Anglo American mines in Brazil achieve IRMA standard

Anglo American announced on Wednesday that its Minas-Rio iron ore and Barro Alto nickel mines in Brazil had attained the IRMA 75 level of performance.

The FTSE 100 firm said the achievements made Minas-Rio and Barro Alto the world's first iron ore and nickel-producing mines to undergo an audit against the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance's (IRMA) standard.

It said IRMA 75 indicated that a mine fulfilled a core set of requirements along with at least 75% of the standards in each of the four sections of the Standard for Responsible Mining.

Anglo American noted that its Unki platinum mine in Zimbabwe was the first in the world to commit to independent auditing against the IRMA Standard for Responsible Mining and achieved IRMA 75 in 2021.

Other Anglo American operations, including Mototolo, Amandelbult and Mogalakwena platinum group metals operations in South Africa, as well as the Kolomela and Sishen iron ore operations, also in South Africa, had undergone independent audits, with results pending.

“The IRMA assurance process has provided us with a valuable opportunity to measure our performance at Minas-Rio and Barro Alto against international best sustainability practices and identify next steps for improvement,” said Ana Sanches, Anglo American’s chief executive officer in Brazil.

“The result is informed by evidence from a diverse range of stakeholders including employees, governments, NGOs, customers and communities alike.

“We are immensely proud of the work the teams have been doing at Minas-Rio and Barro Alto on responsible mining, and we look forward to continuing leading the way for our other mining operations across Anglo American.”

At 1354 GMT, shares in Anglo American were down 1.83% at 1,789.2p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.