On World Water Day, held on 22 March every year, we reinforce our commitment to responsible water stewardship, in line with the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Water is the fundamental link between climate, people and nature. Globally, water supply remains stressed amid the ongoing impact of climate change and variability, with increasing extreme weather events. To address these challenges, we continue to take a holistic approach to water stewardship that includes our commitments to nature, climate change and communities. Our approach also focuses on operational excellence at all our sites by maximising efficiency, particularly in the use of precious resources such as water, while improving water availability for the communities surrounding our operations and ultimately achieving our target of a 50% reduction in fresh water withdrawals in water-scarce areas by 2030.
Read more about our approach, targets and progress in relation to water use, quality and availability across our operations in our 2024 Sustainability Report.
The Future Water Agenda
Anglo American is proud to support the recent launch of the Future Water Agenda Report. Conducted by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and GlobeScan, the programme was created to help companies strengthen approaches to corporate water stewardship, collective action and stakeholder engagement.
The report provides insights and guidance to help companies and partners strengthen approaches to corporate water stewardship, advance collective action on shared global and local water challenges and improve engagement with stakeholders.
Access the Future Water Agenda Report.
Commenting on our ongoing commitment to water stewardship, centred on a partnership approach, Henrietta Salter, Water Stewardship Principal, said: “Water is vital to our business and our stakeholders. Access to safe water and sanitation are fundamental human rights and key enablers for social equality and prosperity. We treat water with respect, as an asset that underpins the vibrancy of the natural environment and biodiversity.”
Case Study: How an innovative partnership is addressing Los Bronces’ water challenges
Water availability is a key sustainability challenge for Chile’s copper mining industry. Since 2010, much of the country, including the main mining regions, has experienced ongoing drought. Although this drought was partly relieved by wetter conditions in 2023 and 2024, longer range forecasts indicate continued lower precipitation, as the effects of climate change escalate. For Anglo American, this means adapting the design of our operations and projects so that they are more resilient to the physical impacts of climate change, both in Chile and across our operational footprint.
Ensuring a sustainable water supply for the mine – and the community
Through a series of water-efficiency initiatives, we have reduced the intake of fresh water in our operations in Chile by almost 50% over the past decade and achieved an average water re-use of 94% across our three operations in the country. Los Bronces already re-uses about 90% of the water utilised in the mining process; and the key aim of its Integrated Water Security Project (IWSP) is to achieve zero intake of fresh water for the mining process by 2030.
Through establishing a partnership with Aguas Pacífico, a private-sector Chilean water desalination provider, we have secured a desalinated water supply for Los Bronces from 2026 via a multi-purpose desalination plant. In the first phase of the partnership, the plant will supply up to 500 litres per second of desalinated water to the mine. This will account for more than 45% of Los Bronces’ needs, and the mine will in turn provide clean water (25 litres per second) to around 10,000 people in the neighbouring communities of Colina and Til Til. The multi-purpose desalination project will also provide clean water along the 100 km pipeline from the desalination plant to the mine, contributing to water security for around 40,000 people.
The end goal of the IWSP is to eventually allow us to stop drawing any fresh water for Los Bronces’ mining process, and to make a significant contribution towards reaching our 2030 target of a 50% reduction in the use of fresh water for our operations located in water-scarce regions.
Read more about our approach to sustainability and responsible water stewardship in our 2024 Sustainability Report.
