The week brought together key representatives from the global metals community. The Anglo American team made the most of the opportunity and signed an important collaboration with Mitsubishi Materials.
The success of the energy transition will in part depend on the availability of critical metals like copper. One of Anglo American’s key priorities has been to provide greater visibility to our customers – and their customers – of the sustainability credentials of our products, in a way that is transparent, easy to access, and consistent. This will also help us to better respond to the expectations of the global consumer society and its increasingly stringent expectations around the sourcing practices of key materials.
We recently formed a collaboration with Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials, specifically with a focus on driving traceability across the copper value chain, identifying and measuring relevant sustainability indicators, and using technology-driven solutions to report key product provenance information. Beyond that, the collaboration will also see both parties exploring decarbonisation opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint of the metal provided to our customers.
Paul Ward, Executive Head of Marketing for Base Metals, said: “We are forging long-term collaborations with customers across key geographies, building on well-established commercial relationships to extend the impact of our commitment to create ethical value chains for our products beyond our own mining operations.
“Consumers around the world are increasingly asking that their purchases come with greater assurance of sustainable production. Our work with Mitsubishi Materials aims to accelerate efforts to increase provenance visibility for materials used in some of the key technologies for modern life and to improve living standards for a growing global population through sustainable socio-economic development.”
We are working with customers across key geographies on the creation of a sustainable solutions offering – such as South Korea’s LS MnM, Germany’s Aurubis and China’s Jiangxi Copper.
The memorandum of understanding was signed during London Metal Exchange (LME) week in London, an important platform for industry participants to come together and discuss key themes with the wider metals community. Over 100 people attended the Anglo American hosted pre-LME Dinner cocktail reception, during which we had the opportunity to reconnect with many of our key customer and partners.
We are already looking forward to next year’s gathering!