Sustainability Report <SR> 2020

Business sustainability and growth

“Renewed emphasis on initiatives to optimise operating processes and reduce costs.”

PRIORITIZED SDGs

Mining is a long-term business, and so our strategy aims to create sustained value over the period of our mining operations and beyond. This involves careful allocation of resources to actively manage our activities, as we try to mitigate negative impacts from our operations and ensure positive outcomes. We look to continually improve the value proposition we provide to our hosts and investors, creating more growth opportunities.

Our strategy also takes into consideration the environment in which we operate. The global macro-economic, geopolitical, and financial landscapes, as well as the location of our operations and their specific political and social dynamics, all affect our ability to create value and grow over the long term.

Externally, AngloGold Ashanti was primarily affected by:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic
  • Global macro-economic outlook
  • Growing climate crisis and pressure to decarbonise
  • Increasingly rigorous regulatory requirements
  • Increasing stakeholder expectations
  • Pressure from international credit ratings

In response to these issues, we have worked to mitigate the impact of disruptions, operational or otherwise, due to COVID-19 (see COVID-19 response for more). We have also sought to manage variables within our control and renewed our emphasis on ‘Operational Excellence’ initiatives to optimise operating processes and reduce costs, while ensuring our workforce is fully engaged and appropriately skilled.

Our response to the growing climate crisis includes the establishment of a Climate Change working group to focus on related strategy and transition processes, to develop metrics and targets, and oversee implementation.

We engage constructively with governments, local stakeholder groups and regulators to optimise the shared value benefits derived from the ore body among stakeholders. See Navigating regulatory and political risks for more about how we monitor regulatory changes to ensure compliance. We also engage with our stakeholders to better understand their needs, manage their expectations and to maintain our social licence to operate. In doing so, we ensure responsible corporate citizenship in line with our values and improve our ESG performance.

See more in Our external operating context in the <IR>.