Land management

We review environmental risks and opportunities and integrate them into our planning, operating and business decisions. We require our industrial assets to implement land stewardship management systems, including progressive land rehabilitation target setting tied to life of asset planning, that includes standard elements such as an environmental policy, data collection and monitoring, adaptive management, and continuous improvement.

We respect the rights, interests, traditional knowledge, cultural heritage, and ecosystem services of our local communities and Indigenous Peoples and seek to consider these in our planning and operational practices.

We respect legally designated areas and commit to neither mine nor explore in World Heritage Sites. 

We are committed to identifying and addressing the potential impacts of our business on ecosystems services and achieving no net loss of biodiversity through the application of mitigation hierarchy. 

We conduct our work with respect for legally-designated areas, such as International Union for Conservation of Nature category I-IV protected areas. We do not mine or explore in World Heritage Sites.

We support species’ preservation and biodiversity conservation through integrated land use planning and management practices, partnerships and research. This supports the long-term sustainability of our business and the environment in which we operate, by seeking opportunities to reduce our operational footprint, wherever possible, and addressing biodiversity impacts. 

We require that all our assets undertake biodiversity surveys and use their data to identify risks and opportunities and to develop mitigation plans. We monitor progress against these plans through biodiversity report cards.

Our assets’ land stewardship and biodiversity management plans can include measures for preliminary clearing works, habitat relocation, flora and fauna conservation, weed and pest control and fire and grazing management and associated monitoring programmes. Where possible, these plans support the continuation of existing land practices, including natural buffer areas grazing and other agricultural activities.

Assets typically engage with local stakeholders, such as local communities and conservation organisations, in developing these plans. Our management plans and procedures for site exploration, development and construction include fully integrated biodiversity baseline surveys and protection measures, often in association with the completion of Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, a key public regulatory approvals process in most jurisdictions. If our activities cannot avoid or mitigate significant biodiversity impacts then offsetting measures are applied.

Our assets also continuously monitor and assess potential biodiversity impacts throughout the asset lifecycle, such as when permits change or a significant expansion project is planned.  We commit to addressing potential impacts on biodiversity by applying the mitigation hierarchy with the ambition of achieving no net loss of biodiversity.

We support species’ preservation and biodiversity conservation through partnerships, research, and integrated land use planning and management practices. Our assets work to avoid the loss of any International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List threatened species.

Our assets located in or near areas identified as having a high biodiversity value include:

• Our PASAR copper smelting operation in the Philippines is located in an area adjacent to areas of high biodiversity value. It maintains a forest reserve that support mangrove species and associated fauna such as hermit crabs, mud crabs and birds like the kingfisher. PASAR’s mangrove reforestation programme has been in place since 2015. It is currently participating in a national remediation programme for mangrove propagation and planting, as well as supporting a local regulatory greening initiative.
• A number of our Australian coal operations are close to or located within areas with a high biodiversity value. In Queensland, our Rolleston coal mine is located adjacent to the Albinia National Park, which includes a large protected area of the endangered Bluegrass community. Clermont coal mine is near to the adjoining Blair Athol and Apsley State Forests and our Hail Creek Mine is adjacent to the Homevale National Park, which protects important biodiversity and historic fossil locations.
  
  Across New South Wales, our United Wambo Joint Venture mine is near to the Wollemi National Park. Bulga Mine is near to both the Wollemi and Yengo National Parks. The Wollemi and Yengo National Parks are part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Our Ulan surface operations are close to the Goulburn River National Park and our Mount Owen mine is partly within the Ravensworth State Forest.
• The Raglan Mine is close to a meteoritic crater filled with exceptionally clear blue water that sits within the Parc national des Pingualuit.
• Our Koniambo nickel operations in New Caledonia are located in an area of high biodiversity value where 80% of the plant species are endemic, as well as most of the reptiles in the mine site area. In addition to undertaking progressive site rehabilitation, we produced a detailed biodiversity management plan in 2007, followed by a protected area management plan in 2011 and a rare species management plan in 2014. Our objectives are to avoid net loss of biodiversity, maintain large conservation areas onsite (approximately 825 hectares) that minimise the risk of fire and invasive exotic species, and perform in-house research into these rare species.
• Our Mutanda copper operation in the DRC is located in the Basse-Kando Hunting Zone, at a distance of 5km from the Kando River. Mutanda seeks to limit any impact of its operations through diligent environmental management, a biodiversity management plan and developing and implementing progressive rehabilitation plans, which include the protection of endemic species (copper flora) through an onsite flora conservation garden.
• In South Africa, the Helena and Thorncliffe and Magareng chrome mines are located within the Sekhukuneland Centre of Plant Endemism, the third-richest ultramafic induced Centre of Plant Endemism in southern Africa. At Kroondal Chrome 
• Mine, the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve is located in its concession. The current operational footprint of the Lydenburg Chrome Smelter is 5 km from freshwater critical biodiversity and ecological support areas, as defined by the 2014 Mpumalanga biodiversity plan. 
• In Spain, the San Juan de Nieva zinc smelter is close to the Monumento Natural Dunas El Espartal, home to a dune ecosystem. 
• The Britannia Refined Metals zinc plant in the UK is close to marshland. Since 2016, BRM has worked with Kent Wildlife Trust to implement a Habitat Management Plan on the land, and to help the Botany Marshes achieve the best possible condition for nurturing biodiversity. More detailed on Glencore’s commitment and actions to preserve biodiversity at Botany Marshes is presented in the case study in this section.

This included, for example, creating a new open water area exclusively for birds, and egg-laying sites for grass snakes.

Ongoing maintenance activities are carried out, like cutting reed beds and bankside vegetation to preserve natural habitats, and removal of shrub to create sheltered conditions for invertebrates and basking locations for reptiles.
The marshland is open to the local community, and local schools use it for educational field trips.

Since 2019, ecological surveys found that the area has become home to a new resident – the water vole. This was a fantastic development, as the water vole is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP) priority species, and protected by wildlife legislation.

Progressive rehabilitation is conducted prior to formal closure in previously disturbed areas once active operations have completed. 

Planning for land rehabilitation starts prior to the disturbance of operational areas. The land rehabilitation plans are a fundamental component of our environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA) process. The ESIA take place ahead of the start of the project and supports the application for environmental permitting. During the ESIA process, financial provision is made and held in reserve for the purpose of rehabilitation and closure efforts once operations have ceased.

During the ESIA process, our assets undertake baseline data collection and monitoring programmes, which include collecting pre-disturbance data, to support the eventual restoration efforts. Assets use this data to understand the potential impacts of the operation on the local ecosystem and to identify opportunities to manage and mitigate these potential impacts. Assets develop action plans to minimise disturbance to the ecosystem and engage with local communities to identify appropriate post-mining land uses.

In addition, our assets are required to develop closure plans that include social frameworks and to identify progressive rehabilitation targets to encourage reclamation of areas where operations have ceased prior to the overall closure of the asset. 

Assets develop and maintain their closure plans to align with good practice, such as the ICMM’s Integrated Mine Closure Good Practice Guide. Assets develop their closure plans in consultation with local communities, to take into account their needs, and in accordance with regulatory requirements. Assets also monitor the societal risks and opportunities associated with closure.

In addition to the assets we have constructed and developed, Glencore has acquired, through mergers and acquisitions, a number of older mines and legacy operations. We have a specialised management process for these legacy operations, which supports the identification and implementation of appropriate monitoring and responsible restoration.

In 2012, Ulan established three interconnected biodiversity offset areas, totalling 1,345 hectares, to enhance the direct rehabilitation efforts and support ecosystem recovery. 

Seeds for the rehabilitation are sourced from within the Ulan-owned land and processed to high levels of quality control by a local supplier. 

Rehabilitation of the Acacia ausfeldii threatened species, previously untried, was successfully introduced into the site’s rehabilitation, and the species is thriving. 

Overburden areas are rehabilitated specifically to support the communities of Greybox and Ironbark woodlands; native species consistent with the pre-disturbance environment.  In these areas, regeneration of endangered White Box Woodland, Yellow Box Woodland and Blakely’s Red Gum communities has also been progressed. 

Ulan’s White Box Woodland planting programme is one of the largest ever undertaken in NSW. It sees 100,000 trees planted in offset areas to connect extensive areas of native vegetation with the Durridgere State Conservation Area and Goulburn River National Park.