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We recognise that water is an increasingly precious resource and that it is essential for many of our industrial activities. Regardless of their location and the availability of water, we require our industrial assets to undertake detailed assessments of their local environmental conditions during their operation and ahead of any operational changes in their life cycle, to develop water management strategies to maximise the efficient and sustainable use of this important natural resource.
Our goal
To understand and minimise our operational water footprint and manage our activities in a way that protects our shared water resources and the ecosystems in which we are present.
Our approach
We recognise that water is an increasingly precious resource and that it is essential for many of our industrial activities. Some of our industrial assets are in water-stressed areas and share access to water with other local water users. Conversely, other industrial assets need to manage surplus water, which may involve dewatering activities and flood protection measures.
Water management performance
How our industrial assets use water
Our industrial activities use water for various operational activities and continuously aim to identify opportunities to reduce our water footprint and improve our water management practices. Examples include:
Mining activities
Our mining operations need to remove water (dewatering) from the mining pits for the safe access of our deposits. This may include both active dewatering and passive seepage collection, as well as diverting surface water bodies, under environmental approvals.
Metal concentrators
Our concentrators use water in the processing of ore to facilitate separating minerals from waste material to produce higher-grade ore concentrates.
Leaching and hydrometallurgical processing
Our leaching and hydrometallurgical processing facilities use water during the further recovery of metals from metal-bearing materials.
Coal operations
Our coal industrial assets use water during the beneficiation of their products to meet customers’ product specifications.
Emission abatement and dust mitigation
We use wet air cleaning techniques, like scrubbers, to remove particles and gaseous substances (e.g., sulphur dioxide). Throughout our operational processes, we also use sprinklers and water carts to reduce dust levels that may result from mining, transport and stockpiling activities.
Water treatment
We collect and treat water for process water usage, and where needed, for potable water preparation. We treat water prior to discharge in compliance with regulatory approvals, permits and licenses.
Cooling activities
Many of our industrial activities use water for cooling purposes, predominately for non-contact cooling activities (e.g., closed circuit furnace shell cooling) whereby typically no deterioration of the water quality takes place.
Local water infrastructure
A number of our industrial assets support local governments by supplying water to surrounding communities for a variety of uses including drinking water and agriculture.
Shipping activities
We ship our products over maritime and inland waterways and are committed to environmental protection guidance, such as the International Maritime Solid Bulk Cargoes (IMSBC) Code and the Convention for Prevention of Marine Pollution (MARPOL), to help protect these water systems.
Key highlights 2023
As part of our commitment to sustainable water management, in 2023, we did the following:
- Our internal water working group reviewed over 90% of the water risk assessments undertaken by our industrial assets for completeness and consistency against our environmental risk assessment guidance, and to identify opportunities for improvement and collaboration. The assets are updating their water risk assessments and these will be reviewed by the working group in early 2025, with the intention to continue to use the findings to support a collaborative approach to water management.
- We finalised our industrial assets’ water targets based on the results of our risk assessments.
Glossary
For any key terms used but not defined herein please refer to our current Group Reporting Glossary, which is available at Publications (glencore.com).
Principles we follow
Reports archive
Important notice
This material contains statements that are, or may be deemed to be, “forward-looking statements” which are prospective in nature. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future event, results, performance, achievements or other outcomes expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Important factors that could impact these uncertainties include (without limitation) those disclosed in the section entitled “Important notice” and the risk management section of our latest Half-Year Report and/or Annual Report (which can each be found on our website).
Certain statistical and other information included in this material is sourced from publicly available third-party sources. This information has not been independently verified and presents the view of those third parties, and may not necessarily correspond to the views held by Glencore and Glencore expressly disclaims any responsibility for, or liability in respect of, and makes no representation or guarantee in relation to, such information (including, without limitation, as to its accuracy, completeness or whether it is current). In preparing this information, Glencore has also made certain estimates and assumptions that may affect the information presented.
Certain information is derived from management accounts, is unaudited and based on information Glencore has available to it at the time. Figures throughout this material are subject to rounding adjustments. The information presented is subject to change at any time without notice and we do not intend to update this information except as required. Subject to any terms implied by law which cannot be excluded, Glencore accepts no responsibility for any loss, damage, cost or expense (whether direct or indirect) incurred by any person as a result of any error, omission or misrepresentation in information presented.