REG - Antofagasta PLC - ANTOFAGASTA RELEASES 2021 CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT

AntofagastaAnnouncement

16/12/2021 11:05

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RNS Number : 9067V  Antofagasta PLC  16 December 2021

NEWS RELEASE, 16 DECEMBER 2021

Antofagasta releases 2021 Climate Change Report

 

Antofagasta (the "Company") today releases its 2021 Climate Change Report,
highlighting how the Company is fulfilling the ambitions set out in its
Climate Change Strategy. The Strategy, which was approved in November 2020, is
designed to help the Company decarbonise and reach its net zero commitment by
2050, while increasing the resilience of the Company's operations and
surrounding environments to climate change.

The Strategy is based on five key pillars:

1.   developing climate change resilience,

2.   reducing GHG emissions,

3.   managing strategic resources,

4.   managing the environment and biodiversity, and

5.   integrating stakeholders.

Iván Arriagada, Antofagasta CEO commented: "Climate change is one of the
greatest challenges facing society and our company today. As a copper
producer, Antofagasta can address this challenge both by decarbonising its
operations and by responsibly and sustainably providing a key commodity for
the transition to a low-carbon economy.

"Our Climate Change Strategy is a dynamic strategy that we will be adapting in
line with changing climate scenarios, regulation and scientific and
technological advances, always with the aim of boosting the company's
resilience and competitiveness. This is, we believe, the best way to fulfil
our purpose of developing mining for a better future."

Climate Change Report Highlights

·    Ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: in line
with Chile's national commitment, Antofagasta aims to achieve carbon
neutrality by 2050, or sooner. These targets also include a 30% reduction in
Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2025, compared to 2020.

·    Addressing water scarcity: working to decrease continental water
consumption by increasing the use of seawater in copper production from 43%
today to 90% by 2025.

·    Electromobility Plan: working to eliminate diesel entirely from the
Company's operations, replacing it with cleaner fuel such as hydrogen.

·    Strengthening climate resilience: adopting the recommendations of the
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), whilst also
mitigating emerging climate risks and taking advantage of the opportunities to
decarbonise our business.

·    Leveraging every part of the Company: seeking to maximise engagement
and horizontal collaboration across multidisciplinary areas and levels of the
Company to drive better implementation, monitoring and continuous improvement.

Pillar 1: Developing Climate Change Resilience

·    Building on the Company's climate scenario analysis, the Company has
developed a model that assesses climate risks and opportunities across
different future climate scenarios on an ongoing basis. The potential
magnitude of Antofagasta's exposure is similar under both an extreme physical
warming scenario and an aggressive mitigation scenario.

·    The Company is in the process of finalising a Long-Term Energy and
Carbon Reduction Plan and has introduced an internal carbon price to
incentivise the allocation of capital to projects, which will decarbonise its
operations. The internal carbon price has been used in the creation of the
Company's 2022 budget and from January 2022, will be used in the economic
evaluation of supply contracts.

Pillar 2: Reducing GHG Emissions

·    In 2018, the Company set itself the target of reducing direct (Scope
1) and indirect (Scope 2) GHG by 300,000 tonnes of CO2e by 2022. As of
end-2020, the Company had more than met this target, achieving a reduction of
over 580,000 tonnes compared to the 2017 baseline.

·    Therefore, in May 2021, the Company announced its aims to reduce
Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30% by 2025 compared to 2020, equivalent to a
reduction of 730,000 tonnes of CO2e.

·    To address Scope 1 emissions, principally the result of the use of
diesel for mine haulage, the Company is:

o Partnering with the Hydra Consortium, to explore the use of hydrogen in mine
haulage trucks, as a replacement for diesel.

o Testing the effectiveness of injecting a small amount of hydrogen into the
diesel used by trucks to reduce emissions, expecting to reduce fuel
consumption by about 5%.

·    To address Scope 2 emissions, all of the Company's mining operations
are switching from conventional sources of power supply - principally coal -
to renewables by year end-2022.

·    To address Scope 3 emissions, the Company has agreed to participate
in evaluating the feasibility of HyEx, a project led by energy multinational
Engie and a Chilean explosives company, Enaex, to produce green ammonia in
northern Chile. This would, in turn, be used to make ammonium nitrate, which
is used for blasting in the mining industry and could also potentially serve
as fuel for trains and ships.

Pillar 3: Managing Strategic Resources

·    The Company has created a new Strategic Resources area to provide
centralised management of the Group's water and energy resources, which
includes:

o The continued reduction of the Company's use of continental water in areas
where water is scarce through initiatives such as the Los Pelambres
desalination plant and the reverse osmosis drinking plant at Centinela.

o Transitioning the Company to a low-carbon or carbon-neutral energy supply by
focusing on renewable energy sources at the operations.

Pillar 4: Managing the Environment and Biodiversity

·    The Company is exploring and innovating in nature-based solutions for
the capture of CO2, improvement of environmental management and protection and
care for biodiversity, as well as addressing adaptation to both acute and
chronic physical risks, corresponding to the different climate change
scenarios projected by the Group.

·    The Company has applied a Biodiversity Standard, which seeks to
ensure a net zero loss of biodiversity and is aligned with the ICMM's
(International Council on Mining and Metals) position statement on Mining and
Protected Areas.

Pillar 5: Integrating Stakeholders

·    The Company is engaging different stakeholders in the design and
implementation of water management initiatives to ensure that they benefit the
surrounding communities and territories.

·    In terms of its supply chain, the Company is developing programmes
that help suppliers reduce and mitigate their own GHG emissions. In addition,
the Company has for the first time, has included ESG criteria in its
decision-making model with regards to procurement.

·    The Company is training employees and other stakeholders about
climate change to increase awareness and provide continuous incentives to
facilitate the Strategy's implementation and success.

Next steps

The Company is continuing to strengthen its Climate Change Strategy through a
number of initiatives, including:

·    The creation of an Energy Policy, in line with the requirements of
Chile's new Energy Efficiency Law, a Water Policy and an updated Biodiversity
Standard.

·    The Company's 2021 Annual Report will disclose its performance
against TCFD recommendations

·    The Company is also increasing the coverage of its GHG emissions
accounting to include a wider range of Scope 3 emissions categories so that
further upstream and downstream drivers of emissions can be identified.

Measuring Progress

Progress on the Strategy's implementation is tracked through a dashboard,
which shows the advance of each pillar in general, and of each area of action
in particular, as well as details of the related initiatives, including the
deliverables and persons responsible. In addition, renumeration arrangements
are tied to the effective implementation of the Company's business strategy,
including the Climate Change Strategy.

 

The report can be downloaded here
(https://www.antofagasta.co.uk/media/4221/antofagasta-climate-change-report-2021.pdf)
.

 
 

Investors - London
                                             Media -
London

Andrew Lindsay
alindsay@antofagasta.co.uk                  Carole
Cable            antofagasta@brunswickgroup.com

Telephone                               +44 20
7808 0988
 Telephone               +44 20 7404 5959

Rosario Orchard
rorchard@antofagasta.co.uk

Telephone                               +44 20
7808 0988

 
 
Media - Santiago

 
                                Pablo
Orozco           porozco@aminerals.cl

 
 
Carolina Pica           cpica@aminerals.cl

 
 
       Telephone               +56 2 2798 7000

 
 

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