anglo American's present and future business strategies and the environment in which Anglo American will operate in the future. Important factors that could cause Anglo American's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, among others, levels of actual production during any period, levels of global demand and commodity market prices, mineral resource exploration and development capabilities, recovery rates and other operational capabilities, the effects of global pandemics and outbreaks of infectious diseases, the availability of mining and processing equipment, the ability to produce and transport products profitably, the availability of transport infrastructure, the impact of foreign currency exchange rates on market prices and operating costs, the availability of sufficient credit, the effects of inflation, political uncertainty and economic conditions in relevant areas of the world, the actions of competitors, activities by governmental authorities such as permitting and changes in taxation or safety, health, environmental or other types of regulation in the countries where Anglo American operates, conflicts over land and resource ownership rights and such other risk factors identified in Anglo American's most recent Annual Report. Forward-looking statements should, therefore, be construed in light of such risk factors and undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Anglo American expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking (except as required by applicable law, the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (the "Takeover Code"), the UK Listing Rules, the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the Financial Conduct Authority, the Listings Requirements of the securities exchange of the JSE Limited in South Africa, the SIX Swiss Exchange, the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Namibian Stock Exchange and any other applicable regulations) to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement contained herein to reflect any change in Anglo American's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Nothing in this announcement should be interpreted to mean that future earnings per share of Anglo American will necessarily match or exceed its historical published earnings per share.

Certain statistical and other information about Anglo American included in this announcement is sourced from publicly available third-party sources. As such, it has not been independently verified and presents the views of those third parties, though these may not necessarily correspond to the views held by Anglo American and Anglo American expressly disclaims any responsibility for, or liability in respect of, such third-party information.

Legal Entity Identifier: 549300S9XF92D1X8ME43

 

END

 

 

MSCFZMZGLLGGGZM