Our Sustainable Mining Plan

A safer, smarter and sustainable future for mining.

Our Sustainable Mining Plan, integral to FutureSmart Mining^TM, supports our innovation and delivery of step change results across the entire mining value chain.

From mineral discovery right through to marketing our products to customers, we are changing how our employees and stakeholders experience Anglo American by creating enduring value for all.

What does the Sustainable Mining Plan comprise of?

We have developed our strategy through extensive internal and external engagement and analysis of critical opportunities and risks, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our strategy goes far beyond compliance with mining law or regulatory requirements. It’s about making a more strategic and holistic impact on the ground and it comprises mutually reinforcing elements that will positively transform how our stakeholders experience our business, both locally and globally.

Global Sustainability Pillars

The strategy is built around three Global Sustainability Pillars:

Trusted Corporate Leader
Developing trust as a corporate leader, providing ethical value chains and improved accountability to the communities we work with.
Thriving Communities
Building thriving communities with better health, education and levels of employment.
Healthy Environment
Maintaining a healthy environment by creating waterless, carbon neutral mines and delivering positive biodiversity outcomes.

Collaborative Regional Development

At the core of our plans to bring long-term and sustainable development opportunities to the regions around our operations is what we call Collaborative Regional Development.

Inspired by the Development Partner Framework, this innovative approach starts by identifying socio-economic development opportunities with the greatest potential in a region through spatial planning and analysis. This creates the catalyst for partnerships with a broad range of stakeholders including: community representatives, faith groups, businesses and entrepreneurs, government, academics and NGOs.

Global Stretch Goals

The third key component of our strategy is the Global Stretch Goals. Each of the three Global Sustainability Pillars comprises three goals respectively. They are deliberately ambitious and designed to challenge us to lead and innovate. And we’re putting all our efforts into delivering them between now and 2030.

Our five-year local plans

To achieve our shared goals, we need to develop and deliver local sustainability plans that are tailored to the unique sustainability challenges we face at each of our sites. Therefore each of our operating sites has developed their own bespoke five-year plans that are flexible and responsive to an operation's local context.