Environmental stewardship

Biodiversity encapsulates the variety of all living things on earth, including animals, plants, micro-organisms, bacteria and fungi and the ecosystem they are part of. Declines in biodiversity represent a threat to our planet and humanity. We recognise our role in safeguarding the environment and minimising potential environmental impacts. We achieve this through our Biodiversity Strategy by integrating mitigation measures into all stages of our operations, this includes avoiding, minimising, rehabilitating and offsetting impacts across all of our activities.

Water is a critical resource and its effective management is fundamental to the sustainability of our operations and the ecosystems and communities in which we operate. We are committed to the effective stewardship of water resources and practising responsible water management throughout our areas of operation and for the entire life span of our current and future projects.

Our iron ore processing facilities in the Pilbara generate a fine-grained waste by-product, referred to as tailings which are geochemically benign and pose a negligible environmental or health contamination risk. We manage our tailings storage facilities (TSFs) according to leading industry practice standards. This is undertaken by internal subject matter experts and external consultants. Currently, as all of our TSFs are located in Western Australia, all activities and work are carried out in full compliance with the requirements of the Department of Energy, Mines and Industry Regulation (DEMIRS) and the Australian National Committee on Large Dams (ANCOLD).

Our objective for closure focuses on returning the land to a state that provides future use and value, prioritising the repurposing of land and infrastructure to provide social and regional economic benefits. We seek to improve closure outcomes through continuous improvement and innovation, working collaboratively with stakeholders and ensuring appropriate financial provisioning are in place.