Friday, December 5

South Africa

The financial results of the company began with a report of the company’s ESG performance. What stood out the most from the company’s report is that the company achieved zero fatalities during its operations in 2021. This is most exceptional given the nature of mining operations which are for the most part dangerous.

Most if not all Anglo-Plat’s peers have reported reduced or reduced fatalities in their operations but not always a zero-fatality rate. This was attributable to what the company calls their Elimination of Fatalities (EoF) strategy. The strategy focuses on the most common causes of fatalities across Anglo American.

Its purpose is to use what the company calls “accumulated learnings from a wide range of fatalities” and use that data to take a more proactive approach to prevent incidents that result in the loss of life. The strategy has paid off resulting in an outlier performance of zero fatalities in 2021.

The company has managed to make a strong comeback from when it faced an existential threat when prices of commodities slowed down in 2014. Prior to that period, mining company shares were hot because of China’s urbanization. It drove prices of commodities through the roof taking the shares of resource companies with them.

When China’s economic growth slowed down the miners also felt the pinch. The pinch was felt especially at Gold Fields which had to restructure its business and retrench at least 1,300 workers mainly from Ghana to ensure the long term sustainability of the company. The restructuring produced desirable results characterized by net cash inflow of US$ 235 million. In that same year, its Australian operations produced 1 million ounces of gold.

The company’s operations are massive and span 3 continents.