Kumba Iron Ore Achieves IRMA 75 Performance Level, Demonstrating Commitment to Responsible Mining

(IN BRIEF) Kumba Iron Ore Limited, a subsidiary of Anglo American plc, has announced that its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa have attained the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) IRMA 75 level of performance. This achievement underscores Anglo American’s dedication to sustainability and transparency in iron ore production. Mpumi Zikalala, Chief Executive of Kumba Iron Ore, highlights the mines’ commitment to responsible mining practices and the production of premium-quality iron ore products contributing to carbon emission reduction in steel-making. Themba Mkhwanazi, Anglo American’s Regional Director for Africa and Australia, emphasizes the significance of Kumba’s IRMA audit, positioning them as Africa’s first iron ore producer to complete the assessment and providing stakeholders with transparent sustainability practices. The IRMA certification marks progress toward Anglo American’s Sustainable Mining Plan goal of subjecting all operations to third-party audits by 2025, enhancing their overall Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance. Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of IRMA, underscores the value of detailed audit reports in promoting transparency and accountability in the mining industry. The release of IRMA reports for Kolomela and Sishen aligns with Anglo American’s commitment to responsible mining across its global operations, as evidenced by previous achievements in sites like Minas Rio in Brazil and Barro Alto in Brazil, among others.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON, 27-Mar-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Anglo American plc notes the announcement by Kumba Iron Ore Limited released today to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The text of the announcement is copied below:

Kumba Iron Ore announces that its Sishen and Kolomela mines in South Africa have been assessed against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance’s (IRMA) comprehensive mining standard, achieving the IRMA 75 level of performance. This reflects Anglo American’s integrated approach to sustainability and its commitment to transparency in striving for the highest levels of responsible iron ore production.

Mpumi Zikalala, Chief Executive of Kumba Iron Ore said: “We are proud of our teams’ efforts and the outstanding progress made across both of our operations to promote responsible mining practices. As part of our commitment to leading in ESG practices, we are dedicated to delivering premium quality iron ore products that help to reduce carbon emissions in the steel-making process, while helping our customers meet the growing demand for responsibly sourced materials in an efficient and independently verified way. Through the IRMA assurance process, we have been able to evaluate our sustainability performance at Sishen and Kolomela mines, identify areas for improvement and ensure that we strive to adhere to the highest standards of responsible mining”.

Themba Mkhwanazi, Anglo American’s Regional Director – Africa and Australia, said: “We are pleased that Kumba is the first iron ore producer in Africa to complete the IRMA audit, providing stakeholders with a way of accounting for sustainability practices that is transparent, verifiable, and comparable. Launched last year, our digital traceability platform Valutrax™ is available to customers purchasing Anglo American mined products, helping them to trace metals and minerals through a tailored selection of key provenance and sustainability indicators, including third-party assurance such as IRMA. The IRMA results demonstrate further progress on our Sustainable Mining Plan commitment of having all our operations undergo third-party audits against responsible mine certification standards by 2025. IRMA improves our ability to build an understanding of areas where we can continue to improve our ESG performance.

Aimee Boulanger, Executive Director of IRMA, said “Through detailed IRMA audit reports, mining companies, communities and companies that purchase mined materials can gain the information they need to decide what’s going well — and what may require more attention — at specific mines. The Sishen and Kolomela reports demonstrate that these mines can point to transparent, independent evaluations of their environmental and social performance.”

The IRMA scoring system recognises four levels of performance: IRMA Transparency, in which a mine is third-party-assessed and publicly shares its scores; IRMA 50, 75 or 100, signifying that a mine meets a core set of critical requirements together with at least 50%, 75% or 100% of the requirements in each of the four sections of the Standard for Responsible Mining being met respectively.

IRMA’s Standard for Responsible Mining has been developed over a decade through a public consultation process with more than 100 different individuals and organisations, including mining companies, customers and the ultimate downstream users of mined products, NGOs, labour unions, and communities and is considered to be one of the most rigorous certification processes.

The link to the assessment of Kumba’s mines can be found on IRMA’s website at: https://responsiblemining.net/.

The release of the IRMA reports for Kolomela and Sishen builds on those already completed for other Anglo American operations, as follows:

Product	Site	IRMA Achievement Level
Iron Ore	Kolomela (South Africa) Minas Rio (Brazil) Sishen (South Africa)	IRMA75 IRMA75 IRMA75
Nickel	Barro Alto (Brazil)	IRMA75
PGMs	Amandelbult (South Africa) Mototolo(South Africa) Unki (Zimbabwe)	IRMA50 IRMA75 IRMA75

About Anglo American:

Anglo American is a leading global mining company and our products are the essential ingredients in almost every aspect of modern life. Our portfolio of world-class competitive operations, with a broad range of future development options, provides many of the future-enabling metals and minerals for a cleaner, greener, more sustainable world and that meet the fast growing every day demands of billions of consumers. With our people at the heart of our business, we use innovative practices and the latest technologies to discover new resources and to mine, process, move and market our products to our customers – safely and sustainably.

As a responsible producer of copper, nickel, platinum group metals, diamonds (through De Beers), and premium quality iron ore and steelmaking coal – with crop nutrients in development – we are committed to being carbon neutral across our operations by 2040. More broadly, our Sustainable Mining Plan commits us to a series of stretching goals to ensure we work towards a healthy environment, creating thriving communities and building trust as a corporate leader. We work together with our business partners and diverse stakeholders to unlock enduring value from precious natural resources for the benefit of the communities and countries in which we operate, for society as a whole, and for our shareholders. Anglo American is re-imagining mining to improve people’s lives.
www.angloamerican.com

In this document, references to “Anglo American”, the “Anglo American Group”, the “Group”, “we”, “us”, and “our” are to refer to either Anglo American plc and its subsidiaries and/or those who work for them generally, or where it is not necessary to refer to a particular entity, entities or persons. The use of those generic terms herein is for convenience only, and is in no way indicative of how the Anglo American Group or any entity within it is structured, managed or controlled. Anglo American subsidiaries, and their management, are responsible for their own day-to-day operations, including but not limited to securing and maintaining all relevant licences and permits, operational adaptation and implementation of Group policies, management, training and any applicable local grievance mechanisms. Anglo American produces group-wide policies and procedures to ensure best uniform practices and standardisation across the Anglo American Group but is not responsible for the day to day implementation of such policies. Such policies and procedures constitute prescribed minimum standards only. Group operating subsidiaries are responsible for adapting those policies and procedures to reflect local conditions where appropriate, and for implementation, oversight and monitoring within their specific businesses.

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Forward-looking statements and third party information

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Kumba Iron Ore Achieves IRMA 75 Performance Level, Demonstrating Commitment to Responsible Mining

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