Update on sustainability performance

RNS Number : 3439I

Anglo American PLC

14 April 2022

 

14 April 2022

Anglo American updates on carbon emissions, water stewardship and workplace culture

Anglo American plc ("Anglo American") is today presenting its twice yearly sustainability performance update, including specific progress on emissions reduction, water stewardship and building a safe and inclusive culture.

Mark Cutifani, Chief Executive of Anglo American, said: "A sustainable business is one that has an enduring purpose in society and that considers in all its decision-making the many different forms of value that it can deliver for all stakeholders. Much of what we are driving for, particularly in terms of our energy and water ambitions, will be achieved through the technologies we are deploying as part of our FutureSmart Mining™programme. These technologies are transforming the very nature of mining - how we source, mine, process, move and market our products - both our physical and social footprints.  

Energy - progressing towards carbon neutral operations

"We are targeting carbon neutrality across our operations by 2040 and we are making good progress. In March we announced our partnership with EDF Renewables to work together to develop a regional renewable energy ecosystem in South Africa, aimed at addressing our operational footprint. This agreement is a further major step towards addressing our on-site energy requirements - the largest source of our operational emissions - and builds on the agreements already secured for 100% renewable electricity supply for all our operations in South America by 2023.

"We are also moving towards a solution for the largest portion of our Scope 1 emissions, being the diesel used in our haul truck fleet, and we expect to see our proof of concept hydrogen fuel cell truck in action in the coming weeks. Step by step, we are changing the very nature of mining and how our stakeholders experience our business - while supporting what must be a just energy transition.

Water - responsible stewardship

"Water is fundamental for our operations and the communities around us. We embrace our role as water stewards and, as our approach continues to evolve, we incorporate learnings and develop or implement new technologies.

"Our Sustainable Mining Plan sets out very ambitious targets for reducing our water footprint, including to reduce fresh water usage by 50% by 2030 and an intermediate target of 20% by the year 2020, which we met. Today, we are outlining our pathway for the achievement of the ambitious 50% target, including a number of defined initiatives such as an integrated water supply project for Los Bronces in Chile. A win-win for us and our host community, the project involves the replacement of most of our current fresh water needs with treated municipal wastewater in a unique swap agreement that delivers fresh water to the local community while we instead use water not suitable for human consumption.

"In addition, we set a target of achieving 75% water efficiency (reuse and recycle) in 2020. In that year we recorded an efficiency of 81% and last year we reached 83%. We now intend to extend this metric to 2030 and by the end of this year we intend to set out that new target including a pathway, similar to the one for fresh water.

" We are also committed to ensuring that the water assets we manage and the savings we achieve by reducing our water footprint translate into making additional water resources available in ways that are socially equitable, environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial. This is what we refer to as Water Stewardship. We continue to work on water-related initiatives to improve the lives of communities local to our operations, including supplying water and building dams and supporting infrastructure. In South Africa and South America in particular, we support a variety of water stewardship initiatives, ranging from water supply projects with our partners and providing drinking water to our communities, to infrastructure projects with local government."

Living with Dignity - building a safe and inclusive culture

"Building a safe and inclusive culture has been a focus for us for a number of years. We have zero tolerance for any form of bullying, harassment or victimisation and we know there is no room for complacency. This is constant work for any company or society, and we are committed to listening to our people and other stakeholders that are close to our business every day.

"We have long understood the role of our business in society, and we believe our responsibility extends beyond our own mine gates. We launched our Living with Dignity programme in 2019, founded on the belief that everyone has the right to dignity - in our homes, schools, at work and everywhere in between. Through this programme, Anglo American is working collaboratively with our partners in government and civil society to build sustainable partnerships aimed at providing direct employee and community support to combat gender-based and domestic violence.  

"We continue to build on this important work and just last month we launched our new Living with Dignity Hub in South Africa that brings together our policies and its mandates to provide ongoing and committed support to our employees, contractors and their families. The hub handles all formal complaints of sexual harassment and gender-based violence (SHGBV) and bullying, harassment and victimisation (BHV) across our South African footprint and is overseen by an independent Ambassador to ensure we stand by our policies and remain committed to amplifying our efforts."

Mr Cutifani concluded: "Anglo American's Purpose of re-imagining mining to improve people's lives guides what we do across the board in considering the needs and expectations of our employees, shareholders and diversity of stakeholders. We are making good progress towards our Sustainable Mining  Plan goals but we also recognise that the world moves on, as do society's expectations of us. After four years, we are refreshing our Sustainable Mining Plan, setting new and stretching targets which will continue to challenge us to lead and innovate."

Today's Sustainability Performance presentation will be available on the Anglo American website www.angloamerican.com at 9am UK time, with the presentation itself starting at 9.30am UK time. A full recording will be available following the presentation at: 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 Nevashnee Naicker [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Sibusiso Tshabalala [e-mail] Tel: [phone]		UK Paul Galloway [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Emma Waterworth [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Juliet Newth juliet [e-mail] Tel: [phone] Michelle Jarman michelle.jarman @angloamerican.com   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, with a broad range of future development options, provides many of the future-enabling metals and minerals for a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that meet the fast growing every day demands of billions of consumers. With our people at the heart of our business, we use innovative practices and the latest technologies to discover new resources and to mine, process, move and market our products to our customers - safely and sustainably.

As a responsible producer of diamonds (through De Beers), copper, platinum group metals, premium quality iron ore and metallurgical coal for steelmaking, and nickel - with crop nutrients in development - we are committed to being carbon neutral across our operations by 2040. More broadly, our Sustainable Mining Plan commits us to a series of stretching goals to ensure we work towards a healthy environment, creating thriving communities and building trust as a corporate leader. We work together with our business partners and diverse stakeholders to unlock enduring 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 document includes forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this document, 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 Reserve and Mineral Resource positions) and environmental, social and corporate governance goals and aspirations, 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, safety, health or environmental incidents, the effects of global pandemics and outbreaks of infectious diseases, the outcome of litigation or regulatory proceedings, 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 courts, regulators and governmental authorities such as in relation to permitting or forcing closure of mines and ceasing of operations or maintenance of Anglo American's assets 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 document. Anglo American expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking (except as required by applicable law, the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers, 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 document 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 document is sourced from publicly available third party sources. As such it has not been independently verified and presents the views of those third parties, but 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 information.

Legal Entity Identifier: 549300S9XF92D1X8ME43

 

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