Sustainable Copper

CO₂ Emissions

Definitions of Sustainability

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Teck Named to 2018 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index as Quebrada Blanca 2 Advances

For the ninth year running, Teck Resources has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI), which ranks its sustainability practices among the top 10 percent of the 2,500 largest firms in the S&P Global Broad Market Index (BMI).

DJSI evaluated Teck through an in-depth study of its economic, social and environmental policies. Meanwhile, Teck scored highest within the mining industry in talent attraction and retention, materiality and supply chains as well as environmental policy and management.

Our commitment to responsible resource development is core to who we are as a company and is central to everything we do.”

– Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck

Teck’s sustainable mining approach is comprehensive and follows its focus on “Community, Our People, Water, Energy, Climate Change, Air and Biodiversity.” With these objectives, Teck is in unison with the mandates of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and many other members of the International Copper Association.

Building on this momentum, Teck has received regulatory approval for its Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 (QB2) project near Pica in the Tarapacá region of northern Chile. This project extends the work of its Quebrada Blanca Phase 1 (QB1) and is a major asset with low sustaining costs and an initially permitted life of 25 years, with significant growth potential.

Shining Success
Teck has committed to increasing its renewable energy use to 100 megawatts (MW) by 2030 to reduce its carbon footprint, and QB2—by using QB1’s solar plant—will be instrumental to this goal. In phase one, Teck partnered with AES Gener S.A., a top Chilean electricity producer, to develop a power plant with a unique design to utilize solar, wind, hydro and biomass and a 21 MW capacity delivering a full 55-gigawatt hours (GWh) per year.

The QB1 plant, which covers 800,000 square meters, meets one-third of all QB’s energy needs and QB2 will witness its continued use accordingly. Further project features encompass proven technologies including a new 140,000-tonne-per-day concentrator, a tailings storage facility, pipelines for water and concentrate as well as a shipping port.

Sourcing Quebrada Blanca’s power through solar electricity has positioned the operation to be a leader in Chile for the production of clean and renewable energy.”

– Marcos Cid, Senior Electrical Engineer, Teck.

Heights of Prosperity
Teck has begun training and hiring for construction and operations at QB2. The company coordinates its planning closely with government agencies and local communities. As with QB1, QB2  will provide major economic and social benefits to the country and region through employment and taxes. In all, 11,000 jobs will be created during construction, and over 2,000 ongoing direct and indirect jobs will be added during operation.

Teck is focused on helping empower indigenous peoples in the areas where we operate so they can fully share the economic benefits created by responsible resource development.”

– Don Lindsay, President and CEO, Teck

Free and Informed
Teck accomplished the planning for QB2 through extensive consultation with local communities. The process began in 2013 when project planners began outreach to surrounding Altiplano and La Pampa populations encompassing some 1,500 people.

Local organizations collected social and environmental data related to the operation and design of community projects. Based on an analysis of this data, Teck established a funding program for four trade unions of regional fishermen and seaweed collectors.

Collaboration with these unions enabled the collection and analysis of marine and environmental data, guiding Teck’s long-term planning process. Consultations with the community contributed to the design of the diffusion system for a new desalination plant—which will be the first of its kind in the Tarapacá region—and the decision to construct a new access road to the coastal border.

About Teck Resources Ltd.

Headquartered in Vancouver, Teck is Canada’s largest diversified resource firm. Dedicated to responsible mining and mineral development across jurisdictions, it has a major focus on copper, in addition to steelmaking, coal, zinc and energy. Teck has four operating copper mines in Canada, Chile and Peru, and copper-development projects in North and South America.

About Quebrada Blanca 2

The Quebrada Blanca Phase 2 (QB2) Project represents one of the world’s largest undeveloped copper projects. Teck holds a 60 percent interest in Compañía Minera Teck Quebrada Blanca SA, which owns QB2. Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., and Sumitomo Corp. together have a collective 30 percent interest in QBSA. ENAMI, a Chilean state agency, has a 10 percent non-funding interest in QBSA. First copper production is pending mid-2021.

About the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) tracks the performance of global sustainability leaders, through an annual assessment of the world’s 2,500 largest public companies. Among many factors, it measures management practices on economic, environmental and social criteria. Dow Jones contracts RobecoSAM, an investment specialist focused on sustainability investing, to compile the DJSI.

About the Copper Alliance®

The Copper Alliance is a network of regional copper centers and their industry-leading members. It is responsible for guiding policy and strategy and for funding international initiatives and promotional activities. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has offices in four primary regions: Europe and Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Copper Alliance programs and initiatives are executed in more than 60 countries through its regional offices and country-level copper promotion centers.

Closing the Loop for the Circular Economy

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Top Miners Work Toward a Sustainable Future by Recycling Copper

The Cycle of Life

Recycling metals in an age defined by growth is integral to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and vital to sustaining the planet as we know it. Moreover, an exploding global middle class, coupled with new electrification for one-billion people worldwide and the proliferation of consumer electronics, are driving the necessary transition to a low-carbon future.

Indeed, growing consumption—fueled by shorter life cycles for an increasing number of electronic goods—and production mean the availability of raw materials needs to expand at a quicker rate. Fortunately, copper proves an ideal raw material for recycling as it is infinitely reusable without any loss of properties.

While recycling intricate electronic devices and other increasingly complex technologies poses distinct challenges, the world’s leading copper miners and pioneering members of the International Copper Association are more than up to the task.

Kennecott: In with the Old

Take Rio Tinto Kennecott and its flagship Bingham Canyon Mine, by far one of the world’s largest and most prolific projects. The mine, which first began operations in the early 1900s, now satisfies nearly 15 percent of all U.S. copper demands.

In 2012, to enhance efficiencies and advance the circular economy, Rio Tinto Kennecott and its assets began introducing recycled scrap metals—such as old copper wiring—from companies across the U.S into the smelting process.

Recycling copper is a win-win for us and for the community. It allows us to meet an element of copper demand in a sustainable way and to continue contributing to our local and national economy.” – Marc Cameron, Rio Tinto Kennecott Managing Director

Processed at the same smelter and refinery as the copper extracted from the Bingham Canyon Mine, the metrics are impressive. The process subjects 750-pound copper anode plates to an electric current for ten days to yield two 300-pound copper cathodes that are 99.99 percent pure copper.

In all, Kennecott processed 2.8 million pounds of copper from recycled scrap in 2017, a quantity equal to all electrical copper wiring in 6,400 newly constructed homes.

Photos provided by Aurubis

Boliden and the European Equation

ICA members with European assets are faced with the prospect that, while the continent has high copper demands, it also has limited mineral resources. In Northern Sweden, nearly 5,000 miles away from Utah, Boliden has been steadily recycling waste at its Rönnskär smelter since the 1960s.

The refinery, outside Skellefteå, has an annual capacity for recycling electrical material of 120,000 tonnes—including circuit boards from computers and mobile phones sourced principally from Europe—making it one of the world’s largest recyclers of metal from electronic material.

Increased recycling brings us closer to the circular economy, where a high degree of the material that is consumed can be reused or recycled, and that which is waste for one company is a raw material for another.” – Peter Burman, Program Manager, Mine Automation

After the removal of materials including plastic, iron and aluminum, the copper goes into a Kaldo furnace, which contains a rotational cylinder to guarantee even heat distribution during smelting. The result—called “black copper”—is then reintroduced for further refining to extract copper and precious metals.

Minimization of environmental impacts is essential, and since 2015, emissions and water discharge have been reduced by over 50 percent. The smelter is equipped with advanced systems to clean process gases and discharge water. Wet gas purification uses water to wash out dust particles; a subsequent refining process, meanwhile, further includes a mercury-specific purification.

Plastic in the electronic material melts during smelting, which acts as a source of energy and generates steam that is converted into electricity or heating. The heat is partially reused as district heating in the plant area, and the remaining heat supplies the local municipal heating system.

Aurubis: The Pinnacle of Copper Recycling

As the world’s largest recycler of copper and one of its largest metal recyclers overall, Germany’s Aurubis is expanding its own arsenal of cutting-edge technologies while making products from recycled materials at several of its sites. In addition to copper-alloy scrap, the firm also recycles copper-bearing residues from foundries and semis fabricators, shredder materials, galvanic slimes, slags, ashes and filter dust.

Central to operations is the largest plant at Aurubis’ recycling center in Lünen, Germany, where it develops cathodes from secondary raw materials. Meanwhile, Aurubis’ facilities in Hamburg process a mix of copper concentrates and recycling materials in the primary smelting process, whereas its plants in Belgium and Bulgaria primarily draw on scrap.

The end results generate copper tube, electronic scrap and casting slags, among others. Aurubis procures copper and copper-alloy scrap as well as copper-bearing residues. It utilizes scrap as input in the convertors and anode furnaces of its primary and secondary smelting processes and alloy scrap and residues in its Kayser Recycling System (KRS).

A Centrifugal Force in Germany

The KRS encompasses a submerged furnace almost 13 meters high, featuring a submerged combustion lance that is, in turn, immersed into the furnace from above. The charging times for this furnace are shorter because heating oil and oxygen are supplied, ensuring the iron silicate sand extracted contains a minimal amount of copper residue.

Byproducts—lead, bismuth, antimony and tellurium—are separated in the connected lead refinery and sold as concentrates. Precious metals, meanwhile, are fortified in a rich lead, with a precious metal content of approximately 70 percent.

About Rio Tinto Kennecott

Rio Tinto Kennecott is a fully integrated mining operation just outside Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S., and a fully-owned unit of Rio Tinto. For more than 110 years, Kennecott has been mining and processing minerals from the rich ore body of the Bingham Canyon Mine. In addition to Bingham Canyon, the subsidiary possesses other facilities at South Jordan in the Salt Lake Valley.

About Boliden AB

Boliden mines and processes base metals and precious metals, principally zinc, copper, lead, nickel, gold and silver. Headquartered in Stockholm, Boliden is also a leading global operator in the recycling of electronics and lead from batteries.

About Aurubis AG

Aurubis is one of Europe’s largest copper producers, a service provider for the automotive supply, chemical and waste-management industries, and the largest global copper recycler. With corporate offices in Hamburg, Germany, Aurubis produces over one million tonnes of copper cathodes annually along with various other copper products.

About the Copper Alliance®

The Copper Alliance® is a network of regional copper centers and their industry-leading members. It is responsible for guiding policy and strategy and for funding international initiatives and promotional activities. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has offices in four primary regions: Europe and Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Copper Alliance programs and initiatives are executed in more than 60 countries through regional offices and country-level copper promotion centers.

All-In for Clean Energy

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Chile’s Minera Zaldívar and Colbún S.A. Forge Mining History

Challenge

As copper demands increase and accessible ore wanes, reliable energy remains paramount for miners everywhere working overtime to meet their 24/7 power needs. Chile’s miners, by deploying clean technology to offset long truck routes and costly diesel, are setting an unprecedented shift across the sector—and the world beyond—just as global needs for environmentally sound mining have grown exponentially.

Given that the mining sector accounts for more than 38 percent of total industrial energy use—and 11 percent of total energy consumption —moreover, few other enterprises are better poised to foster the planetary shift necessary for a carbon-free future. Climate resilience and energy efficiency are also integral to the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a key framework for the Copper Alliance® and all its member companies.

In the remotest reaches of the Atacama Desert, amid the planet’s most generous reserves, one very special project will spark a new beginning in 2020—when it becomes the world’s very first mine powered by 100 percent green energy.

Solution

With nearly two metric tonnes (3.8 billion pounds) of recoverable copper, Minera Zaldívar, co-owned by Barrick Gold Corp. and Antofagasta Minerals, operates in the barely vegetated expanses of the Atacama, 3,200 km above sea level and its closest deep-water shipping facility.

Since operations began in 1995, Zaldívar personnel have stoutly braved one of the earth’s coldest and driest places to ensure their products are successfully transported by rail and truck 196 km southeast to coastal Antofagasta.

In June 2018 officials announced an agreement to grant Colbún S.A., an independent power producer, a ten-year, 550-Gw (Gigawatt) contract to develop energy based on existing and planned wind, solar and hydroelectric-based installations. In all, the asset is forecast to abate 350,000 tons of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs)—equivalent to 87,000 vehicles—per year.

Result

The agreement establishes due diligence verification by an external auditor. Colbún has committed to undertaking studies to prepare for the construction of the 600-Mw (Megawatt) Horizonte wind asset that will be located near Taltal, close to the Argentine border. The agreement provides for a 4-year construction phase and 30-year concession, which will include royalties for the regional government.

“These diversified technologies will not only allow us to deliver 100 percent renewable energy but will also provide a reliable supply at competitive prices.”

– Juan Eduardo Vásquez, Manager of Business and Energy Management Division, Colbún S.A.

Chile, meanwhile, is already Latin America’s fastest-growing green economy. With over 260 alternative energy deployments and a majority of the region’s foreign investments in clean tech, it presents an ideal ecosystem. Encouraged by high-quality infrastructure and a progressive, investor friendly government, Chile’s miners use more clean energy than any other mining jurisdiction in the world.

About Minera Zaldívar – The Zaldívar mine is open pit, and a 50-50 Joint Venture (JV) between Toronto-based Barrick Gold Corp., the world’s top gold miner, and Chilean copper giant Antofagasta Minerals. In 2017, the asset produced 103,000 tonnes of per day (tpd) of cathodes. Its fleet has been progressively upgraded and expanded as the plant feed and truck fleet have 240,000 tpd volume capacity.

About Colbún S.A. – With a diversified renewable energy portfolio, Colbún S.A. is dedicated to energy generation and commercialization with 3,893 Mw of installed capacity in Chile and Peru.

About The Copper Alliance® – The Copper Alliance is a network of regional copper centers and their industry-leading members. It is responsible for guiding policy and strategy and for funding international initiatives and promotional activities. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has offices in four primary regions: Europe and Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Copper Alliance programs and initiatives are executed in more than 60 countries through its regional offices and country-level copper promotion centers.

Smart Wired to Move Mountains

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Caterpillar, Boliden and ABB Pilot Electric Trucking Network in Sweden’s Arctic

Challenge
The Aitik copper project in Sweden’s northernmost, usually frigid, Arctic region poses complex, logistical challenges. Two are increasingly common across operations throughout the industry: expensive, irregularly priced fuel supplies and—with advances in clean technology—cumbersome battery storage systems.

Currently, the Boliden-owned mine deploys a fleet of 10 Caterpillar 795F diesel-electric hybrid trucks which haul up to 310-tons of rock from 400 meters (1,500 feet) beneath the surface, day in and in day out, at one of Europe’s biggest mines.

Yet personnel at the Gällivare mine, 100 km north of the outermost reach Arctic Circle, are one step ahead of the game, knowing the stakes are high. Efficiencies are a priority to balance budgets, and worker safety cannot be compromised. Carbon emissions, meanwhile, loom large on a warming planet.

Solution
Together, Boliden, Caterpillar, ABB and Eitech are thus piloting a clean tech initiative to unearth simultaneous scalability for electric-vehicle efficiency while systematically reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs). It is proving to be are markable ecosystem to nurture the United Nations-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The trucks traffic 70 million tonnes of rock per year and, in 2017, enabled the shipment of 400,000 tonnes of concentrate, encompassing 97,500 tonnes of copper, 2.9 tonnes of gold and 62 silver tonnes. Though outfitted with hybrid diesel-electric batteries, each unit still engulfs 400 liters of fuel hourly, a consumption rate detrimental to the environment.

To address this challenge, Caterpillar, with ABB and Eitech, are pioneering a wire-based electrical conversion system that has the potential to disrupt the industry. Battery packs prove cumbersome among the extreme depths, trajectories and other equipment typical at mines around the world.

Result
Initial testing of the truck’s overhead wiring will involve transporting non-ore rocks to elevations of 60 meters before expanding to greater heights. Careful and rigorous testing, followed by a gradual implementation of the devices, will be crucial given the often-relentless temperatures in one of Western Europe’s most remote spots.

“This project has potential to radically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from mining. Reduced emissions from mining processes (are) important to produce future vehicles in a sustainable manner.” 

– Erik Brandsma, Director General, Swedish Energy Agency

Engineering firms ABB and Eitech, renowned for their expertise in electrified railway development, will also gradually integrate contact wire and transformer technologies into the mix.

Each truck will handle nearly 4.75 Mw (Megawatts) of power and allow speeds of up to 30 km hourly, double the 15 km hourly speed of the current diesel-electric units. After the trucks become operational, electricity will further accelerate GHG reductions up to 80 percent.

Caterpillar previously tested the truck wiring in the Arizona Desert, where it proved successful and used less power. The company also piloted related technology on smaller trucks in Africa.

Collectively, these deployments will further cement the Nordic nation’s expansive green footprint. Sweden is not only a global leader in fossil fuel divestment and clean tech—targeting net zero GHG emissions by 2045—but also soon will host one of Europe’s largest vehicle battery manufacturing plants in Skellefteå, 360 km south from Gällivare.

About Boliden AB
Boliden mines and processes base metals and precious metals, principally zinc, copper, lead, nickel, gold and silver. Headquartered in Stockholm, Boliden is also a leading global operator in the recycling of electronics and lead from batteries.

About Caterpillar and ABB
Caterpillar Inc. is the world’s largest construction equipment manufacturer and an American Fortune 100 giant that designs, develops, engineers, manufactures, markets and sells machinery, engines, financial products and insurance via a worldwide network. The firm is based on Deerfield, Illinois.

ABB is a top Swedish-Swiss multinational specializing in robotics, power, heavy electrical equipment and automation technology.

About the Copper Alliance®
The Copper Alliance® is a network of regional copper centers and their industry-leading members. It is responsible for guiding policy and strategy and for funding international initiatives and promotional activities. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has offices in four primary regions: Europe and Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Copper Alliance programs and initiatives are executed in more than 60 countries through its regional offices and country-level copper promotion centers.

Anglo American Scales Sustainability Commitments

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Global Outperformer Pioneers New CSR Strategy

Leadership, Environment, Thriving Communities, Trust
Anglo American has rolled out an innovative strategy to foster energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), enhance smart water use and create value spanning its global footprint. Through this new strategy officials are accelerating—and better communicating—cross-operational improvements in key sustainability areas that systematically augment each other.

This blueprint has been systematically formulated to scale sustainability while embedding trust and transparency among all–stakeholders and stakeholder groups.

Following robust internal and external consultations as well as risk and opportunity-based analyses, Anglo outlined three strategic pillars, “Trusted Corporate Leader, Thriving Communities, Healthy Environment.” All further principles driving Anglo’s existing FutureSmart Mining™ blueprint. Integral, too, is the miner’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Scaling Resilience
Given ore depletion and growing market demands, miners are working harder to discover copper in remote corners of the world. Miners must address the sustainability of operations carefully and systematically: failure to do so can result in problems for the environment, communities and broader regions. These issues are mission critical—given “pit-to-port” industrial infrastructure, from the mines and associated facilities to roads, highways and railways to deep water ports.

“If Anglo American is to play its part in creating a sustainable future for the world and improving the lives of all of us, we must be prepared to challenge our business and ourselves, by re-imagining mining.”

– Mark Cutifani, Anglo American CEO

Beyond “Business as Usual”
Yet opportunities are vast, and Anglo is on the cutting edge of a drive to reinvent the copper mining industry itself.

Specific targets encompass reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) 30 percent, enhancing energy efficiencies 30 percent and slashing freshwater abstraction rates by 50 percent in water-scarce regions—a major concern to copper miners the world over.

In 2017, GHG emission reductions totaled 4.8 million tonnes—a full 21 percent reduction below initial forecasts. GHG emission-reduction targets for 2020, meanwhile, were 22 percent against projected emissions under “Business as Usual” (BAU) predictions.

Moreover, Anglo accomplished a 6 percent energy savings relative to BAU scenarios. In total, 320 energy-efficiency and business-improvement projects conserved 6.4 million gigajoules (GJ) in energy consumption throughout last year.

In the long term, Anglo aims to build a fully carbon-neutral, 100 percent green-powered mine. It is a multi-dimensional approach yielding remarkable returns. With help from a holistic climate-smart procurement focus—also intrinsic to the new strategy—full GJ annual consumption dropped to 97 million GJ from 105 million since 2016.

Walking on Water
Environmental and biotic impacts are important across jurisdictions for leading copper miners. For Anglo officials, water conservation is a major focus. In 2017, most notably, half of all the copper miner’s sites were water-stressed—pending global forecasts of a water shortfall of 40 percent by 2030.

“Delivering on these commitments will transform the way Anglo American does business.”

– Mark Cutifani, Anglo American CEO

Anglo is simultaneously pursuing 2020 freshwater reduction targets of 20 percent—contrasting with BAU—while moving toward recycling 75 percent of all water used at its mines. Other water-friendly measures target ore crushing and grinding, which will enable a re-use of 80 percent of process water. In the future Anglo plans an eventual move toward a 100 percent waterless mine.

These are among myriad examples of how Anglo’s sustainable energy and water priority strategies are interrelated. Its environmental conservation and sustainable development for local communities—including job creation and educational opportunities—as well as regional economies are a source of inspiration to miners across the globe.

About the Copper Alliance®
The Copper Alliance® is a network of regional copper centers and their industry-leading members. It is responsible for guiding policy and strategy and for funding international initiatives and promotional activities. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has offices in four primary regions: Europe and Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America. Copper Alliance programs and initiatives are executed in more than 60 countries through its regional offices and country-level copper promotion centers.

About Anglo American
Anglo American plc is a diversified multinational mining firm based in Johannesburg, South Africa and London, United Kingdom, and is a major copper producer with four red metal mines in Chile.

About FutureSmart Mining™
Enabled by robust, cross-operational and stakeholder consultations, Anglo methodology is embedded in its FutureSmart Mining™ initiative, which applies cutting-edge technology and broad innovative thinking. This encompasses collaboration to ensure safer, more efficient and more sustainable mining while accommodating the needs of each host community.

Copper: The Resilient Infrastructure Solution for America

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Copper is a durable and sustainable material with a service life of more than 50 years. See how it will play a crucial role in providing the resilient infrastructure needed for future generations of America.

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