Antofagasta plc (LON:ANTO) has announced that Centinela and Zaldívar are the Company’s first operations to commit to the Copper Mark.
The Copper Mark is a credible assurance framework established to demonstrate the copper industry’s responsible production practices and the industry’s contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Copper Mark goes beyond compliance and focuses on the continuous improvement of responsible production.
To be granted the Copper Mark, a producer must comply with 32 criteria within two years from the date of submitting a letter of commitment to the Copper Mark. These criteria relate to issues important to all stakeholders, including greenhouse gas emissions, safety and health, tailings management, biodiversity, business integrity, gender equality and human rights. Once the Copper Mark has been granted the producer must be independently assessed every three years to demonstrate continued compliance with all the criteria.
René Aguilar, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability said, “This external independent review will help us to continue improving our responsible mining practices. We are working towards becoming leaders of sustainability in our industry and the Copper Mark is a further and important step forward in this journey.”
Iván Arriagada, Chief Executive Officer of Antofagasta said, “We are starting this important process at Centinela and Zaldívar and will then extend it to the rest of our Mining operations. Application for the Copper Mark is a voluntary process that allows an external independent entity to review our sustainability practices and indicate our level of compliance and whether there are any aspects we must improve.”
