Anglo American announces that its managed copper operations in Chile – the Los Bronces and El Soldado mining operations and the Chagres smelter – have been awarded the Copper Mark in recognition of responsible copper production practices. The Copper Mark framework has been developed to demonstrate the copper industry’s commitment to both the green energy transition and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, using the Risk Readiness Assessment (RRA) of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) as the basis for evaluating participants’ performance.

Peter Whitcutt, CEO of Anglo American’s Marketing business, said: “Consumers around the world are understandably expecting the products they buy to be made from metals and minerals that are responsibly sourced, meeting the highest ethical and sustainability standards. As an established sustainability leader, Anglo American’salignment with the Copper Mark framework is part of our Sustainable Mining Plan commitment to assure all our operations against a recognised responsible mining standard by 2025.”

Aaron Puna, CEO of Anglo American in Chile, said: “The Copper Mark assurance process has provided us with a valuable opportunity to measure our performance at our operations in Chile against international best practice on a wide range of environmental and societal factors. We are immensely proud of the work our team has been doing across the board to ensure we meet our stakeholders’ expectations of Anglo American as a responsible mining company.”

The process of assessing Los Bronces, El Soldado and Chagres against the Copper Mark’s Assurance Process began in late 2021. The sites were assessed against 32 different criteria, including environmental risk management, energy consumption, waste and tailings management, mine closure and reclamation, occupational health and safety, business integrity, community and stakeholder engagement, human rights and cultural heritage.

Michèle Brülhart, Executive Director of the Copper Mark, said: “We are pleased to have awarded the Copper Mark to Anglo American’s three managed operations in Chile as we continue to build on the momentum of the Copper Mark in promoting responsible production practices across the global copper industry. The Copper Mark is on a strong growth trajectory, and we expect our number of participants to increase further in 2022 as more producers and copper users focus on the sustainability of their supply chains.”