JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The asset quality and product positioning of the Anglo American portfolio play precisely to the macro global demand for a “cleaner world, an electrified world and a consumer world”, Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani said on Thursday.

The London- and Johannesburg-listed diversified mining and marketing company delivered a 19% increase in underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) to $5.5-million in the first half of the year and a 22% increase in return on capital employed.

The company’s mining of metals like copper, platinum group metals (PGMs) and nickel is, in itself, significant in terms of meeting the demand for a cleaner, electrified world.

Cutifani spoke of South Africa’s strong potential to combine renewable energy with hydrogen production as providing a unique opportunity to be a leader in the clean electrification space across the globe.

“I think there’s a very exciting future for particularly the PGM industry to be right at the forefront of that, and we want to be there, we want to be with South Africa, and we’re going to be South Africa’s partner for the long term,” he said in response to Mining Weekly Online.

After its delivery of a 27% dividend increase, Anglo on Thursday kicked off an immediate programme to return up to $1-billion to shareholders through a share buyback process.

“We have highly attractive, high return, quick-payback growth options across the portfolio. So, unlike many, there’s no need for us to go out and buy growth,” Cutifani told Mining Weekly Online during a media conference call.

Productivity per employee has more than doubled, driving a 46% increase in mining Ebitda.

Anglo, which is committed to achieving the additional $3-billion to $4-billion annual underlying Ebitda improvement, is on the environmental protection front itself approaching the end of the first phase of an electrical efficiency programme that cuts carbon emissions by 22%.

“That’s been going well,” said Cutifani.

Anglo is looking to cut its own power consumption by 30% by 2030 by changing the way it mines and the processing technologies, including new ore-sorting, crushing, classification in grinding circuits and, ultimately, halving water use.

“Our technical innovation programme in my view is second to none in the industry,” said Cutifani, who added that the contribution the company was making to the green economy through the mining of metals like copper, PGMs and nickel was also significant in terms of meeting the demand for a cleaner, electrified world.

“Even our coal assets are of high quality. We have talked about a just transition in thermal coal. That means making sure that we manage our thermal coal production by making sure it’s the most efficient we can, and look at our position over time.

“We’re also an investor in new hydrogen technologies. We’re one of the few groups that have gone in with a 2IC in venture capital projects supporting our PGM business, driving into the hydrogen economy.

“If you look at mining companies, you’ve got to say that we’re right up front in terms of doing the right things for the long term and helping to decarbonise the global economy,” he added.

Anglo has a long track record as a leader in sustainable, responsible mining. Its far-reaching Sustainable Mining Plan, launched in 2018 as part of the FutureSmart Mining™ programme, commits the company to a series of ambitious medium- and longer-term goals.

These relate to three areas of sustainability aligned to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, namely being a trusted corporate leader advocating for the highest standards of governance to drive transparency and trust in mining and mined products; a healthy environment; and thriving communities.

While its environmental goals will rely on many of the technologies it is beginning to deploy, it is also thinking innovatively to create regional ecosystems of sustainable economic activity, in partnership with appropriate development experts.

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT

Anglo’s safety performance is the subject of very significant management attention in order to eliminate the causes of harm in the workplace.

Three Anglo employees lost their lives in the first six months of 2019, one in each of Australia, Chile and Peru, two of which were vehicle related incidents. In addition, in late June, six colleagues from the Collahuasi joint operation in Chile lost their lives in a transport incident and, in early July, a further transport incident near Los Bronces mine caused the loss of four people.

Building on its 'elimination of fatalities' taskforce to better manage fatal and catastrophic risks, the company has instructed the taking of wide-ranging measures relating to drivers, passengers, vehicles and roads across operations.

The company’s total recordable case frequency rate provides a broader picture of progress, with 2.20 injuries per million hours worked - a 17% improvement over the record performance rate achieved in 2018.

Anglo took remedial action in the case of an environmental river discharge incident in the first half of this year at the Unki PGMs mine in Zimbabwe. Targeted is the delivery of net-positive impacts in biodiversity wherever it operates.

It has confidence in the integrity of its 91 managed tailings storage facilities around the world, which are subjected to stringent safety and stewardship standards, using technologies such as satellite monitoring, fibre-optics and microseismic sensors.

The company has revised and updated its technical standard for tailings dam safety management to go beyond regulatory requirements in all host jurisdictions.