The mining industry has to address the critical challenges of safety, productivity and the way land is used, as well as how energy and water are consumed, because, owing to a growing population, there is greater demand for minerals and metals.

However, meeting the growing demand for the materials essential to human progress “is more than just the work that we do and the footprint we leave”, diversified miner Anglo American South Africa (AASA) executive head Andile Sangqu said last week.

He told attendees during AASA’s inaugural Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) accountability dialogue that, despite the current economic environment, AASA was committed to continuing to embody good governance principles to ensure sustainability and to demonstrating best practice.

To achieve this, he said, the group aimed to reimagine mining to improve people’s lives through an innovation-led approach to sustainable mining, called FutureSmart Mining.

This approach comprised a future in which broad innovative thinking, enabling technologies and collaborative partnerships, would shape an industry that was safer, more sustainable and efficient, and better harmonised with the needs of host communities and society as a whole, the miner said.

In this respect, AASA had developed its sustainability strategy through “extensive internal and external engagement and the analysis of critical opportunities and risks, including the United Nations’ SDGs”, which set the development agenda to 2030.

Sangqu further explained to Mining Weekly that AASA’s sustainability strategy was built around three global sustainability pillars, namely being a trusted corporate leader, thriving communities and a healthy environment.

“Our approach [to being a trusted corporate leader] is not to be compliance-driven, but rather to ensure we do the right thing as an organisation and that we engage in the kind of programmes that support this kind of philosophy and framework,” he said.

With regard to thriving communities, he highlighted the importance for mining companies such as AASA to be responsible to host communities and to leave a positive legacy.

“It is very important to us to ensure our communities are empowered [and] self-sufficient,” he pointed out.

To support this view

, Sangqu told Mining Weekly about AASA’s education initiatives in the miner’s host communities.

“This is a five-year programme that we’ve committed ourselves to and part of the programme [involves] about 100 schools across our communities that we support and invest in, starting at early childhood development right to tertiary [education] . . . in the final analysis, we would like to see happy and content communities. That is our ambition and our goal,” he elaborated.

Linked to this, Sangqu said AASA also promoted the health of its host communities by being involved in HIV/Aids programmes, besides others.

“There will [be] a time when the resource is depleted. “We want something to be left for these communities and, hence, we would like to ensure that these communities are less and less reliant on mining.”

The last pillar of the sustainability strategy touched on the environment. Sangqu highlighted the importance of dealing with issues that “will leave a good impact”.

“It is a very important day for us because we have also acknowledged that . . . we cannot do these [things] by ourselves,” he noted.

Future Targets

Expanding on the global sustainability pillars, AASA sustainability strategy principal Craig du Plessis told delegates attending the dialogue that the miner had additional goals to achieve by 2030, in line with the South African government’s National Development Plan.

Besides other targets, AASA aimed to have all its operations certified to relevant mine certification standards by 2030, with half these operations having agreed to responsible mine certification standards by 2020.

In terms of policy advocacy, AASA aimed to finalise group and business unit/country policy advocacy plans in support of key sustainability issues by 2020.

By 2025, AASA hoped to have three jobs supported or created off-site for every job on site. By 2030, this number would increase to five off-site jobs for every on-site job.

AASA planned to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and improve energy efficiency, both by 30% by 2030.

Additionally, AASA aimed to reduce the abstraction of fresh water in water-scarce regions by 20% by 2020, and increase this to 50% by 2030.