Sustainable development

Demonstration farm on one of the rehabilitated areas of AngloCoal’s Kriel colliery, South Africa

In its efforts to ensure that it leaves a positive environmental, social and economic legacy, Anglo American has developed and launched its Mine Closure Toolbox.

This long-term strategic planning tool is designed for use in conjunction with the Socio-Economic Assessment Toolbox (SEAT) and some of Anglo American’s other new tools to support sustainable development planning, risk assessment and project evaluation. The toolbox will also help operations to comply with the requirements of The Anglo Mine Closure Performance Standard, which is part of The Anglo Environment Way.

The toolbox enables an iterative and more detailed approach to closure – thereby ensuring that the full spectrum of opportunities, risks and liabilities is effectively identified, that plans are fully costed and that provision is made for both extended life of mine or accelerated closure.

It consists of three separate tools, which deal with strategic planning, gap analysis, and the identification of required actions to address gaps. These three tools work together to demonstrate that the physical, biophysical and socio-economic components of mine closure should be addressed in an integrated manner to ensure confidence in the closure plan.

Toolbox training

The toolbox roll-out has included various training sessions and high-level presentations to management. To date, more than 350 copies of the toolbox have been distributed around the Anglo Group (including De Beers) and more than 140 people have been trained across the world. The toolbox and training material have been translated into Portuguese and Spanish for use by operations in South America.

Implementation

The toolbox is currently being implemented at more than 25 Anglo American and De Beers operations in South America, Europe and Africa and case studies from some of the first users have shown value from the process. Targets for implementation of the Mine Closure Toolbox across the Group are in the process of being set.