Sustainability Report - Antofagasta PLC

8
Antofagasta plc Sustainability Report 2011
Chairman’s Letter
Because a talented workforce is essential to a strong future for our
business, Antofagasta is committed to attracting, developing and
retaining the best people to our team.
2011 was a growth year for Antofagasta PLC, and I am pleased to report that
we have maintained our strong commitment to responsible and sustainable
business practices alongside financial success.
Right across our businesses, we seek to nurture positive relationships with our
stakeholders and to protect the natural resources on which we depend by
managing our impacts responsibly.
During the year we have made progress on integrating and consolidating our
commitment to sustainability throughout the business. We appointed new
members to our Board Sustainability Committee, who will play a central role in
helping the business anticipate and adapt to emerging social and
environmental trends. We strengthened our risk management procedures and
launched a revised Ethics Code to make our standards clear. Our mining
division, AMSA, further embedded its key management systems on the
assessment of environmental and social performance.
I deeply regret the death of one of our workers at the Antofagasta Railway
Company in 2011. This tragic accident underlines the importance of our
continued focus on health and safety. We have fully investigated the causes
and taken steps to prevent a recurrence. Safety remains a priority across all
our divisions. To underline this, Antofagasta Minerals’ senior risk
management team personally visited each mining company during 2011 to
discuss safety with managers.
We are proud of the contribution our businesses make to the economy in
Chile and we want the communities near our sites to benefit from our
presence. We continued to prioritise job creation, training and education
during 2011, providing training in mining and other skills for 700 local
people. This investment, along with our focus on attracting the next
generation of employees through apprenticeships, university partnerships
and a graduate trainee programme, will put us in a strong position to address
an emerging challenge for our industry in Chile - access to skilled workers.
We seek to understand the views and needs of local people and to take
these into account in the way we run our business. As part of this dialogue,
Antofagasta Minerals has set up joint working committees with the
community and in 2011 a formal grievance procedure was introduced to
make sure any concerns are promptly addressed and resolved.
Maintaining good relations with our existing employees is a priority. Employee
satisfaction rates remained high at 80% and there were no labour disputes
during 2011. We will build on this strong performance in 2012.
Recognising the risks associated with climate change, energy security and
water scarcity, we have continued to take steps to improve our environmental
performance. Our approach includes investment in alternative and renewable
energy generation such as Los Pelambres’ recent long-term energy supply
agreement with a windfarm in central Chile, a project in which the company
has taken a 30% stake. When completed, it will be Chile’s largest windfarm.
We continue to pioneer the use of non-desalinated seawater, with Antucoya
becoming the third of our operations to use this resource. Reducing our
impacts as our business grows remains very challenging but we will continue
to innovate and to report our progress openly.
Over the coming year our operating environment will continue to be shaped
by sustainability issues such as access to resources and skilled labour,
energy costs and community and employee relations. We will maintain our
focus and commitment to improving our performance, and I look forward to
updating you on further progress in 2012.
Jean-Paul Luksic F.
Chairman
Antofagasta plc