Social performance

Our industrial assets are closely linked to the communities and regions where they operate, bringing the potential for socioeconomic opportunity, disruption and impact.

As a member of the societies where we operate, we work in partnership with government, civil society and development agencies to share knowledge, build capacity and contribute to enduring positive social and economic outcomes.

Our approach

We aim to avoid harm to people from our activities, respect human rights, contribute to social and economic development of affected people and society more widely, and establish and maintain trusting relationships with stakeholders, through ethical and responsible business practices.

Our strategic objective is to support initiatives that build resilient communities and regions by reducing dependency on our operations. This is challenging when the immediate, short-term needs in many of our communities are high. Our aim is to focus our efforts on developing programmes that contribute to longer-term social objectives through activities such as enterprise and job creation, education, health and wellbeing and capacity building.

We base our socio-economic development activities on the resources, needs and plans identified at a local or regional level, which relevant data gathering and community engagement informs.

Engaging with host communities

We require our industrial assets to design social programmes that reflect an understanding of their host communities based on data gathering and engagement. This involves:

Analysing local demographics, economies, sociocultural activities, religions, existing and potential conflict, and availability of services and infrastructure to build a picture of our host communities; and
Listening to people’s needs and concerns, as well as identifying our potential impacts, risks and opportunities.

From these assessments, we expect our industrial assets to design stakeholder engagement strategies aligned with Glencore’s business objectives and their local needs. Our objective is to work towards creating meaningful, constructive, and proactive dialogue with our local communities.

We expect our industrial assets to provide their local communities with information in a range of different ways, tailored to the local context and culture. These may include radio broadcasts, social media channels, site publications and a range of face-to-face meetings.

We require our industrial assets to review their approach regularly to ensure that they are meeting community needs and addressing priorities. Community perception surveys are performed every three years to evaluate the effectiveness of our approach and provide valuable information to shape future plans.

Paying special attention to vulnerable groups

Some people living in our host communities are at risk of economic and social discrimination. These may include Indigenous Peoples, women, children, disabled and elderly people, and victims of conflict.

Our community consultation processes are designed to be inclusive, respectful of local context, cultures, and traditions. We seek to identify vulnerable groups, such as women, children and Indigenous Peoples, and develop and implement strategies to include them in the engagement process.

Engaging with Indigenous Peoples

Our business interacts with many diverse communities around the world. We respect the rights, interests and aspirations of Indigenous Peoples and acknowledge their right to maintain their culture, identity, traditions and customs.

Some of our industrial assets are located on or near the traditional lands of Indigenous Peoples. Our approach aligns with the ICMM Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples and Mining, which requires mining projects located on lands traditionally owned by or under customary use of Indigenous Peoples to respect Indigenous Peoples’ rights, interests, special connections to lands and waters, and perspectives.

We require our industrial assets to design social programmes that reflect an understanding of their host communities based on data gathering and engagement. This involves:

analysing local demographics, economies, socio-cultural activities, religions, existing and potential conflict, and availability of services and infrastructure to build a picture of our host communities; and
listening to people’s needs and concerns, as well as identifying our potential impacts, risks and opportunities.

From these assessments, we expect our industrial assets to design stakeholder engagement strategies aligned with our business objectives and their local needs. Our objective is to work towards creating meaningful, constructive, and proactive dialogue with our local communities.

Our community consultation processes are designed to be inclusive and respectful of local context, cultures and traditions. Across our local communities, we seek to identify vulnerable groups, including women, children and Indigenous Peoples, and develop and implement strategies to include them in the engagement process.

ICMM members must adopt and apply engagement and consultation processes that ensure the meaningful participation of Indigenous communities in decision-making, through a process consistent with their traditional decision-making processes.

We seek to ensure that Indigenous Peoples are consulted and have given their free, prior and informed consent in relation to new projects and changes to existing projects where significant adverse impacts are likely to occur, including because of relocation, disturbance of lands and territories or of critical cultural heritage.

We seek, through good-faith negotiation, to reach agreements with Indigenous Peoples who maintain an interest in, or connection to, the land on which we operate, formalising engagement processes and sustainable benefits.

Our industrial assets’ activities focus on practical and meaningful actions that can enhance the socio-economic capacity and wellbeing of local and Indigenous communities. Our approach aligns with the ICMM Position Statement on Indigenous Peoples’ and Mining, demonstrating respect for Indigenous People’s rights, interests, special connections to lands and waters, and perspectives.

Protecting cultural heritage, and learning from local knowledge

We are committed to working with Indigenous and First Nations Peoples to identify, protect and manage both tangible and intangible cultural heritage that may be affected by our industrial assets. Our industrial assets with cultural heritage responsibilities are required to identify and address the potential impacts of our business on cultural heritage values and archaeologically sensitive locations. We do this through the identification, recording and protection of these values and locations within our landholdings and, wherever possible, working or partnering with cultural heritage stakeholders for the ongoing protection and management of cultural heritage.

We seek to avoid, minimise, restore or mitigate any cultural heritage values likely to be impacted by our industrial assets, and to engage, work closely with and learn from relevant cultural heritage stakeholders and Indigenous or First Nations Peoples for whom the cultural heritage has significance.

For example, our McArthur River Mine (MRM) in Australia implements an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Management Plan (ACHMP) to protect and respect sacred and other cultural heritage sites in its operational areas. Developed by an external cultural heritage expert, the ACHMP outlines the systems and processes for working in partnership with Traditional Owners and site custodians to ensure best practice management of sites. An external archaeologist conducts annual inspections of all sites with both a Nimaringgki (custodian) and Jungai (lawman) present. This approach seeks to ensure that legal obligations are met and that sites are protected and respected according to traditional law.

In addition to implementing the management plan itself, our external expert and Traditional Owners have been working together to review and update our cultural heritage and sacred site surveys. The exact locations of some sites were not previously documented at the request of Traditional Owners dating back to the first cultural heritage survey in the 1960s. Traditional Owners are now open to keeping more accurate records so the sites can be visited by custodians and families in the future.

In Australia, we engage and consult with the Traditional Owners and Custodians, local and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce and cross-cultural consultants in the development of cultural respect strategy initiatives.

Our Australian industrial assets operating near Indigenous Peoples strive to enable and promote Indigenous employment opportunities at our operations, and meaningful and transferrable skills development. At our McArthur River Mine (MRM) industrial asset, close to 25% of employees are members of Indigenous Peoples communities.

Our Aurukun Bauxite Project Joint Venture in Queensland undertakes extensive, regular engagement with the Traditional Owners and community of Aurukun on the development of the Aurukun Bauxite Project. This consultation is reflected in the site’s environmental impact and cultural heritage assessments. Additionally, the Aurukun Bauxite Project team continues to engage with Traditional Owners and their advisers in respect of draft agreements and finalising cultural heritage assessment reports that will inform the project heritage management plan.

Our Raglan Mine in Nunavik, Quebec, negotiated an Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) in Canada in 1995. The IBA has established social and community engagement initiatives, developed, and implemented preventative and proactive health and safety approaches, supported Inuit employment and training, and made environmental improvements. The IBA has been, and continues to be, used as a reference for other agreements between Indigenous groups and the mining industry and other industrial sectors in Canada.

The Raglan Committee, which consists of representatives of the signatory parties, was established to support the implementation of the IBA. In 2022, the Committee responded to community concerns about dust and engaged on the dust monitoring process. In addition, Raglan has the Raglan Mine Closure Plan Subcommittee. Established in 2018, and despite having at least 20 years till asset closure, the subcommittee maintains an active dialogue with Raglan’s Inuit partners on the topics of mine closure, social transitioning, and integration of the traditional knowledge of local communities into Raglan’s mine closure planning and engagement with the Government of Quebec.

The members of the Closure Plan Subcommittee include Inuit partners and researchers from UQAT (Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue) and TERRE-Net (Towards Environmentally Responsible Resource Extraction Network). TERRE-Net is a network of university researchers working to develop and promote knowledge about the technical and social challenges associated with mine closure and reclamation.

Established in 2008, Raglan Mine’s Tamatumani programme (‘second start’in Inuktitut) aims to attract and retain as many Inuit employees as possible. It manages the entire recruitment process for the local community, offers basic and technical training, and provides onboarding support for new Inuit employees.

Similarly, our Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations (INO) actively engages with First Nations groups near or associated with its operations and activities. Sudbury INO maintains several participation agreements which support a range of environmental, infrastructure and cultural activities. In 2008, the Raglan Mine established its Tamatumani (second start in Inuktitut) programme. The programme encourages and supports local Inuit community members to work at Raglan Mine.

Cerrejón has operated for over 40 years in a territory inhabited by the Wayuu Indigenous People and is respectful of their cultural beliefs and traditions. Cerrejón continuously evolves its engagement with the Wayuu to strengthen its transparency and approach to two-way dialogue. Cerrejón’s community team includes Wayuu members, who ensure respectful engagement throughout its daily activities. In addition, specific government-led formal consultation processes with Indigenous groups are ongoing.

A court ruling in December 2016 required Cerrejón to consult with the Indigenous communities within its area of influence on potential compensation for possible environmental, social and cultural impacts that have occurred during more than 30 years of operation.

Cerrejón established a dedicated team to carry out this consultation exercise, which is of unprecedented magnitude in Colombia. By the end of 2023, Cerrejón had reached agreements with 339 out of a total of over 400 Indigenous communities. Consultations with the remaining Indigenous communities are taking place during 2024.

Agreements with communities have included compensation measures to address social and cultural impacts such as: income generation projects related to livestock activities; cultural strengthening initiatives including harmonisation rituals and new engagement protocols; and construction of infrastructure for the general benefit of the community. The projects reflect proposals made by community representatives.

Cerrejón is also engaged in a separate consultation process with the Wayuu community of Tigre Pozo, the final community identified to participate in formal consultations on the partial diversion of Bruno Creek.

In South Africa, our ferroalloys industrial assets engage with Traditional Authorities and communities living close to its operations, undertaking regular engagements through local stakeholder forums, and separate annual reflection sessions where progress is tracked and planning for the following year takes place.

The annual reflection sessions facilitate meaningful dialogue and build on existing relationships with Traditional Authority representatives. These sessions provide the Traditional Authorities with an opportunity to co-create the agenda, raise topics for further discussion and meaningfully influence collaboration and embed cooperation.

The sessions help our Ferroalloys department to appreciate and promote the heritage and customs of local communities, while aiming to support cultural and living traditions through effective social investment and a meaningful approach to cultural heritage management. The sessions provide an added layer of engagement and accountability and help to identify priority areas and to set the strategic direction of the industrial assets.

Supporting local business

Our industrial assets support economic development by providing local employment, procurement and contracting opportunities to local enterprises and by incorporating social transition strategies into our planning processes to mitigate closure impacts.

We are committed to local procurement and use local suppliers to help minimise supply chain risk to our operations and to support local socioeconomic development, whenever commercial, technical and capability considerations are equal to a regional or international supplier.

Our industrial assets work to support and promote local businesses who drive local economic diversification, for example through the provision of financing, management expertise and advice, or work premises.
Our approach varies from region to region, but can include:

Encouraging our large international suppliers to build partnerships with local businesses;
Financing or constructing business parks and centres to host and support local entrepreneurs;
Training for small businesses;
Programmes to support local businesses meet local and international quality standards; and
Working with local government agencies to support training and help develop business plans.

In regions with a less developed small business sector, our community and procurement teams work together to identify needs and develop programmes to help local businesses meet our quality standards and expectations for conduct. For example, we may offer targeted business management training, underwrite credit applications or guarantee future business within specific limits. We also encourage large international contractors to develop local partnerships to transfer skills and build capacity locally.

Supporting students and teachers around the world

We support schools and teachers around the world, working to shape the minds of the future.

To help provide students with access to education, we work with schools and teachers to create mobile learning opportunities. These systems are designed to enable students in rural areas to connect with experienced teachers to improve their performance and create new opportunities for their future. Learn more in the following case studies:

Making our payments to governments transparent

We pay all relevant taxes, royalties and levies required by local and national regulations in our host countries. The payments we make to the governments of the countries in which we operate include local, national, sales and employment taxes, government royalties, and licence and permitting fees.

In addition, we contribute to local economies through our use of local suppliers, wages and employee benefits, voluntary support of socio-economic initiatives such as health and education projects, and infrastructure development.

We understand the detrimental impact of corruption on the capacity for regions and nations to fully realise rights and benefits due to them from resource development. We support efforts to combat corruption including through transparency initiatives and our own compliance initiatives, as we discuss further in our annual Ethics and Compliance Report. We welcome fiscal transparency, as it encourages the responsible management of revenues from extractive activities. We commit to disclose taxes, fees and royalties related to mineral extraction paid to governments in accordance with the principles set forth under the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI).

We have been an active supporter of the EITI since 2011 and its principles of transparency and accountability. We participate in in-country forums supporting the EITI and, at a corporate level, in the EITI Commodity Trading Transparency working group.

Our annual Payments to Governments Report is prepared in line with our UK regulatory obligations under DTR 4.3A of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, which were introduced to implement the payments to governments requirements provided for in the EU Transparency and Accounting Directives. The report also includes our commodity trading payments made to state-owned enterprises in Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative-implementing countries for the purchase of oil and gas, and minerals and metals.

Principles we follow

UN Global Compact

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Principle 1

businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights

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