Environment

In Canada, just as we do across our global operations, we seek to minimize our impact on the environment.

While the copper, nickel, zinc and cobalt we source are critical materials in technologies conducive to the energy transition, such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, we know we must uphold our Purpose to responsibly source these commodities that advance everyday life.

An obvious manner we can do that is through recycling. We recycle a wide variety of complex end-of-life electronics to extract metals, helping support a circular supply chain that gives a second life to products that might otherwise be sent to landfill.

Our Horne Smelter recycles end-of-life electronics and other complex secondary copper bearing materials. Its ability to process approximately 110,000 tonnes of such feeds per year is one of its unique features.

While annual ambient arsenic emissions at the Horne Smelter have been reduced by approximately 90% over the past 20 years, in 2022, we announced an investment of more than C$500 million to continue our journey to make the site one of the world’s lowest-arsenic emitting copper smelters in the world. We invite you to read the detailed Environmental Improvement Plan behind the investment.

Meanwhile, our Sudbury INO, which has more than 30 years’ experience in the recycling business and is one of the world’s largest processors of complex secondary nickel and cobalt bearing materials, further reduced sulphur dioxide (SO₂) emissions at their Sudbury Smelter after completing their Process Gas & Particulate Emissions Projects in 2021. The Smelter had witnessed a reduction in tonnes of SO₂ emissions emitted per year of more than 90% over the prior 30 years. The Project also reduced their nickel, cadmium and cobalt emissions.

Developing tools to better understand the global GHG impact of copper across its lifecycle

Our Horne Smelter and CCR Refinery copper businesses in Canada are working with the federal government and external providers to develop a traceability solution that tracks emissions from end to end of the supply chain to provide visibility and transparency of the carbon footprint in real time.

It is hoped that this three-year project can eventually be leveraged to develop a better understanding of the global GHG impact of copper across its lifecycle.

Our Raglan Mine, operating in the Canadian Arctic, recognizes the importance of acting responsibly within this unique environment. Moreover, as the first Canadian mining company to have signed an Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA) with an Aboriginal group, Raglan Mine has a history of engaging with the local Indigenous communities nearby its operations on environmental concerns.