Sustainable development

Area surrounding Los Bronces Copper Mine, Chile

Anglo American’s environmental vision is to minimise harm to the environment by designing, operating and closing all of our operations in an environmentally responsible manner.

Land stewardship is the process of understanding and managing past, present and potential future uses of the land we manage, its ecological and social value as well as community expectations.

Our approach to land stewardship takes direction from our overall environmental principle of ‘zero harm’. We aim to minimise our negative impacts and leave a positive legacy.

We believe that robust management of environmental issues is a fundamental element of good overall operational management, and a source of competitive advantage. Poor management of environmental issues is inconsistent with our values and long-term business interests.

To improve our management of risk and reporting on land stewardship, we have reviewed and updated the land and biodiversity parameters on which our operations are required to report.

The Anglo American Environment Way

There are inevitable disturbances to the land when we extract minerals. By implementing our policy, the Environment Way, we endeavour to minimise the negative impacts of our activities, drive positive outcomes, rehabilitate disturbed land on an ongoing basis, and ultimately restore the disturbed land to an agreed land capability and land use at mine closure.

The Environment Way comprises 10 performance standards that cumulatively contribute to effective land management. These include standards related to rehabilitation, biodiversity, water, mine closure, mineral waste, air quality and hazardous substances.