Circular Economy

Overview

At Anglo American, we have a clear Purpose: to re-imagine mining to improve people’s lives.

The products that we provide are essential for the future of society, particularly as we strive to build a more sustainable, equitable and decarbonised world.

Global demand for minerals and metals is expected to rise substantially in the coming decades to meet this challenge. This reinforces the importance of being able to provide the goods and services society needs to grow, while managing impacts and delivering positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.

This challenge is at the heart of the circular economy which looks to eliminate waste in all its forms, making the most of what we have, natural resources included. It advocates re-using, redesigning and, sharing, repairing, refurbishing, re-manufacturing, and recycling – consuming fewer resources in the first place and using them for longer.

At a more fundamental level, it is about creating new models for businesses to promote and incentivise efficiency and ultimately, decouple growth from resource use.

The circular economy means designing waste out of our entire value chain and creating a system of net positivity to ultimately protect the Earth’s finite supply of natural resources. It is more than recycling, it is more than a project or an initiative, it is a new way of thinking that we are striving to adopt.

Our approach to circularity

The circular economy is changing the way we look at our business, in three ways:

– In our operations, we seek to optimise the use of resources, eliminating physical waste and maximising process efficiency. We aim to achieve a neutral or even net positive impact on the environment. In turn, this helps us to create thriving communities, one of the three Global Sustainability Pillars of our Sustainable Mining Plan.

– Throughout our value chains and across our Marketing business, we work to maximise the value of our products during their full lifecycle. We also support the development of technological innovation that can serve to advance this goal.

– Through holistic business transformation, we are growing our business in ways that adapt to and shape the change around us. Circularity is one of the lenses that we use to support our journey from mining and metals company to material solutions provider.

As we gain a deeper understanding of circularity and how it intersects with our business, we are working to embed circular principles into our processes and build a culture that fully embraces circularity.

Circular Economy