Investor and stakeholder engagement

The sustainability of our business is highly reliant on proactive and frank stakeholder engagement. Our stakeholders include:

• Investors
• Unions and employees
• Governments and regulators
• Local communities
• NGOs and associations

Our engagement with stakeholders falls into two types. The first is direct engagement, including organised dialogues, roundtable discussions, one-to-one meetings, internal surveys and regular engagement with local communities at each operation. The second is indirect engagement, including the use of external benchmarks and standards that are designed to reflect and address societal expectations (see p40).

At an operational level, all of our mines identify, prioritise and engage stakeholder groups that have the potential to affect their operational, sustainability or financial performance. They do so in accordance with the AA 1000 Stakeholder Engagement Standard. At a strategic level, our corporate and regional management teams likewise implement an ongoing programme of direct and indirect engagement.

Relevant outcomes from our direct stakeholder engagements are logged and communicated through our Enterprise-Wide Risk Management process – and so form a vital part of our risk management (p40).

Despite significant recent progress, our drive for continuous improvement means we plan to continue strengthening our stakeholder engagement processes.